On opening night, Wednesday 28 April, Canberra Theatre rolled out the purple carpet for guests to come and experience the opulence, razor sharp wit, and pure heart that is SIX the Musical.
An underdog sensation that grew from a student production at the 2017 Edinburgh Fringe Festival, to sold-out houses across the world, SIX reclaims the stories of the infamous six wives of Henry VIII, right on time as the voices of young women continue to get louder.
Diversifying the Tudor queens by adding the essence of music royalty, like Beyonce, Rihanna, and Alicia Keys, it’s the story of how royalty looked years ago represented by how queens look today.
It’s astounding how much story SIX packs into a conceptual space. An empty stage becomes a rock concert starring the queens, reanimated as a bickering girl group.
With not a prop (or man) in sight, the first thing the audience notices as light floods the theatre, is the only real “prop” the queens have to work with – their magnificent costumes.
From the luxe initial chokers donned by the queens who lost their heads, to the boots bedazzled in their signature colours, you’ll need a glorious second to take it all in.
As the queens make their case for who should be the lead singer of the band (based on who suffered the most at the hands of their murder-oaf husband), SIX expertly controls the mood of the room, balancing the dark nature of the women’s lives with deliciously clever humour and wit.
I saw SIX with my friend who comes from a ‘No Musicals Please’ background. After nodding along to every song, he gave his sombre stamp of approval, ‘Women rock.’ Yes. Yes, they do.
Since SIX tells the story of a concert so epic, it literally transcends space and time, it’s easily loved by music and theatre fans alike.
And the songs are bangers. It’s no wonder that SIX has 50 million streams across all platforms, and over 3 billion views on TikTok.
SIX spared no efforts with its casting; you will leave with a favourite queen if you didn’t have one going in, whether that be Phoenix Jackson Mendoza’s fiery Catherine of Aragorn, Kala Gare’s hilariously bratty Anne Boleyn, Loren Hunter’s steadfast Jane Seymour, Kiana Daniele’s fiercely cool Anna of Cleves, Chelsea Dawson’s playful and misunderstood Katherine Howard, or Vidya Makan’s undefeatable Catherine Parr.
Each character is more compelling than the next, leaving you genuinely wanting a happy ending for each of them (despite what went down in history books). You can read the full cast interview here.
By far, my favourite aspect of SIX is how openly it addresses controversial topics around womanhood, including but not limited to, owning financial stability, the male gaze’s effect on history and politics, power imbalance in relationships and *SPOILER ALERT* how pitting women against each other because they were picked by the same guy is inherently sexist.
SIX echoes the voices of women today and belts them loud for all to hear. Long live these queens!
SIX the Musical is at Canberra Theatre for a limited season until 15 May.
