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Theatre Review: Six the Musical - Arts Theatre, London ✭✭✭✭

Six the Musical

Arts Theatre, London

Review by Caroline Cronin


10th March 2019: London’s theatre scene is experiencing an influx of fantastic ensemble-led productions at the moment, and SIX is surely one of the best of the lot.

Originally premiering back in 2017 for only six performances, SIX is back with a confirmed run until 2020…and a handful of Olivier nominations to boot. Toby Marlow and Lucy Moss’ brainchild addresses the individual stories of Henry VIII’s six queens, told in their own uncensored voices…but with a modern twist and contemporary lexicon that has a very obvious millennial appeal.

Performed in a pop-concert style, SIX is everything that youwouldn’texpect from a retelling of Tudor history – or “her-story”, as our queens would have us refer to it. Stylish costume & set design and choreography are combined with inventive storytelling to achieve 75 minutes of raucous girl-power refrains. It’s impossible to single out any performer in this fierce sextet of vocal powerhouses; each queen illuminates the stage in her own unique way. It’s significant to note, however, that perhaps the best performances come when all six queens are working together – and this message of female solidarity is threaded throughout the whole production.

There’s substance behind all of this style and power though; it provokes thought about the way that women have been treated and represented through a male lens for centuries…and that we still have a long way to go. Jane Seymour’s (Natalie Paris) ballad ‘Heart of Stone’ provides an unexpectedly heart wrenching moment of quiet, as she cries about her tragic ending.

This kind of storytelling really should be on the curriculum; even as a 35 year old, it re-engaged me with the history of this period and reminded me of everything I had forgotten. It also gave me a bloody good night out.

Gutsy, soulful and unapologetically brash, this is one history lesson that will never tempt you to play truant. Unmissable.

4 Stars ✭✭✭✭

Photos by Idil Sukan

LISTINGS INFO

SIX
by Toby Marlow and Lucy Moss

ARTS THEATRE
6-7 Great Newport Street 
London 
WC2H 7JB

www.artstheatrewestend.co.uk
Box office:020 7836 8463

Performances:
Tuesday, Wednesday, Friday and Saturday at 8.00pm 
Sunday at 7.00pm
Thursday at 6:30pm and 9.00pm 
(from 31 January 2019)
Saturday and Sunday at 4.00pm

Running time: 
75 mins (no interval)

Tickets: from £8.00 
(plus £1.50 per ticket booking fee for online and telephone sales)

Social media: 

Facebook: sixthemusical 

Twitter: @sixthemusical 

Instagram: @sixthemusical

www.sixthemusical.com

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