The Tony award-winning Six the Musical will headline next year’s Te Ahurei Toi o Tāmaki Auckland Arts Festival.
While the musical might be new to many New Zealanders, in just seven years it’s become one of the world’s most popular with multiple casts performing in productions from Europe to Australia and many places in between.
Australian producer Louise Withers says talks about bringing Six to Aotearoa began in 2018-19 – and a season was planned for 2020.
“We all know what happened then and it all got stopped, but one way or another, we will come, on carrier pigeons if we have to, this time,” says Withers, who describes Six as exhilarating, empowering, inspirational and fun.
“But the bit that’s hard is putting that all together in a sentence. It’s concert-style, but it’s a theatre piece. It’s largely sung through with small amounts of dialogue. What I always say to people is that it’s a bloody good night at the theatre and there’s nothing that stops or impedes any age or demographic from enjoying it and leaving feeling fabulous.”
So, here are six things you need to know about the history-making show.
The concept: It’s a high-octane history lesson like none you would have had in school
Six tells the story of Henry VIII’s six wives - Catherine of Aragon, Anne Boleyn, Jane Seymour, Anne of Cleves (called Anna in the musical), Katherine Howard and Catherine Parr - but it’s no fuddy-duddy history lesson.
An English nursery rhyme ‘Divorced, Beheaded, Died, Divorced, Beheaded, Survived’ has been handed down to remember the order the wives came in and how they met their fates is about all many know about them. But Six reimagines these queens as “fierce and influential” pop stars who introduce themselves with songs that tell their life stories from their points of view. Ultimately, it’s uplifting and fiercely feminist, and will make most audience members happy they weren’t born female in Tudor Britain.
The Music: It’s inspired by modern-day divas from Beyoncé to Ariana Grande
Six includes pop, rock, hip-hop and a power ballad so that each queen has her own sound – and look. These are based on the spirit and style of contemporary pop icons. Jackson McHenry, a theatre critic for vulture.com, broke it down like this:
Catherine of Aragon: Beyoncé, Jennifer Lopez and Jennifer Hudson.
Anne Boleyn: Miley Cyrus, Avril Lavigne and Lily Allen.
Jane Seymour: Adele, Sia and Celine Dion.
Anne of Cleves: Nicki Minaj and Rihanna.
Katherine Howard: Britney Spears and Ariana Grande.
Catherine Parr: Alicia Keys and Emeli Sandé
The message: It’s about female empowerment and sisterhood
Strength, resilience and the agency of each woman is emphasised in the 80-minute runtime. Each queen has a turn in the spotlight and gets to explain her history, assert her own identity and even speculate on what life might have been like had she lived in the here and now.
Other themes like the pain of relationship breakdowns, the importance of friendship, beauty ideals, and being true to yourself are explored. Katherine Howard’s song All You Wanna Do also hints at her past as a survivor of childhood abuse. This might sound serious - because it is - but the songs manage to be emotionally resonant and provocative as well as cheeky and catchy.
Withers says it celebrates the triumphs and struggles of remarkable women: “How do I think they would feel if they knew they were still being talked about hundreds of years later? I think they’d be delighted that we’re talking about this and not Henry VIII.”
The fans: Move over, Swifties, the Queendom is coming
Since 2017, Six has won fans around the world who frequently dress up to attend performances. Several of the songs, especially Anne Boleyn’s Don’t Lose Ur Head, reference social media such as dating apps and texting which, says Withers, make it highly relatable to a digitally connected generation.
Each year, Six is seen by more than 3.5 million people worldwide and has more than 1.5 million followers on social media across the world. The show has received more than 32 million views on TikTok alone.
The history: Not the Tudor stuff but the almost fairytale-like story of its creators
In 2016, Toby Marlow and Lucy Moss were in their early 20 and students at Cambridge University when Marlow got the job of writing its show for the 2017 Edinburgh Festival Fringe – and realised he needed to rapidly pull something together.
The showbiz legend goes that he was daydreaming in a poetry class when he was meant to be undertaking a comparative analysis of contemporary and 19th century poems. Instead, he hit upon the idea of imagining Henry VIII’s ex-wives as modern-day pop stars – and quickly called close friend Moss to help him write it.
From the get-go, Marlow says he wanted to have strong, complex female characters with rousing songs to sing.
Their own friends and family, including Marlow’s sister, Annabel, performed in the original Edinburgh production. The show didn’t win any fringe awards but sold out and was invited back in 2018 but first, it was performed in Cambridge and seen by West End producer Kenny Wax.
Cue a brief run in the West End, a short UK tour, a return to the West End, open-ended seasons on Norwegian Cruise Line ships, a US tour before a Broadway opening, Canadian, Australian and South Korean productions and now, new productions announced for Singapore, the Philippines and Japan.
The original studio cast recording of Six has been certified gold and this album, in addition to SIX: Live on Opening Night Broadway, have a combined streaming figure of more than 1 billion. Six has won 35 major international awards, including two Tony Awards for Best Original Score and Best Costume Design, and a Grammy nomination for Best Musical Theatre Album. Notably, Six author and co-director Lucy Moss is the youngest female-identifying person to direct a Broadway musical in over 40 years.
The where and when:
Six is booked for the Civic in Auckland from February 27, 2025, with an Australian cast performing. A waitlist is now open at sixthemusical.co.nz, with tickets on sale from September 26.
