ajhlovestheatre

SIX

by Toby Marlow and Lucy Moss

Directed by Lucy Moss and Jamie Armitage

Vaudeville Theatre, London – open-ended run

https://www.sixthemusical.com/london

Happy 6th to Six, the formerly little show that most definitely could! From the Edinburgh fringe to Broadway, Australasia and the high seas, Toby Marlow and Lucy Moss’s thunderous concert-cum-musical hybrid has become a beloved fan favourite and a true show business sensation. As the West End production enters its seventh year, surviving a pandemic and two changes of theatre, it remains in good, crowd-pleasing shape, with a fourth completely new cast of performers taking on the wives of Henry VIII, and sending ecstatic audiences out into the night, hoarse from roaring their approval.

Moss and Jamie Armitage’s staging has become slicker and glossier since the original run at the Arts, and Carrie-Anne Ingrouille’s terrific choreography, mixing up pop video dance styles with moves by turns organic, sassy, occasionally sinister, certainly breathes more easily on the larger stage. Tim Deiling’s thrilling rock stadium lighting and Paul Gatehouse’s sound design are similarly upgraded, although the latter has a few moments, usually when the queens are belting in unison, where it becomes a little woolly, but the majority of the deliciously deft lyrics penetrate through the aural bombast. Similarly, the purple glitz of Emma Bailey’s set and the bejewelled Steampunk splendour of Gabriella Slade’s award-winning costumes reflect the continuing upswing in this blockbuster’s fortunes.

That global success seems to come with a price tag though. It’s something I noticed when I reviewed the previous cast last year and it struck me again watching the excellent current team. Specifically, it feels that a certain homogeneity has crept in, a fudging of detail, a prioritisation of ‘yasss kween’ fabulousness over the fact this sextet of young women actually existed and had fraught, frequently tragic lives; it’s more glamorous now, but it’s seldom as moving as it once was. It’s still fabulous entertainment, one of the most unapologetically enjoyable eighty minutes in the West End, but some of the charm and spontaneity has been lost. It may just be that the creatives have so many international iterations of the show to keep an eye on that the quirks and idiosyncrasies and the sheer heart that made the original so special have been inevitably ironed out.

It’s not necessarily due to the talent on stage. The current cast are not cookie cutter replacements for the last set of queens, are fine triple threats, and register pleasingly as individual personalities. Nikki Bentley’s powerhouse-voiced Catherine of Aragon reads as more measured and repressed than some of her predecessors which feels entirely right for the rejected, senior wife, while Thao Therese Nguyen gives us a sexy, loose-limbed, funny-boned Anne Boleyn probably nearer in spirit to Millie O’Connell’s crazy, delightful original than any we’ve seen since.

Kayleigh McKnight fuses an innate likability with a gorgeous, diva-worthy tone as Jane Seymour and does some exhilarating vocal opting-up in unexpected places in her roof-raising ‘Heart of Stone’ solo. Reca Oakley’s American Anna of Cleves is adorable, if more cuddly than edgy, and Inez Budd is a vivid, memorable Katherine Howard, compellingly balancing mean girl confidence with a backstory of abuse and manipulation in the most disturbing number in the score. Janiq Charles delivers a radiant, warmly empowered Catherine Parr with vocals like honeyed molasses, her balm-like Trinidadian accent absolutely perfect for the wife who stands alone as the voice of reason.

Ultimately, as well as being a fine time in the theatre, Six is a valuable ongoing part of the West End (and Broadway) landscape because it serves as an irresistible gateway drug to musicals for emerging audiences. First time theatregoers adore this spangled but intelligent pop-showbiz hybrid, and no wonder. It’s hard to imagine it ever closing: emerging, dazzled and deafened, back out onto the Strand after this most recent viewing, I was struck by the thought that there are future cast members who haven’t even been born yet. It remains a phenomenon.