Happy Opening Night Six the Musical, take 2! For those who don’t know Six the Musical was supposed to have their opening night the same day that Broadway was shut down for COVID-19. This show holds so much emotions for me. Not only did I get to see this show on International Women’s Day, but it was the last Broadway show I saw before everything shut down and it ended up being the last show I saw as an official New York City resident.
For this show, I purchased a remaining ticket about two hours before the show,. I was trying to get a standing room ticket, but due to the show not being sold out at that time, I ended up just purchasing a ticket for the last row of the orchestra. I was hearing all the hype around this show when it was announced that it was coming to Broadway and after listening to the cast recording for the original UK Tour cast, I knew I had to see this show as soon as I could when it came to New York.
If you’re not familiar with the story behind this show, it is a one act musical set in a concert setting where the six ex-wives of Henry VIII tell their version of their stories. The concept of the concert setting is that they sing about who had it worse with Henry VIII to become to groups lead singer and the audience is supposed to vote on which wife had it worst. However, towards the end of the show, they try to figure out why they’re competing against each other instead of supporting each other and changing the narrative of their stories.
With music and lyrics by friend team Toby Marlow and Lucy Moss, every song created in this show is a song you leave the theater or finish the cast recording with at least one song stuck in your head and belting out your favorite in the shower. This show has a huge fan base and it’s no surprise why. From a full female cast – the band also being all female – and modernizing one of the most well-known eras of British History, this is a show I want to see over and over again and never get tired of it.
With incredible lighting and colorful costumes, each creating a personality for each queen, this is a show that needs to be on everyone’s radar for the upcoming 2021-2022 award season. Also I need a cast recording of this cast ASAP.
Before I get into more details of the cast of the show, I just wanted to remind y’all that I saw this show in March 2020 and there may have been changes made while the show was paused and they continued the preview period before the show is fully frozen before opening.
Adrianna Hicks as Catherine of Aragon I want to start off by saying that Adrianna’s facial expressions were made for the stage. I could see every single facial expression, including her eyes, from the last row of the orchestra and it really added to her performance. Her vocal range and timing in her number, “No Way”, is a mix of Beyonce and the role of Angelica Schuyler in Hamilton. The riff she does in the line “the end of my life” is incredible. Adrianna really sets the standards high for the rest of the show and makes everyone realize the level of performances they are about to get from every single cast member. Her short interaction with Andrea in “Don’t Lose Your Head” had me dying and honestly stole my attention away from Andrea for a hot second.
Andrea Macasaet as Anne Boleyn Oh wow, especially after seeing Eva Noblezada and Lianah Sta. Ana in Miss Saigon, I’ve learned to never underestimate the powerful voice of a petite Filipina woman and Andrea is no different. She brings a different take to the role of Anne Boleyn by creating a little bit of a lightheartedness and wanting to have a good time to the character. Her playfullness throughout her song kept the audience engaged throughout and then she used the last round of the chorus to showcase her vocal abilities to the max, doing a casual riff on the word “hell” and doing a high vocal scale on the word “said”.
Abby Mueller as Jane Seymour She is the third member of the Mueller family that I have seen in a Broadway show having seen her sister Jessie in Nice Work If You Can Get It and Carousel and her brother Matt in Harry Potter and the Cursed Child. If there is a moment to cry during this show, it’s Abby belting her heart out in her song, “Heart of Stone”. You feel the heartbreak she is feeling realizing that she will never get to see her son grow up and all the milestones he will go through because of her untimely death. She begins this ballad by singing to Henry about her love for him and how she’s okay with his love remaining because she finally gave him the son he needed. However, by the end of the song, she shifts her attention towards her son in the same way that the complete love for a spouse shifts a portion to their children.
Brittney Mack as Anna of Cleves Okay so her song “Get Down” was my least favorite of the six wives when listening to the cast recording, but Brittney completely changed my mind in her performance in the show. Showing off her small but fearless attitude from the beginning, she also shows her playfulness with the audience and her choreography movements. She also has the most epic quick change in the show that earns a solid minute or two of applause and becomes a show stealing moment that everyone talks about at the end. She pulls out the most shocking but incredible operatic voice for one line towards the end of the song and even pulls an audience member out of their seat to dance with her at the end of her song. Brittney Mack, you change my opinion on not only her song, but on Anna of Cleves, making her go from the least known of the queens to the lucky one who managed to get away and live her life to the fullest.
Samantha Pauly as Katherine Howard I’m not going to lie, Katherine Howard was probably the queen I knew the least about, but her song, “All You Want To Do” manages to tell you every heartbreaking moment of her life in five minutes. Samantha also has the best interaction with the other queens as the entrance to her song. Her best line is “I think we can all agree I’m the ten amongst these three’s”. Within her song, Samantha takes you on a journey of a young Katherine grabbing the attention of men and being flirtatious with them thinking this is what you’re supposed to do to growing up and realizing that every man just wants to use her for their benefit and toss her to the side leading to her beheading.
Anna Uzele as Catherine Parr In my opinon, Anna brings the characer of Catherine as the most level headed queen. She realizes how crazy it seems that they are competing for who had it worst with Henry and wants out. After some heckling from the other queens, she decides to tell share a different a story to them and the audience. In her song, “I Don’t Need Your Love”, Anna takes the audience on a journey of finding her true love and having to end things with him because she was chosen by Henry to be his next wife knowing that if she refused The King, she would be killed. She changes the narratives of the queens by wanting to showcase all that she accomplished in her life instead of them focusing on her marriage to a royal.
I love how the show ends with them wanting to create their own voice on the positives that they did throughout their lives instead of being “fixed as one of six” wives of Henry VIII. They then end the show with how they dream/imagine their lives would end up if they never married Henry VIII. At the very end, they give what would be consider an encore performance in a concert with what’s called a “MegaSix”, where they perform a mashup of all six of their songs to close out the show. If you want to see this mashup, every production aside from the Broadway production allows filming (Actor’s Equity Association does not allow any filming during any part of the show including the MegaSix) and they are uploaded on Youtube.
To wrap up this review, I will be seeing this show over and over again whenever given the opportunity and this needs to be on everyone’s list of shows to see when they visit New York City. I can’t wait for this show to announce a National Tour and get to see the show that way also. One final hope for this show and in particular this cast, can we please get this show recorded for a streaming service so I can watch a professional filmed version over and over again from the comfort of my room? Please and thank you!
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This sounds so interesting! Thanks for the review.
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