Music Review: Six: The Musical (on CD)

Six: The Musical
by Toby Marlow and Lucy Moss (Compact Disc 782.14 Six)

Are you an anglophile, fascinated with British history? Did you also enjoy listening to the soundtrack of the Tony Award-winning, Hamilton: An American Musical? If you answered “Yes” to both those questions, then Six: The Musical is for you.

When trying to convince friends to listen to the soundtrack to Six, I recommend it as “the British Hamilton”. Six features six female performers, each portraying one of the six wives of England’s famous king, Henry VIII. The soundtrack features a mere 9 tracks. The six singers perform together on three — the opening track “Ex-Wives”, the closing track “Six”, and the track “Haus of Holbein” right in the middle. Otherwise, each of them gets a bravura solo that tells of her connections to Henry and her individual fate. Renee Lamb is Catherine of Aragon on “No Way”, Christina Modestou is Anne Boleyn on “Don’t Lose Ur Head”, Natalie Paris is Jane Seymour on “Heart of Stone”, Genesis Lynea is Anna of Cleves on “Get Down”, Aimie Atkinson is “Katherine Howard” on “All You Wanna Do” and Izuka Hoyle is Catherine Parr on “I Don’t Need Your Love”. The emphasis in this show is on the lives and loves of these six women — Henry’s had plenty of press. It’s time for “girl power”!

The comparison to Hamilton is in both the musical stylings and the color-blind casting. The songs of Six are fast-paced and raucous pop tunes, a mixture of hip-hop and dance club, with pounding beats and rapid-fire lyrics. The songs pack a massive amount of history into their lyrics, and if you have only a passing knowledge of the history of Henry VIII and his many wives, you’ll learn a lot by listening to this. The performers, all relatively young Brit gals, from a variety of cultural backgrounds, are all superb. The only minor drawback for me was clearly understanding the lyrics in a few spots, due to the thick British accents and the speed with which the lines were delivered. But, like Hamilton before it, it helped to have the CD booklet with its full lyrics to follow, and after a few listens, it was all pretty clear.

Six made headway in England and was preparing to open on Broadway. In fact, it had had some “preview” performances, and was set for a big run on the Great White Way in March. Its opening night turned out to be the day that COVID-19 safety concerns closed down Broadway. Here’s hoping the production can survive and re-launch once social distancing is no longer as big a concern. I do recommend looking online for pictures of the actresses in their fabulous costumes, and for a few video clips from Six on the show’s website and YouTube. It is a tremendous show, and the soundtrack CD is both entertaining and educational! As the snappy opening lyrics to the opening song cheekily say, “Divorced. Beheaded. Died. Divorced. Beheaded. Survived! And tonight, we are…LIVE!”

[ official Six: The Musical web site ] | [ Six background on Wikipedia ]

Recommended by Scott C.
Bennett Martin Public Library – Public Service

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