Global Phenomenon Six: The Musical is Rewriting History With HER-story

It’s only eight years since two Cambridge University students first conceived their idea for a musical about the wives of Henry VIII, yet in that brief period of time Six: The Musical has become a phenomenon. 

Six: The Musical has been seen by over 3.5 million people worldwide, had over 32 million views on TikTok, and the cast recording has been streamed over 1 billion times. It’s now in its third Australian national tour since 2020 and the buzz is as electric as ever. 

“Because it is uplifting, because it is smart, because it is a history lesson wrapped up in a pop concert,” says co-producer, Louise Withers, describing why the show is such a hit. 

“It doesn’t matter if you don’t know anything about the history, you’ll learn a little bit; and if you do know something, you’ll go ‘goodness that was surprisingly close to the truth!’”

Six is a unique kind of musical for a number of reasons: it’s 75 minutes long with no intermission; there are six leads with no other cast or ensemble; it’s virtually all told through songs with very little dialogue in between; it’s performed in a kind of concert setting. 

Pedants might bicker about how to categorise it, but fans don’t care — they just love it. Plus, it entices new audiences to the theatre ,precisely because it is relatively short and accessible.

“It’s what I call bite-sized theatre. It’s theatre where you can go, and at the end of it you’re totally satisfied with your experience, but you can still go to dinner,” says Withers. “If we can convert a few more people into helping support theatre and live entertainment, then that’s a good thing.” 

All this might make Six sound like just a bit of frivolous fun, but it is so much more than that. Writers, Toby Marlow and Lucy Moss were inspired after seeing a documentary about the six wives of Henry VIII. Realising these women have been misrepresented for 500 years, they decided to give each of them a chance to speak (and sing) for themselves. 

“Each of these women is telling what they were thinking, and who they were and how their life changed when they became the wife of Henry VIII,” explains Withers. “Part of it is saying don’t assume what you know is the truth…you often don’t know what’s going on behind closed doors. And I think  that is ultimately what each of the wives’ stories tell.”

‘The all-female cast, backed by an all-female on-stage band, gives Six an estrogen-charged energy that ignites the entire room.’

Six is peppered with hilarious banter, witty lyrics, and ripper pop tunes, but it is also tempered with moments of solemnity. These women — Catherine of Aragon, Anne Boleyn, Jane Seymour, Anna of Cleves, Katherine Howard, and Catherine Parr — may have all been queens, but their lives were far from fairytales. 

“This show does tip toe into some very serious topics. It’s about sexual abuse, and it’s about being invisible, and standing up for one’s self and one’s rights,” says Withers. 

Sadly, some of those dark themes still resonate today — but the show offers a sense of empowerment and hope. 

The all-female cast, backed by an all-female on-stage band, gives Six an estrogen-charged energy that ignites the entire room. Finding the right performer to play each queen is absolutely critical. 

“It is as much about the person and what they are like and what they can bring to a role as it is can they sing the songs,” says Withers about the casting process. “Finding someone with that special something.”

The characters in Six frequently break the fourth wall and interact with the audience, so each performer needs to have a certain degree of confidence and charisma. And, of course, they all need to get on with each other. Effectively, you’re putting together a medieval girl band. 

There’s certainly no doubt about the casting of Loren Hunter; this is her third time around playing Jane Seymour. She is one of two performers reprising their roles from previous productions (Chelsea Dawson is returning as Katherine Howard). For Hunter, having new blood in the cast makes the show feel fresh and allows her to broaden her character.

“It helps a lot in being able to find new things because people are delivering lines in new ways that you didn’t hear before,” explains Hunter. Returning for a third time, did she feel like she might like to play one of the other queens? Not really.

“We all have essences of our character and I suit Jane’s essence more than I do other characters. I don’t want to play other roles, I think I really love this role to be honest.”

The narrative around Jane Seymour is often disparaging. She was was seen as passive, a doormat as Hunter puts it. But Hunter believes Jane has been misrepresented by historians.

“It’s taken 500 years or so to retell their story in a way that gives them perspective. It’s a spotlight on the made-up stories that make them look bad; made-up narratives that serve men,” says Hunter.

“What we always come back to is the humanity of these women, you know, these women were not made-up, they were real. And so we need to honour that. Although there is comedy in it, there are some serious things and we need to lean into the truth of that.”

Her real life experiences between productions also help Hunter bring a new perspective to the role. For instance, last year she walked the Camino in Spain — 800km in 36 days. 

“So now when I sing ‘I’m Unbreakable’ it takes on a different meaning,” she laughs.  

The Camino is probably the right kind of marathon training for a show like this. Six is 75 minutes of high-intensity, non-stop, full throttle singing and dancing, all in heavy, bejewelled medieval costume. 

Giorgia Kennedy didn’t walk the Camino last year, but she did just complete a run in & Juliet, a fast-paced, pop-infused, Shakespearean-based musical, which is perfect prep for Six. Kennedy is new to the cast and is stepping into the velvet brocade shoes of Catherine Parr…actually, she is becoming obsessed. 

“I have become an absolute Tudor buff. I now am so fascinated with Tudor history, I probably know the most about Cathy Parr in Australia. I’m probably her number one fan,” says Kennedy. “She was absolutely remarkable. Incredible, incredible woman. I’ve learnt so much about her — and continue to.”

Catherine Parr was the last of Henry’s wives and she outlived him. She was a vehement Protestant at a time when it was a dangerous thing to be. She was rebellious and at one stage came very close to being executed but managed to talk Henry into saving her. She wrote poetry, published a book in her own name, and had her portrait painted by a female artist, all of which was extremely radical. 

Kennedy feels a mix of responsibility and sheer joy in playing Parr, and in bringing this whole story to the fore, especially with an all-female cast. 

“An all female cast, an all female band as well. There’s just this kind of innate knowing and experience you have as a woman, and knowing that the other people on the stage understand that experience is really beautiful, is really different I guess to any other show that I’ve been in,” says Kennedy. 

Each queen is different and is modelled around contemporary pop icons.

“So for me it’s people like Alicia Keys and Georgia Smith and these kind of artists. And you bring yourself to the queen that you play,” explains Kennedy.  The songs in the show — which are all original — vary in style according to the queen who is singing, ranging across RnB, rap, dance, ballad, rock and pop.

For people in the audience, there’s at least one queen they can relate to and/or a style of music they really love. Kennedy sums up why she believes Six: The Musical is so successful:

“I think in general, it’s been such a pop culture craze because these are original songs, which is fabulous, but sound like pop songs. It is short and snappy but it’s got those underlying themes. It’s a fun show that you can come to again and again and again and learn something new every time.”

Six: The Musical is on now, until December 28, at Theatre Royal in Sydney.