{"id":321621,"date":"2026-08-14T21:42:11","date_gmt":"2026-08-14T21:42:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/321621\/"},"modified":"2026-08-14T21:42:11","modified_gmt":"2026-08-14T21:42:11","slug":"six-the-musical-live-review-the-tudor-queens-of-pop-rule","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/321621\/","title":{"rendered":"‘Six: The Musical Live!’ Review: The Tudor Queens of Pop Rule"},"content":{"rendered":"

A month ago, I wrote an editorial about how criticisms of \u201chistorical accuracy\u201d in popular culture are often weaponized to enforce and legitimize bigoted concepts about the past. I was defending Christopher Nolan\u2019s \u201cThe Odyssey\u201d<\/a> but libraries are littered with stories that use historical revisionism to make an important point about the present, offer valuable context about the past or even just have a good time. Literature like, I dunno, let\u2019s pick a random example out of a hat \u2026 Homer\u2019s \u201cThe Odyssey.\u201d<\/p>\n

I should have also pointed in the direction of \u201cSix<\/a>,\u201d a blockbuster London West End stage musical about Henry VIII\u2019s six infamously ill-fated wives. That\u2019s two divorces, two beheadings, one death from natural causes and one who stuck it out, but whether that counts as a \u201cwin\u201d depends on how fun you think it\u2019d be to stay married to a two-time wife-killer.<\/p>\n

These queens have been scrutinized, analyzed and immortalized many times over, but until \u201cSix\u201d came along, they\u2019d never been reimagined as a pop act with wicked pipes and sick, sick beats. It\u2019s ahistorical, but only a-holes would complain, because the alternative to accepting this fascinating, energetic concept is to wag your fingers and say it isn\u2019t patriarchal or sexist enough. And if you think there hasn\u2019t been enough patriarchy or sexism, I don\u2019t think you\u2019ve learned anything about history at all.<\/p>\n

\u201cSix\u201d was written by Toby Marlow and Lucy Moss, and since its debut in 2017, it\u2019s won two Tony Awards, four Drama Desk Awards and the hearts and minds of audiences all over the world. Now, like recent celebrated productions of \u201cMerrily We Roll Along<\/a>\u201d and \u201cHadestown,\u201d it\u2019s an official pro-shot motion picture, filmed live onstage with the original West End cast. If you couldn\u2019t make it to the theater before, now you can make it to another kind of theater and see what all the fuss is about. Good news: The fuss is about a fabulous, electrifying (albeit short) pop phenomenon.<\/p>\n

\u201cSix: The Musical Live!\u201d opens with the wives of Henry VIII taking the stage, decked out in sparkly, sexy, color-coded medieval costumes. They\u2019re here to put on a show and, in a riff on reality singing competitions, battle it out for a coveted prize. After six radio-friendly numbers, each detailing a different tragic marriage, a lead singer will be crowned based on which queen got royally screwed over the most. If you\u2019re wondering how these other queens think they can compete with Anne Boleyn and Katherine Howard, who were literally decapitated, well, so are Anne and Katherine \u2014 and Anne is particularly salty about it.<\/p>\n

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A half-dozen women debating who had the worst marriage doesn\u2019t sound particularly feminist but, of course, \u201cSix\u201d eventually flips its script and world history upside down. Liz Clare directs the film and sticks to familiar, effective stage-show cinematic lingo until a late-stage twisteroo that changes the visual language. Briefly. Just enough to make an impact, because we have to get back to the (admittedly satisfying) basics. It\u2019s not on Clare to completely reinvent how live musicals are filmed for the big screen, so we can complement the filmmaker on a wholly professional, absorbing experience with one memorable gimmick.<\/p>\n

Every performer who returns for \u201cSix: The Musical Live!\u201d gives a stunning performance, modeled after an iconic pop music stage persona. Catherine of Aragon (Jarneia Richard-Noel) brings the Beyonc\u00e9, Anne Boleyn (Millie O\u2019Connell) is a lively Lily Allen, Jane Seymour (Natalie Paris) belts \u00e0 la Adele, Anna of Cleves (Alexia McIntosh) is a Nicki Minaj homage, Katherine Howard (Aimie Atkinson) channels Ariana Grande, and Catherine Parr (Maiya Quansah-Breed) is on par with Alicia Keys.<\/p>\n

They\u2019re evenly matched but not evenly festooned. This problem may be unique to the film version, but Anne Boleyn\u2019s sharp-angled costume is so shiny and such a bright, effervescent green that she pulls focus whenever she\u2019s on camera, even when she\u2019s in the background and in shadow. The other costumes are balanced between one Crayola color and muted black; Boleyn\u2019s ratio is a wild contrast, which befits her characterization but distracts the camera. Millie O\u2019Connell is a standout performer, easily the cattiest queen in \u201cSix,\u201d so it doesn\u2019t hurt her in the slightest. It\u2019s just that sometimes we\u2019re trying to watch Jane Seymour belt an emotional number, and Jane should be our point of interest.<\/p>\n

Of course, a filmed version of a stage play isn\u2019t the same as watching it live. There\u2019s probably an adaptation worth producing down the line that shoots \u201cSix\u201d like a reality television competition instead of a live cabaret experience, but that\u2019s not this version. This is the closest most of us will get to seeing this show unless we move to a major metropolitan area or at least get a meaningful pay raise. (In this economy? Now that\u2019s implausible.)<\/p>\n

\u201cSix: The Musical Live!\u201d is a fabulous document of a fabulous stage show. The only real complaint is it\u2019s such an efficient production that it\u2019s over too quickly. A great performer always leaves us wanting more \u2014 and six great performers leave us wanting six times more.<\/p>\n

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