Everyone knows the old English nursery rhyme “Divorced, beheaded, died. Divorced, beheaded, survived,” it’s something that has been used for a long time, mostly by children doing the Tudors in their history classes. The rhyme describes the six wives of Henry VIII who are the characters featured in Six. The musical is an energetic retelling of the lives of the six wives framed as a competition to determine which wife suffered the most at the hands of the king. One by one the queens take their turns to sing their song and by the end realise there’s no point in arguing who suffered the most. They join forces and become a band, lifting each others voices up for the final song, or songs if we’re counting the Megasix where photos and videos are allowed.

The current principal cast of the UK tour are Nicole Louise Lewis as Catherine of Aragon, Laura Dawn Pyatt as Anne Boleyn, Erin Caldwell as Jane Seymour, Kenedy Small as Anna of Cleves, Lou Henry as Katherine Howard, and Aoife Haakenson as Catherine Parr. They each have phenomenal voices that harmonise perfectly. All the queens were incredible, for me there were some stand out performances that I can’t stop thinking about. Caldwell had the audience in tears during Heart of Stone, as my seat neighbour exclaimed after Caldwell finished the song: “Oh my God, beautiful!” Small was amusing as Cleves, she had me in stitches with some of the facial expressions she would make in the other queens songs. She had the perfect energy for Cleves. Haakenson as Parr was incredibly moving. During I Don’t Need Your Love I truly believed every word she sang, as if it was the reincarnation of Catherine Parr stood in front of me. I really like that in every production each of the actresses use their own accents

All six queens are on stage throughout, they’re joined by the band who are known as the ladies in waiting. They also have character names based on the queens actual ladies in waiting. The band has Sarah Dyer on keys, she is also the musical director, Lola Barber on guitar, Jihea Oh on bass, and Amanda Dal on drums. The band get to play great songs written by Toby Marlow and Lucy Moss. The songs are clearly inspired by pop music and fans of the show love them. Haus of Holbein breaks up the solo songs starting with a Tinder inspired scene, going through women that Henry could’ve chosen before landing on Cleves. It’s a scene and song that I usually describe as completely wild. It’s definitely out there, fun to experience when you’re with someone who has no idea what’s to come. All You Wanna Do is one of my personal favourites in the show, it tells Katherine Howards story and sounds upbeat and fun though the lyrics are heartbreaking. Adding to that the rest of the queens being emotionless during the song where they’ve shown all sorts of emotions during the rest really adds to the vibe of the song that is men don’t give a crap about how they treat women.

The set which was designed by Emma Bailey is fairly basic but fits the vibe of the shown perfectly. It is obviously influenced by both concerts and churches. There are stained glass windows visible in the lights, designed by Tim Deiling, which help set the scene.

Costume designer Gabriella Slade has succeeded in creating some of the most easily recognisable costumes in musical theatre. With elements of plastic and plenty of sparkles the costumes are big attention grabbers, I’ve seen the show twice before from a lot further back but sat in the third row in Swansea Arena I found myself staring at the details of the costumes in the scenes with no songs. There’s even an onstage costume change for Cleves that would look at home on Taylor Swift when she’s performing! The head pieces worn to emulate crowns are equally as iconic to the fanbase, they match the costumes with the modern influence.

It would be a shame to miss seeing Six! However with productions on the West End, Broadway, Toronto, Australia,the current UK & Ireland tour and a North American tour, plus productions soon opening in Italy and Germany & Switzerland, chances are it will be back on tour in the UK after this run ends too! This tour is running until September 2024 with dates in Wales, Scotland, and England.

You can book tickets for the tour here: https://www.sixthemusical.com/uk-tour/tickets