Over-Analyzing the Crown: S3E4 Bubbikins

All My Posts on The Crown
S3: 1 & 2: “Olding” & “Margaretology” 3: “Aberfan” 4: “Bubbikins, 5: “Coup” 6: “Tywysog Cymru” 7: “Moondust" 8: “Dangling Man” 9: “Imbroglio” 10: “Cri de Coeur”
S4: 1: “Gold Stick” 2: “The Balmoral Test” 3: “Fairytale” ( + Cinderella References) 4: “Favourites” 5: “Fagan” 6: “Terra Nullius” 7: ”The Hereditary Principle” 8: “48:1” 9: “Avalanche”
The Medals, Sashes, and Tiaras of The Crown; Tiaras/Crowns Overviews: Season 1 ; Season 2

Princess Alice in The Crown, played by Jane Lapotaire

Princess Alice with her son Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh (Credit: Popperfoto / Getty).

Our previous glimpse of Princess Alice in S1E1 “Wolferton Splash.”

Princess Anne in The Crown, played by Erin Doherty, compared with the real life Princess Anne (Credit: AP).

Prince Philip tries to do PR for the royal family and does a pretty terrible job at it. His chain-smoking nun mother saves his butt by being just generally amazing.

• Note the colors in this beginning scene; they’ll show up in most of the costumes for the rest of the episode. This chain-smoking nun (who hasn’t been introduced yet in the episode, but is actually Princess Alice of Greece and Denmark) is in light blue and white, and the rundown convent itself is blue, green, yellow, and grey. There is blue visible in almost every scene in Greece; it’s highly associated with the country and is used throughout the rest of the episode to signal each character’s connection to Greece and this Grecian nun. 

• We’ve actually seen Princess Alice of Greece and Denmark before, by the way, in the very first season of the crown! She appeared briefly at Elizabeth and Philip’s wedding; Elizabeth’s mother and grandmother said some catty things about her being dressed as a nun and how she was kept in a sanitarium for much of her life.

• Alice keeps a framed photo of Philip as a child on her dresser at the convent (specifically, the actor who played him in the S2E9 episode “Paterfamilias.”). It’s interesting that this is the only framed photo she has in her room; she would still have three daughters alive at this point (her other died in the late 30s in an airplane crash, also depicted in “Paterfamilias”). This may be because of her daughters’ known Nazi connections and sympathies; in contrast, Alice hid a Jewish family and gave them protection during World War II. 

• Color-spotting: I don’t want this entire post to turn into a list of who all is wearing what colors, but the colors are consistent enough that I really want to draw attention to them. Philip wears light blue shirts or dark blue ties consistently throughout the episode, the Queen and Anne wear blue or yellow in almost every shot, the reporter John Armstrong is seen in blue multiple times, against a yellow and green backgrounds, Martin wears blue when he picks up Princess Alice, the plane taking Alice to the UK is blue, Alice’s bag is blue and white, you get the idea. Almost everyone is blue in this episode. So much Greek. The colors blue and green are also visible in the Greece scenes that take post-military coup (blue window shutters on the street, the blue door of the convent, blue sapphire, blue police lights flickering against the convent walls, green tanks)

  Interestingly, in the cabinet meeting we see at the beginning, everyone is in black and white except for one woman in red; this is the labour party’s color. There are a couple other notably red moments throughout the show (the red box given to the queen in the documentary, Anne’s red dress, John Armstrong’s pencil), but I’m not sure they mean anything, it’s just a color that stands out.

• Princess Alice, mother superior, calls the jewelry salesman who called the police on her “sweetie” in the most deadpan manner. Her son Philip then himself uses “sweetie” as a pet name, when he hilariously calls on the intercom throughout the palace to various rooms, surprising numerous really confused secretaries, maids, and butlers in the process.
  In the scene with the duke and Anne in his blue office (which I don’t believe we’ve ever seen before), a framed photo of his mother is visible on his desk (just like his photo is on her dresser). Philip is wearing a blue tie and a blue and white shirt, Anne is wearing yellow and blue, notably in a plaid skirt very much like those her mother favors (just in brighter colors). 
  I also REALLY enjoyed the queen’s matter of fact, “I’m darling or cabbage, sweetie is someone else” to Michael Adeane. It seems like Prince Philip continues his mother’s favoring of nicknames. She calls him “bubbikins” and the jewelry salesman “sweetie”; he calls his daughter “sweetie” and his wife “cabbage.”

• I noticed that in this episode, Prime Minister Wilson’s meetings with the queen this episode are shot further away then they have been previously, using wide shots which emphasize the large distance between the two of them. This may symbolize the distance between the royal family and the British public, or perhaps even the Queen’s perception of herself and the British public’s perception. In their last meeting in the episode, the Queen notes that her family is normal; Wilson emphasizes that they are decidedly not.

• “She is not of our world nor, frankly, suited for it,” Philip says about his mother, while wearing a ridiculously formal outfit (blue and white!, matching his wife) standing in the fanciest room surrounded by gold and crystal everything. This occurs right after we see a shot of tiny old Princess Alice in her rundown surroundings looking up and hearing amplified shouts about how foreign nationals should leave immediately. There’s a huge contrast between these two scenes.
  There’s also a cute moment in this scene where the queen affectionately straightens one of Philip’s medal. This is an intimate moment that reminds me of the season 1 incident when a journalist saw Princess Margaret pick a piece of fluff off of Peter Townsend’s uniform and accurately guessed that they were in a relationship.

• As Alice walks into the palace, with her blue and white bag, she’s clearly overwhelmed and compensates by saying “Thank” you very formally to every butler that helps her or calls her Princess (her highly cultured aristocratic accent in English gives her away as someone of high class). The shot of her entering the main room emphasizes exactly how small and dull she is in comparison to all the grandeur. The Queen and Princess Anne are both there to greet her and are both sporting blue, green, and yellow skirts. 
  On her way to her room, Alice very clearly eyes one specific clock in the hallway. Later, she suggests selling a clock for funds for the convent. She ends up placing Phillip’s photo directly by the clock in her blue room (which is blue, and the stairway up to it is green and white). 

• The next shot shows Philip steadfastly avoiding his mother while remembering some of his more painful memories relating to her. We’ve seen the one where his mother was taken away to the sanatorium and his sister comforts him in S2E9 “Paterfamilias,” but I’m fairly sure we haven’t seen the next shot of a forlorn young Philip sitting on his luggage at a train station before.

A scene from the Royal Family, which aired in June 1969 and attracted more than 30 million viewers. The Queen’s Christmas message that year was written, as she was afraid that another TV speech would lead to overexposure.

The film was last shown on BBC in 1972 to mark the Queen’s 20th anniversary on the throne. The Queen has not allowed it since (Credit: Popperfoto / Getty).

Colin Morgan as John Armstrong in The Crown.

• In the documentary explanation scene, most everyone is wearing blues and greens except Margaret, the family member most negative about the documentary scheme, is in white, black, and pink.
  In the later TV-watching scene, Margaret voices her opinions about how boring the documentary will be in a truly hilarious way (Helena Bonham Carter is a treasure). Anne, the Queen, and the Queen Mother are all wearing blue, and Margaret is, again, set apart in checked pink, white, and purple.  The Queen mother makes really funny faces when Margaret says they’d normally be off in separate isolated palaces and that sitting all together watching TV is like a prison; Anne laughs but tries to hide it. 
  FYI, every time I see the Queen’s corgis in this show, I freak out slightly with happiness. I love them so much. Here’s one article about the history of the Queen’s corgis. This article chronicles every appearance of the corgis in the first two seasons of the show and notes that the corgis NEED to be featured more in the show (which - agreed!).

• Next, Alice walks around the palace looking forlorn, and trying to borrow a light from someone, saying “Hello?” a few times. She’s notably excited to find a reporter smoking outside and asks for a light (perhaps she’s more comfortable with “normal” people than the royals). They seem to be having a lovely conversation until Philip, who sees this from a window, angrily sends a servant out to stop the interview. That evening, Philip angrily shouts about this incident to the Queen. She’s already in bed, in a white and light blue nightgown, and he’s standing up, leaning against the bed frame. They’re clearly not on the same page when it comes to his mother; Elizabeth looks very surprised and concerned by his outburst that “she gave birth to me; she is not my mother.” (paraphrase, may get the exact quote later)

• The next day, the Queen, in light green, goes up the bright green staircase to visit Alice and finds Anne there. The two (both wearing blue) are chatting, writing letters to patrons, and sharing a cigarette. The queen’s wry “we’ll hold a big jumble sale of all the palace valuables on our return” confuses Alice and it’s adorable (“What?”). 

• As they watch the documentary, everyone in the family is wearing blue or green (even Margaret, who’s sporting a green jacket over her brown print) except Anne, in bright red. Martin and Michael are in matching diagonal striped ties as they look at each other happily when the documentary talks about them as private secretaries.
  That newspaper office is just so friggin fabulous and 60s, with a green carpet and brown walls.

• Fun subtle continuity moment: In the “Aberfan” episode, Wilson comforted the queen’s concern about her own stoic, non-crying nature, by relating to her that although he prefers cigars, he smokes a pipe because it’s more relatable to the common man and better for him as a Labour politician. Notably, in this episode, Wilson is shown smoking a pipe in the cabinet meeting (in public) and a cigar while watching the royal family documentary (in private). 

• The Queen reads the bad newspaper reviews of the documentary while wearing a hideously unflattering dress in white dress with blue, green and purple florals, looking older and more out of touch then ever. There are some really interesting ideas presented in her next conversation with the Prime Minister, when he notes that the public doesn’t want a normal royal family, but an ideal. The Queen retorts, “I’d prefer to be in private and out of sight, hidden and out of view, for our own sanity and survival.” But since that’s impossible, the royal family must use “mystery and protocol, not to keep us apart but to keep us alive.”

Olivia Colman as Queen Elizabeth in The Crown.

Tobias Menzies as Prince Philip in The Crown.

• Anne is so fabulous and calculating. “Is it really necessary to speak your mind quite so mercilessly at every opportunity?” “Well, where do you think I get that from?” 

• I love how John Armstrong shows his glee at being inside Buckingham Palace. Despite all his criticism of the royal family, he’s still only human, and this is one of the most exclusive and storied locations in all of the UK.

  Sidenote: If Armstrong looks familiar to you, it might be because the actor Colin Morgan played the title role in the BBC series “Merlin.” I’ve never seen it, but I’ve certainly seen the title card on Netflix enough to recognize him.

• Blue-spotting: Anne as she pretends to be sick and pushes Alice toward the reporter, Armstrong himself, the blue curtains behind Alice during the interview (similar to the blue curtains behind Philip in his Meet the Press scene at the beginning of the episode).

• When the Queen and then Philip walk up to Alice’s room, we’re with them almost the whole way, as if to emphasize the distance at which they’ve been keeping his mother. The shots of Philip and Alice inside the room seem to really emphasize the distance between them as well; they don’t come near each other, despite it being the first time either of them as seen each other for years. She looks so happy to see him but also so tentative, as she says “Bubbikins?”

• There are a few episodes this season seems that kind of carry over elements that were just introduced in the previous element into the next episode while introducing another new episode. This starts it off by introducing Anne and Alice; there’s also a shot of the queen which lingers on her collection of MANY horse portraits. The next episode features her love of horses and also introduces the new Lord Mountbatten and his sibling relationship with Alice. The episode after that will introduce new Prince Charles, whose character is chiefly fleshed out in conversations with his sister Anne.
  They clearly made the choice to write Prince Charles out of this specific story; as you can see in the stills from the real documentary above, he was pretty prominently in the actual thing. I suppose they didn’t want to overwhelm the audience with too many new faces. Plus, Charles will get his own chance to shine in just a few episodes.

• If you’re like my husband, by the way, and are curious about how Alice is Princess of Greece and Denmark, it’s an interesting story! Her husband’s father was a prince of Denmark who was basically imported to become king of Greece after Greece deported its previous king. That king was assassinated and the next king (Philip’s uncle on his father’s sad) was deposed and run out of Greece, along with the entire family, including Alice and Philip. I learned all about it from The Other Half podcast’s episodes on Sophia of Prussia (Episodes 2.16-2.19)

Princess Alice with her grandchildren, Prince Charles and Princess Anne (Credit: Smith Archive / Alamy).

Shakespeare English History/War of the Roses Family Tree: Unnatural Deaths

Taking a quick break from coverage of The Crown season 3 (don’t worry, I’ll have another post up later today!) to get back to Wars of the Roses for a minute. I’ve heard it said before that a lot of Tudor history was influenced by the Wars for the purely practical reason that most of the nobles with a claim to the throne were killed off. Really, Henry VII had a pretty weak claim to the throne, and a big reason Henry VIII’s daughters were allowed to take the crown was because there really weren’t any viable male alternatives. I decided to test this out myself by simply crossing off all the people on my family tree who were killed “unnaturally,” that is, not dying of old age or illness. I may have missed a few side people here, as my history knowledge gets shakier the further back we go or the more Scottish we get, so please let me know if you see anyone I’ve missed!

If you missed seeing the original Shakespeare English History Royal Family Tree, it’s over here.

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Over-Analyzing the Crown: S3E3 Aberfan

All My Posts on The Crown
S3: 1 & 2: “Olding” & “Margaretology” 3: “Aberfan” 4: “Bubbikins, 5: “Coup” 6: “Tywysog Cymru” 7: “Moondust" 8: “Dangling Man” 9: “Imbroglio” 10: “Cri de Coeur”
S4: 1: “Gold Stick” 2: “The Balmoral Test” 3: “Fairytale” ( + Cinderella References) 4: “Favourites” 5: “Fagan” 6: “Terra Nullius” 7: ”The Hereditary Principle” 8: “48:1” 9: “Avalanche”
The Medals, Sashes, and Tiaras of The Crown; Tiaras/Crowns Overviews: Season 1 ; Season 2

Olivia Colman with the mayor in The Crown, left (Netflix); the Queen with the Aberfan mayor in real life, right (Stan Meagher) (Credit: Evening Standard / Getty).

A really horrible disaster occurred and killed over 100 people, mostly children, in Aberfan, Wales. In accordance with tradition and out of concern of distracting rescue workers, Queen Elizabeth delays visiting the Welsh town until she is forced to by external pressure.

Villagers digging at Aberfan.

Am aerial shot showing the extent of the devastation in the Aberfan disaster, 1966. (unknown)

• The start of this episode is intentionally foreboding. It reminds me very much of the pre-accident scenes in HBO’s “Chernobyl.” I had never heard of the Aberfan incident before this episode, but just from the shooting style and content, I could tell that something bad was about to happen to those children. This haunting atmosphere is repeated during the credits, which are shown over film of children playing in their schoolyard.

• The singing, incidentally, is a theme that comes back several times in the episode. The mourners at the funeral sing a haunting hymn in perfect harmony and Elizabeth can’t actually cry until she listens to a recording of the hymn at the end of the episode. I’ve included the lyrics to both songs sung at the end of this post.

• There’s an absolutely gorgeous shot of a little girl running out into a heavy rainstorm with a red umbrella. It’s shot so that almost all color has been drained from the scene; it looks black and white except for that one red umbrella, with one singing little girl under it. It almost evokes the red balloon from “It.” I doubt that was exactly what they were going for though. Red umbrellas on a black and white background are a surprisingly common motif in a lot of photography and paintings, you can find it all over the place.

• On second watch, it became obvious that the green coal tips are visible in almost every outside shot of the pre-accident sequence; they are so huge that they overwhelm and hang over every person and every thing in the whole village. You can see them at the end of the main street, behind the schoolteacher as he talks to his class, and behind the children and the miners as they go to and from their homes.

  Interestingly enough, the green from the tips seems to become a theme throughout the entire episode, seen in both the costuming, the lighting, and the scenery. Almost everyone in this episode wears green. I believe this symbolizes the huge impact the disaster had on the entire nation; everyone was impacted and heartbroken over it. The Queen wears numerous green outfits (at least two house robes, a green floral shirt, and a green cardigan, I may have missed one or two as well), the crowd yelling at the politicians and the National Coal Board reps is wearing a LOT of green, Tony wears green as he goes off to Aberfan, Margaret wears a green dress as he kisses her on his way out the door and a green striped shirt at breakfast with her family. In the Buckingham palace scenes, they spend a lot of time in one particular green room. There’s even a green lighting over some of the scenes; the one that stands out most is when Harold Wilson is taking off his coal-dust covered shoes at the end of the day and looking absolutely defeated. The amount of green in this episode is just absolutely bonkers; I was half expecting to hear some proto-environmentalism come up to tie more into the “green.”
  Of course, the most devastating use of green comes during the funeral, in the green cloth (?) lining the huge grave, filled with the coffins of 81 children. The crowd at the funeral is still surrounded by those giant green hills all around them (how many of them are coal tips vs hills? It’s so unnerving not to know).

• There are also lots of brown costumes in this episode. Tony, Margaret, the Queen, and Harold Wilson all prominently wear brown. This may be referring to the brown coffins against those bright green cloth, or may just indicate sadness.

• I’d like to note that this is the second time in the series that junior secretary Martin Charteris is shown expressing an opinion that, while not in keeping with palace tradition, accurately predicts the reaction of the people and the press. When senior private secretary Michael Adeane doesn’t take Martin’s advice in the season 2 episode “Marionettes,” the Queen ends up giving a very tone-deaf, patronizing speech which opens her to a ton of criticism. When the queen and Michael don’t listen to Martin’s timid suggestion that she visit Aberfan herself, it opens her up to criticism about not caring about her people. This all just indicates that Martin is the real down to earth secretary with actual insight here and definitely should have been made senior secretary as Elizabeth wanted in the season 1 episode “Scientia Potentia Est,” tradition be damned.
  Continuity Note: It looks like Michael Adeane got to grow back his mustache after a while. Elizabeth asked him to shave it off in the Season 2 episode “Lisbon” to satisfy Prince Philip, who was complaining about all the “mustaches” ordering him around. This seems fair, since the events of “Aberfan” take place in 1966 and the events of “Lisbon” take place in 1957. You can’t ban a man’s facial hair for years at a time!

Jason Watkins as Prime Minister Harold Wilson in The Crown (Netflix)

Ben Daniels as Tony Armstrong Jones in The Crown (Netflix)

• There’s a horribly sad contrast in the two scenes in the episode in which someone yells for those around him to be quiet. This first happens as the accident is just beginning, when a worker at the mine yells for the others to be quiet, as he can hear the tip start to collapse and race toward the village. The second happens in the post-accident cleanup while Harold Wilson is visiting; everyone becomes quiet to try to hear the sound of any child who might still be buried. This scene became even more eerie when I read about the accident and learned that there were no survivors found after 11 am (the accident itself occurred at 9:15).
  The shots of villagers desperately digging with their hands, their helmets, anything nearby to try to rescue their children, is absolutely heartbreaking and haunting. They don’t draw too many direct comparisons to the children seen at the beginning of the episode (at least not that I noticed, please tell me if I’m wrong!), but at one point, a man did pick up a copy of the “All Things Bright and Beautiful” songbook that all the children were using as they practiced.

• One of the most interesting things about this series is how its portrayals of events from decades in the past evoke more recent happenings. When Harold Wilson urged the Queen to visit Aberfan, I could not help but think of Tony Blair urging the Queen to say something about the death of Princess Diana.   

Tobias Menzies in The Crown. The mayor with his chain of office can be seen on the right.

• There’s a shot of the Queen writing in her journal while listening to a newscast announcing her message of sympathy to Aberfan that intentionally blurs her for a bit. This indicates that this whole situation isn’t about her or her feelings about the proper role for the queen; this is a horrible incident which is hurting her people and her distance from it isn’t helping. 

• There’s an interesting juxtaposition between the line of female grocery workers in white behind Harold Wilson at the beginning of the episode and the line of female nurses in white at the end of the episode when the Queen visits Aberfan. Haven’t figured out a meaning there, it just stood out to me.

• In case you were wondering about that giant gold chain that one man wears in some of the Aberfan scenes, that’s the mayor wearing his chain of office. Most British and Irish mayors wear a collar/chain of office, and new ones are still designed for new municipalities. These are worn over normal clothes when on official duties. 

• The little girl who gives the queens flowers “from the remaining children of Aberfan” (my heart broke into a million pieces at that) is wearing a light blue outfit with a notable collar that looks very much like Elizabeth’s own outfits as a child.

Line of coffins of victims (Credit: Popperfoto / Getty).

The memorial in Aberfan, Wales, today (Credit: Steve Parsons / PA).

All Things Bright and Beautiful

All things bright and beautiful,
all creatures great and small,
all things wise and wonderful,
the lord God made them all.

Each little flower that opens,
each little bird that sings,
he made their glowing colours,
he made their little wings.

The purpleheaded mountain,
the river running by,
the sunset and the morning,
that brightens up the sky.

Jesus, Lover of My Soul

Jesus, lover of my soul,
Let me to Thy bosom fly,
While the nearer waters roll,
While the tempest still is high:
Hide me, O my Savior, hide,
Till the storm of life is past;
Safe into the haven guide;
O receive my soul at last.

Other refuge have I none,
Hangs my helpless soul on Thee;
Leave, oh, leave me not alone,
Still support and comfort me.
All my trust on Thee is stayed,
All my help from Thee I bring;
Cover my defenseless head
With the shadow of Thy wing

Over-Analyzing the Crown: S3E1 Olding and S3E2 Margaretology

All My Posts on The Crown
S3: 1 & 2: “Olding” & “Margaretology” 3: “Aberfan” 4: “Bubbikins, 5: “Coup” 6: “Tywysog Cymru” 7: “Moondust" 8: “Dangling Man” 9: “Imbroglio” 10: “Cri de Coeur”
S4: 1: “Gold Stick” 2: “The Balmoral Test” 3: “Fairytale” ( + Cinderella References) 4: “Favourites” 5: “Fagan” 6: “Terra Nullius” 7: ”The Hereditary Principle” 8: “48:1” 9: “Avalanche”
The Medals, Sashes, and Tiaras of The Crown; Tiaras/Crowns Overviews: Season 1 ; Season 2

I’ll be posting little analyses and observations on each episode of Season 3 of the Crown over the next week or two! I’m a huge Anglophile and LOVE analyzing all the hidden meaning in tv shows and movies, so I’m really excited to write about this series. :) I’ll be adding in more episodes and comparative photos as I go, so keep checking back for more updates!

Olivia Colman as Queen Elizabeth II in a party scene in the first episode of Season 3 of The Crown on Netflix.

I really loved the first two seasons and am very excited about the new actors playing the roles. Olivia Colman (the new Elizabeth II) was astounding in Broadchurch and The Night Manager (I still haven’t seen her Oscar-winning role in The Favourite yet, I really need to). Claire Foy did such a good job of bringing the young Elizabeth to life and making a mild-mannered, quiet queen interesting; I’m delighted to see Olivia Colman take up the crown. And although this show has never prioritized making the actors look /exactly/ like their historical counterparts, instead, seeking to evoke the general idea of each character, there’s one scene in Season 3 Episode 2 in which Olivia Colman looks SO much like photographs I’ve seen of the queen from the 60s that I actually gasped (Any guesses as to which scene it is? :D).

I also greatly appreciated Tobias Menzies in Outlander; he was utterly terrifying as the villainous Jack Randall and beguiling as the kind, slightly pathetic figure of Frank Randall. He did such a great job giving life to two different characters and I was very excited to see him take over as Prince Philip from Matt Smith. I have a soft spot for Philip; I too love a grumpy man with an occasionally inappropriate sense of humor, and he’s such a great balance to Elizabeth’s primness.

Episode 1: “Olding”

The UK gets a new prime minister, the venerable Winston Churchill dies, and Elizabeth finds out about a KGB spy in her midst! Also, lots of art and a pretty awkward birthday party.

Olivia Colman as Queen Elizabeth II in the first episode of Season 3 of The Crown on Netflix.

• The name of the episode derives from Harold Wilson’s supposed KGB code name but also cleverly refers to the aging of the characters and transition of the actors.

• I really loved the introduction scene for Olivia Colman, where her face wasn’t in focus until after the updated portrait of her on the coinage as “an old bat” (as she so wryly noted) was revealed. It’s a great transition, and reminds me of other media’s excellent acknowledgment of the elephant in the room of the actor change. I’m specifically thinking of the change from Terrence Howard to Don Cheadle as “Rhodey” in the Iron Man movies, where Cheadle’s first line in Iron Man 2 is “Look, it’s me, I’m here. Deal with it. Let’s move on.” The Capheus actor change in Sense8 from Aml Ameen to Toby Onwumere also springs to mind, although I’m struggling to find the exact introduction quote from Season 2 Episode 1 (I believe it was something along the lines of “things change but are essentially the same” or something, referring to the Van Damme’s new look).
  I hope they don’t do the same thing in Season 5 when they switch actors again though, that could get overly precious really quickly. On the second actor change, it might be better to take a Doctor Who approach to the whole thing and just accept it and move on.

• Princess Margaret has a pillow that says “it isn’t easy being a princess” on her bed. She also wears a diamond bracelet as she sleeps.

• Lord Snowden is first seen sawing metal in his workshop, building metal pyramid outlines in his ship; those same pyramids appear to show up in their house earlier as Snowden walks to his dark room to develop photos. The fact that he is literally working with his hands while Princess Margaret is still sleeping and hanging up the phone to avoid conversations illustrates the sharp divide between the couple.

• When he opens the door to the dark room, the first shot is a reflection against the mirror from the season 2 episode where he met Margaret; it specifically focuses on the “beryl” that she signed with a diamond.

• The Queen is wearing a skirt suit in this episode, which she’ll become very famous for wearing. I don’t think we’ve seen her in one in this series before. I checked this by doing a quick skim of Tom and Lorenzo’s brilliant “The Crown Style” posts (which have heavily inspired me and taught me so much of the years!); it seems I was right. Although she WAS wearing more jackets and business like silhouettes by the end of season 2, we hadn’t seen her in an actual suit until now. Her suit in this episode is also pink, which may be a call back to her connection with Jacqueline Kennedy in season 2 (who was famously wearing a pink Chanel suit when JFK was shot).

• I totally missed the queen’s “Great Britain/greatest Briton” pun to Winston Churchill the first time around. Winston is totally surrounded by art all around him, really engulfed, honestly. Art seems much more apparent and spotlighted in this episode than it has been previously, probably because of the plotline’s focus on art and inner meaning. The provision of paintings in Churchill’s house may also be a call back to Winston’s love of painting, highlighted in a season 1 episode.

• The awkward birthday party scene firmly plants the episode in the 60s; all the women are in bright colors and many of them are in very mod silhouettes or otherwise sport very specifically 60s details, like beaded necklines and hens, and lots of very straight dresses rather than those that hugged the curves so common throughout the 40s and 50s. This scene is also set in a particularly opulent room with lots of bright colors and gold accents. The queen herself is in a glorious blue/green/gold dress. The party ends with the Queen announcing Winston’s death. If you pay attention, you’ll notice that next sequence of his funeral is almost completely devoid of color; the only bright spots of color are the Union Jack and the queen’s bright red lipstick (which ties into her close relationship with Winston; she doesn’t wear lipstick that bright anywhere else in the episode). It seems a very deliberate juxtaposition.

• Interestingly enough, I noticed earlier in the episode that there were bright red and white roses directly behind Philip during the breakfast scene; this seems to be a foreshadowing to the patriotic UK plot/the loss of Winston.

• After Winston’s funeral, the Queen is wearing light blue for the rest of the episode, first in a skirt suit, and last in her formal dress for the exhibit opening. Blue is the traditional color of royal mourning; this may symbolize her sadness over Winston’s death or perhaps is a tie into her patriotic love of her country, which is highlighted when the KGB mole is revealed. Her light blue dress stands out brilliantly against the yellow walls at the art exhibit later, which seems intentional. As the episode fades out, the Queen is standing by a set of dramatic red curtains, again, representing the Union Jack. Now that I think about it, the pink suit from earlier in the episode might have been foreshadowing, as it’s reminiscent of the flag as well without being an exact match.

• The queen herself gives a highly symbolic speech at the art exhibit in which she describes a painting in which one man is painted over another. However, Sir Anthony explains that it’s the same man painted twice. The queen sharply disagrees and says that essentially they’re two different men. This is clearly a coded conversation where blunt says he is the same man he always has been, he has just grown and changed; in contrast, the Queen points out that he is clearly not the man she thought he was.

• SPOILERS: Sir Anthony’s seemingly idle conversation with the queen early on in the episode about Harold Wilson’s possible KGB ties foreshadows the reveal of his KGB ties later. He also mentions in this conversation and later that he was more liberal as a young man, voted conservative, and doesn’t quite like Wilson, strongly implying that he really regrets his past actions. This is supported by his later conversation with Prince Philip when he points out that he also has incidents in his past life that he regrets. During his art talk, he also specifically discusses paintings using phrases that speak to his own situation, saying “as time passes, we learn,” noting that “the truth will out,” and discussing the two-faced nature of one painting. His conversation with Philip, while implicitly threatening the prince, saying he may reveal the scandal he covered up in the past, he also seems to point to how he’s protected and served the royal family well in the past and how he’s happy to do in the future.

Winston Churchill’s Funeral in 1965. Churchill is one of the few non-royals to receive a state funeral. His was also the last state funeral to occur as of 2019 (Credit: Popperfoto / Getty).

Olivia Colman and Tobias Menzies in the Churchill funeral scene in Netflix’s The Crown

Second Episode: “Margaretology”

Elizabeth and Margaret with their mother at Windsor in 1941 (Credit: Lisa Sheridan / Getty). Apparently the identical clothing and Peter Pan Collars seen in the flashback scenes are totally accurate .

The queen’s “dangerous little sister” Margaret goes on a whirlwind tour of America and has a dirty limerick contest with President Lyndon B. Johnson! Also, we get some charming flashback scenes of the two women as children.

• The queen and Margaret are in highly similar brown dresses in the opening flashback sequence. They also both wear a string of pearls as children, which will end up being a recurring theme throughout the episode. Both women wear pearls in almost every single scene in the episode, which signals their enduring connection as sisters.
  The queen’s blue outfit in the next scene has a brown fur collar, which appears to call back to her outfit as a child. The queen, Margaret, and Tony are all wearing blue in this scene (right as Margaret and Tony are about to board a blue commercial plane). Margaret’s blue is the brightest and most fashionable, in a gorgeous floral hat, naturally. She is also wearing an olive green coat. Tony is wearing a red tie with his blue suit. In green and red, they are literally wearing contrasting colors; they’re connected by the blue, symbolizing the work they’re doing for the crown, but are otherwise on totally different wavelengths.

• When Harold Wilson is going to Buckingham palace to see the queen, he’s shot in a way that makes him look small and insignificant compared to all the grandeur. This emphasizes his non-noble background and down to earth point of view as he asks the queen to “really roll out the red carpet” to persuade the Americans to give them a loan.

• In the media montage that compares Margaret to the queen by saying that it’s like “going from a black and white film to one in color,” the show literally switches from an almost technicolor bright scene of Margaret wearing a bright blue dress against a bright red airplane scene to three men in black and white suits talking to the queen in a very dim and grey palace. The queen is wearing a pink skirt suit and pearls in this scene.

• When they arrive in America, Margaret wears a bright light blue dress with a pink and white scarf. Her white shoes, decorated with multi-colored bright beads, are emphasized. Margaret is later seen in two different green dresses and a bright pink dress (she also poses in very little of anything as she poses nude in a bubble bath wearing a crown, which actually happened, and may also be a call back to the Season 2 episode in which she sent out a birthday portrait of herself looking nude). She is very notably not spending much time with her husband in these scenes; he is usually in a corner smoking or signaling her to leave and she’s always surrounded by people, laughing, smoking and talking loudly, dancing, posing for pictures, etc.

• During her argument scene with Tony, Margaret’s wearing a green dress in multiple tones and metallics, and bright purple/pink shoes. The metallics were very in in the sixties, but this and the purple shoes could also be a subtle reference to her princess status. The clashing shoes and dress also indicate Margaret’s individualistic style.

• Throughout this episode, Margaret and Tony are almost always presented on different planes, except when they’re actively moving from one location to another. When Tony is sitting, Margaret is standing. When Margaret is lying down while sick, tony is first sitting and reading the magazines, and then standing over her to kiss her before going off to “sing for their supper.” Even when on the plane to the White House, Tony is sitting while Margaret is slightly elevated. This shooting makes it clear that this is not a couple in sync. 
  In contrast, every time Elizabeth and Philip are shown, they operate on the same plane. They’re both sitting comfortably in their house robes while talking about Margaret at the white house; they’re both standing while discussing Margaret’s proposal at the end. Their relationship troubles depicted in the first two seasons seem to have come to an end; they are a pair united.

• Johnson is always shot in a way that makes him look like a large dark silhouette taking over whatever scene he’s in, While cursing at the ambassador, while looming over his military officials, while urinating and yelling at his press secretary. Like most American historical figures in the Crown, he’s presented more as a caricature rather than a person, as he strives to come out from beneath JFK’s shadow.
  Johnson is presented here as something of an ass, but underneath his bluster and fears is a good deal of truth. His frustration with Kennedy’s legacy is real - Kennedy was really held up as a martyr and a great statesman after his death, even when we know from his appearance in season 2 that he wasn’t anything of the kind. And Johnson is right in that the prime minister and the queen really could rely on each other in diplomacy, while Johnson cannot; he is the head of state and the chief executive and has to play both roles, no matter how much he might hate it. Fun fact: The scene where Johnson is talking to his press secretary (?) while urinating is pretty accurate; Johnson was pretty famous for conducting meetings while using the restroom.

  All of Johnson’s blunt talk is a pretty good indication that he and Margaret will get along really well; she similarly has a habit of speaking harsh truths and saying things that may offend, but also makes one think. 

• Johnson specifically states that if he went hunting with the royals in Balmoral, he would likely make a fool of himself, while JFK would have known exactly what to do. This is really interesting, because in their season two episode, JFK and Jackie definitely made several very obvious protocol errors immediately upon meeting the royals and both were clearly embarrassed by it. Kennedy’s legacy has grown beyond who he really was, and Johnson feels intimidated by that.

• Tony seems to blend in wherever he is – wearing a classic tux in LA and at the white house and a jeans and tan shirt in Arizona. This is in sharp contrast to Margaret, who stands out pretty obviously wherever she goes. In Arizona, she arrives in a brown fur coat (over a dress that can’t quite be seen but appears to be a green and white print) and a bright blue scarf, which may be a reference to Arizona (all that brown and turquoise). When she’s in bed sick, she’s still wearing her hair in a fabulous updo and smoking and wearing a dainty olive green slip, naturally.

• Throughout the episode, the queen and Margaret are dressed in similar colors, constantly wearing pearl necklaces to illustrate their connections, but Margaret generally wears brighter and bolder colors and styles compared to the queen’s pastel blues and pinks and prim silhouettes. Occasionally though, they are dressed in more complementary styles to indicate an attempt at connection.

  • When the queen calls Margaret to ask her to go to the dinner, she is in a yellow floral shirt which, while still very sensible, is one of the brightest and most Margaret-like things she wears in the episode. Margaret, on the other end of the line, is still in her olive slip and fancy updo, smoking a cigarette as she tells the queen she won’t do it.
    Isn’t it interesting how Margaret is so often shown in bed, smoking, ignoring any royal responsibilities? The real Margaret apparently was a great lover of sleep during the day and during her American tour, she skipped out on at least one private luncheon thrown in her honor in order to go nap instead.

  • When Margaret agrees to go to the dinner, she boards the plane there in a white fluffy hat, a light pink dress/skirt suit with contrasting black florals on it, and light blue shoes. Basically, she’s putting on the royal uniform of light pink and light blue, but she’s going to do it her own way. This scene is interspersed with one of the queen writing the letter to Margaret; there, the queen is also wearing a floral, although it’s a more subtle pink and white collared shirt than Margaret’s outfit.

• The queen has some wonderful lines in this episode:
  The queen cuts off one of her private secretaries’ discussion of all the praise Margaret has been receiving in America by standing up and walking away, noting “I’m a queen, not a saint.”
  When the prime minister says the white house dinner must be dealt with in the utmost delicacy, she asks incredulously, “So you want to send princess Margaret?” She also notes matter-of-factly in this conversation that LBJ’s invite to Margaret is “cunning,” which illustrates a growing ease with her role as queen.

• At the White House, Margaret is wearing a wild pink, orange, and white floral dress and white gloves. When she enters the banquet room, it becomes apparent that she is literally matching the floral arrangements in there, along with the gold highlights throughout the room, visible on the white columns, the dishes, and the cups. In the interspersed scenes with the Queen discussing Margaret’s White House dinner with Harold Wilson, a lot of gold is seen in Buckingham, but it’s considerably dimmer and more subtle than that seen in the American scenes. In these scenes, the Queen is wearing a light green skirt suit, which contrasts with the bright pink worn by Margaret.
  Margaret’s dress in the show is similar but not identical to that worn by Margaret in real life (which was light pink and worn without gloves), but Lady Bird Johnson’s dress seems pretty accurate to life

Princess Margaret’s trip to the White House in 1965 (Credit: Bettman / Getty). From left to right, Lord Snowden, Lady Bird Johnson, Princess Margaret, President Lyndon B Johnson.

This photo from Entertainment Weekly is the only one I could find showing Margaret’s dress for the White House dinner in all its glory. However, she did not wear a tiara during the actual scene (Credit: Julian Broad for EW).

• I love when Prince Philip calls Queen Elizabeth a “sparkling cabbage” so much.

• Margaret at window, in green skirt suit with black plaid, three strands of pearls, - queen is in white collared shirt with green floral, green skirt? Also three strands. And they’re a big contrast against the red carpet and feel of the room in Windsor. – Margaret actually is much more businesslike there than the queen here, as she’s trying to show Elizabeth that she can be of use to the crown and be of assistance and would be good at it. She’s really trying to reach her here. She’s wearing toned down shoes and such

• The dramatic room in Windsor with that gorgeous white and black ceiling is used in the flashbacks and leading up to Elizabeth and Margaret’s final conversation. Margaret is framed standing in the window waiting for Elizabeth, who’s on the inside behind a solemn door, both as a child and as an adult.

• It’s interesting how Elizabeth’s look as an adult is still very similar to her look as a child, down to similar hairstyle, colors, silhouettes, and sparse makeup (in season 2, it was noted that they specifically had to put makeup on her for her Christmas speech on television, implying she wasn’t wearing much before). That was when she and her sister were dressed identically, presumably by adults around them intent on keeping them proper.
  In contrast, Margaret has changed her hair and styling very considerably now that she can define herself. Her clothes are brighter, more modern, more stylish and shape hugging, and she wears considerably more makeup and even fake lashes.
  She looks most like her youngest self at the end, when she consciously mimics Elizabeth by putting on a relatively toned down and business like skirt suit in a green plaid, even with matching black shoes; it’s not terribly obvious until the next scene, but as they talk, Elizabeth herself is actually wearing a green plaid skirt that echoes Margaret’s dress. She is trying to show Elizabeth that she can help the royal family but showing their similarities. But as Philip says, she’s not dependable; her outfits and styling change considerably throughout the episode. 

• Elizabeth’s last outfit in the episode makes her look SO SO MUCH like the actual queen. That brown jacket, those sensible shoes, that subtle plaid skirt, there are so many pictures of the real life Elizabeth dressed exactly like that. She and Philip also match in this scene, as he’s in brown, but the subtle checks in his suit seem to signal his sympathies for Margaret and similar status as someone who always plays second fiddle to the queen. He’s just accepted his role finally, while Margaret still hasn’t.

The Queen and Duke of Edinburgh enjoy a picnic in Balmoral. This photo was apparently owned by author Daphne Du Maurier (Credit: Rowley’s).

Tobias Menzies and Olivia Colman in The Crown, looking ridiculously like their historical counterparts.

Helena Bonham Carter gives some of the most amazing wordless acting as she sees the queen and Philip walk out and realizes she’s not going to be allowed to represent the crown again. Her initial hope dissolves into a crushing despair and resolves into a stoic face, accepting her fate. As a child, she sobs at her vanity, as an adult, she simply takes off her pearls and eyelashes and stares hopelessly in the mirror.

Elizabeth as a girl in 1936, wearing almost the same outfit she wears as an adult (Credit: Lisa Sheridan / Getty).

Helena Bonham Carter as Princess Margaret in The Crown, wearing a plaid outfit very much like what Elizabeth wears her entire life.

The Wars of the Roses: A Timeline of Main Events

My English history obsession continues! I made this to help me teach a Richard III cast about the background and all the history references in the play! I probably went overboard, per usual, but oh well.

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I designed this timeline in Powerpoint and got it printed out at Staples as a “blueprint/architectural and engineering print.” This is SIGNIFICANTLY cheaper than printing it as a poster, and you can just buy a foam board yourself and use rubber cement to paste it on if you need it to have more stability.

I had fun trying to come with titles for this timeline:

Puns 'n' Roses: The Greatest Hits
Bunches about The War of the Roses
War of the Rose 1 2 and 3: Too Many Henrys
Budding Conflicts in Medieval England
Lancaster and York's Wild Ride
Bouquet of Death
A Rose is a Rose is a Rose and All these People are Cousins
Reasons Why Henry VIII Wanted a Son
Roses in Bloom
The War of "There Are Only Four Names in this Family"
"You'll Need Rosé to Get Through this Timeline"
Red, the Rose of Angry Lancasters, White, the Rose of Angry Yorks
Red and White and Warwick All Over
Henry Tudor Rose to the Occasion
Roses are Red; Roses are White. Richard III will kill you on sight.
A War by any other name would be just as bloody.

You can download the full file here!

I’m pretty happy with how this came out but it’s still a work in progress. Any input is appreciated! And please feel free to use this in your own theater groups or classes as needed. Please let me know if you do though, I’d love to hear about it!

Martok is a Lancatster.

My Obsessive Shakespeare English History Play Family Tree (from Richard II, Henry IVs, Henry V, Henry VIs, Richard III, AND NOW HENRY VIII))

Originally published October 21, 2019

Things I should have blogged about today: Six the Musical costumes (still working on it!), things I learned at the Emerging Writers Festival, the authors I met at the National Book Festival, TudorCon (just got back!), More #ShakespearesPlaylist

Things I actually worked on today: An overly detailed family tree of English monarchs involved in the Hundred Years’ War and the Cousins’ War (also known as the War of the Roses), as portrayed in various Shakespeare plays, including Richard II, Henry IV Part 1 and 2, Henry V, Henry VI Part 1, 2, and 3, and Richard III. This started as a way for me to sort out my own thoughts and for eventual distribution to the cast members of the Richard III production for which I’m stage managing, but it may have gotten a little too obsessive to be helpful at this point, lol.

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Updated on 10/22 to add in the Woodvilles- while not royal, they are very important! I’m going to keep editing and working on this to make it more comprehensive and also to clear up some of the more obscured names on here.

I started with the wonderful family tree over at The History of England Podcast website (Thank you very much!) and modified it in a lot of ways, erasing some descendants that aren’t mentioned in the plays or super relevant, adding in others that are, etc. I also added in various notes to indicate “who killed whom” (or was ultimately responsible for the death) according to Shakespeare and “who had an affair with whom” (according to Shakespeare or historical fact or rumor). [NOTE: a lot of these deaths and affairs are not at all confirmed in history and I am in no way saying it actually happened that way, don’t at me.]

My conclusion is that everyone’s related (thus, the cousins’ war!), no one has ANY IMAGINATION WHATSOEVER when it comes to naming, and everyone killed everyone else’s relatives in some way.

Did I miss someone important? It’s totally possible! Half of these people have the same damn names!

Shakespeare has a whole bit in Richard III Act IV Scene 4 poking a little fun at that. I’ve put in notations to indicate which one is being talked about at which point because it is DAMN CONFUSING.

Queen Margaret. (speaking to Elizabeth Woodville)
Tell o'er your woes again by viewing mine:
I had an Edward (Edward, Prince of Wales [son of Henry VI and Margaret of Anjou]), till a Richard kill'd him; (Richard, Duke of Gloucester/Richard III)
I had a Harry (Henry VI), till a Richard kill'd him: (Gloucester/R 3)
Thou hadst an Edward (Edward V [son of Edward IV and Elizabeth Woodville]), till a Richard kill'd him; (Gloucester/R 3)
Thou hadst a Richard (Richard, Duke of York [son of Edward IV’s and Elizabeth Woodville), till a Richard killed him; (Gloucester/R 3)

Duchess of York. I had a Richard too, and thou didst kill him; (Richard, Duke of York [father of Edward IV, Clarence, and Gloucester/R 3; also Duchess of York’s late husband])
I had a Rutland too, thou holp'st to kill him.

Anyway, If I DID miss someone or got something wrong in this family tree, please let me know; it would be most appreciated!

UPDATED NOVEMBER 11, 2019

I added a few more generations and cleaned up a lot of the more illegible names. : ) This goes far beyond anything mentioned in Shakespeare’s history plays, but I wanted to add in all the relevant potential heirs under Elizabeth I.

I also reformatted and cleaned it up a lot. I printed out a big copy of this and mounted it on foam-board for demonstration purposes at Richard III rehearsal. I got to teach all about the wars of the roses and history and it was so much fun. :D Please feel free to download it and use it for your own purposes! But if you do so, please comment and let me know what you’re doing with it, I’d love to know!

If you’d like to download the family tree, you can do that here.

The Alternate Costumes of Six the Musical

All My Six Posts!
Over-Analyzing All the Historical References in Six- “Ex Wives,” “No Way,” “Don’t Lose Your Head” “Heart of Stone” “Haus of Holbein” “Get Down”
The Tudor Crown Inspiration in Six’s Logo; The Tudor Fashion Elements of the Costumes in Six (with Painting References)
Six the Musical Wives 1-3: Historical and Modern Costume Inspirations; Six the Musical Wives 4-6: Historical and Modern Costume Inspirations
The Ladies in Waiting of Six: Historical Inspirations and Costumes; Details from Six Costumer Gabriella Slade’s Instagram Takeover
The Early Costumes of Six the Musical: From Edinburgh to Cambridge to London
Updated Six the Musical Costumes for Broadway!; The Shoes of Six the Musical
The Alternate Costumes of Six the Musical; How the Six Alternates Change Their Styling for Each Queen
Virtual Dance Workshops and Q&As with Different Six Cast Members!

The original primary West End cast of Six (Idil Sukan)

Because of its small cast and rabid fanbase, Six has the ability to get away with things that I’m not sure would fly in any other musical. Specifically, each alternate has their own costumes that are separate from the main Queen costumes. In other musicals and plays, it’s standard practice for alternates and understudies to wear the same costume/style of costume as the main actors, with the idea that they should blend in as much as possible. But Six encourages their alternates to stand out and online, the alternates have almost as much of a rabid fanbase as the main actresses!

An Alternate is a performer who occasionally goes on in a role to give the main performer a break. Their performances are usually scheduled. From what I can see online, it seems like each production of Six generally has 2-3 alternates that sub in regularly, primarily for two specific queens. London also has an understudy, who will only go on stage if someone is unexpectedly out, like if an actress is ill. Seems like the formal alternates also jump in as understudies if need be.

It seems like the costume designer and creators have a lot of fun with the alternate costumes, using colors and styles that don’t show up in the main queens’ outfits. None of the costumes are exact copies of any of the queens’ outfits, but they do take a lot of inspiration from them.

I’ll point out a few of the different hairstyles here, but for the most part, I plan to just talk about the different elements of the alternate costumes - which queens they came from, etc.

A TON of people on Tumblr have done more in-depth coverage and include more pictures:

Grace Mouat’s Costume- https://divorcedbeheaded.tumblr.com/post/184743930784/so-as-you-know-the-understudies-cover-all-six

A review of the black and blue alternate costumes: https://lightleckrereins.tumblr.com/tagged/six-alternates

A great overview of all the costumes: https://six-costume-refs.tumblr.com/

Various Instagram Sources: sladegabriella, camden costumes, dxntloseurhead

Let’s start with a look at the black alternate costumes. The alternates change up their hair and makeup to match each queen’s style, and it does seem that certain styles of alternate costumes are worn only with certain queens.

Mallory Maedke is currently the alternate for Boleyn, Seymour, and Howard for Six the Musical: US. As you can see in the left and middle photos, she’s clearly wearing the same or very similar costumes, but her hair is done differently. On the left, she’s going on as Jane Seymour, with the long flowing hair pulled back away from the face, without any studded accessories. I don’t know for certain who she’s playing in the picture on the right, but based on the hair and the wristbands, I’m guessing Anne Boleyn.

These alternate costumes are so interesting, because they have enough elements in common with the usual queen costumes to blend in with the style of the show, but they tend to have a few unusual touches all their own. The grommets and stripes are the most obvious common elements with the other costumes. This dress also has a skirt similar to that seen on Aragon’s, but with more panels, and it goes all the way around. The mesh is similar to that in Boleyn’s outfit and the long sleeves are similar to Seymour’s. The top of the sleeves however is a totally unique feature you don’t see in any of the main queens’ looks. They have a very strong profile and almost look like ribbon on a Christmas present.

ADDED 12/16: Liv Alexander of the Breakaway cruise cast, going on for Boleyn. LOOK at her skirt! No one else has a skirt like that! It’s got more pleats and a fuller silhouette than all the other alternate skirts (it actually looks a lot like the shape of Boleyn’s skirt) and also actually goes completely around, as opposed to the ones that open in the front. The bodice looks identical to Maedke’s above.

Left: Natalie Pilkington- (Bliss cruise alternate) as Catherine Parr.She also has similar sleeves as can be seen in the first Maedke dress. The pants look similar to Parr’s, but if there /is/ lacing on the sides, it doesn’t look near as wide apart as the lacing in Parr’s outfit usually is (although there have been slight variations from actress to actress).

Middle: Mouat and Colette Guitart (understudy, West End) - You can see the details of Mouat’s costume a lot better here - it’s very similar to Maedke’s dress, but appears to have little epaulettes, which seems evocative of castle crenelations or modern military dress. Guitart’s dress has a similar neckline and sleeves, but the top has fewer vertical stripes and more criss-crossing straps. The see through panels in the skirt are very similar to Howard’s skirt.

ADDED 01/15/2020: Natalie Pilkington again - this time as Aragon - Her skirt is a little too shiny for me to see all the details, but it looks kind of like a cross between Mouat’s and Guitart’s in the middle picture: with the cut open and shiny alternating black and white fabric stripes. The emphasized shoulders look very similar to Natalie’s Cleves outfit, but the long sleeves are different and have the really wide lacing on them, which I don’t think any other alternate’s costume has.

ADDED 11/30: Cassie Lee of the UK tour, going on for Anne of Cleves. I haven’t seen this costume before; this one looks very similar to a Vicki Manser’s turquoise Cleves outfit above, but the sleeves are connected and the shorts aren’t cut as high. The jacket’s neck is also higher and the shorts don’t have the diagonal stripes seen on Manser’s.

The next photo also shows Lee, only this time she’s going on for ARAGON [corrected 05/04/2020] (I’ve brightened it up a lot to show the details of the outfit more). This costume is really similar to Grace Mouat’s black one seen above, but there are some slight differences in the beading design of the top, plus, it’s a crop top rather than a dress. It doesn’t appear to have the epaulettes of Mouat’s dress and the material is different, less shiny and smooth and more sparkly.

ADDED 01/15/2020: Natalie Pilkington going on as Cleves - the costume looks similar to Cassie’s Cleves outfit, but with chains and separate long wrist bands instead of long sleeves.

Next - the teal/blue costumes!

Left - Vicki Manser (West End) - Anne of Cleves variation - Here’s where you can see they really started having fun with the costumes. Vicki’s shorts are kind of similar to Cleves, but higher waisted and cut differently - they’re much more classically sci-fi in their looks, particularly with that color! The jacket and top underneath are pretty much straight Cleves, complete with the fur, although the arm warmers are different than Cleves’. The criss cross straps at the type emulate those seen on Cleves and Howard.

Middle: Vicki Manser - All queens except Cleves - The shorts seem identical to the left outfit, although I can’t quite tell if the belt detail is the same; there may be epaulettes at the top? It’s hard to tell. That top though is just delightfully bizarre and totally unlike anything else. It has the shape of Boleyn’s top, with the see-through cut out of Catherine Parr’s top. The horizontal stripes aren’t visible in any of the main queen’s costumes, which all use either diagonal or vertical (or checked in Boleyn’s case).

Right: Nicole Kyoung-Mi Lambert (US) - Aragon/Parr variation – The pants are pure Parr, although the fabric strips connecting the top and the pants are very different and seem to emulate Cleves’ or Howards’ criss-cross straps on their neckline. The top is very similar to the middle Manser look (with the Boleyn style cut and sleeve tops and the Parr style see through cut out), only with the long sleeves of Seymour. It seems to have similar possible epaulettes/belt thing as the Manser look, but with more of them.

Left: Bryony Duncan (Bliss Cruise) - Boleyn- This looks almost exactly like Boleyn’s dress in silhouette, sleeves, wristbands, mesh, and skirt fullness, only the checks are diagonal instead of straight up and sideways. In addition, she has the cut out in the middle like Parr.

ADDED 01/15/2020: Middle: Bryony Duncan - Seymour - The top is similar to the one on the left, but the stripes are tilted differently, plus she has long black sleeves here. The skirt is super cool and unlike any other alternate skirt I’ve seen so far. It looks most like Jane Seymour’s skirt, but shorter and with a belt and contrasting stripes rather than stripes that blend in.

ADDED 01/15/2020: Right: Still Bryony (although doesn’t she look so different from picture to picture?) - Howard - The top is similar to the other two, but just a bit different - it looks like the collar is higher and the sleeves a bit more prominent, plus the long sleeves are blue instead of just black. The skirt is awesome and looks similar to Katherine Howard’s skirt, only with more checked fabric and contrasting stripes. In fact, the Australian Katherine Howard outfit looks JUST very similar to this one, although the Aussie skirt has checked fabric stripes running vertically as well as horizontally and is overall a bit shorter.

Left: Cherelle Jay (West End) - Dressed as Boleyn. The top seems very similar to the Duncan outfit in the middle, with all its similarities to Boleyn’s dress but the shorts has the Cleves belt and the epaulettes seen in Manser’s “all queens but Cleves” outfit.

ADDED 11/30: Right: Jennifer Caldwell of the UK tour, who primarily covers Anne Boleyn and Katherine Howard. Her top looks a lot like Bryony Duncan’s costume above, but the middle part isn’t as sheer and it looks like the neckline may be a little different. The skirt has vertical checks instead of diagonal, plus she’s got the split in the middle which isn’t present in Duncan’s.

On to the Orange costumes!

Left: Hana Stewart (West End), who alternated primarily as Jane Seymour and Catherine Parr [corrected 05/04/2020]. This top seems to be very similar to the Maedke costume at the very top of the page, only with more busy ribbons on the sleeves - the tops of these sleeves appear to have four individual sections, while the Maedke sleeve tops appear to be one accentuated cap sleeve. The middle black stripe is similar to Catherine Parr’s, but without the sheer fabric. The criss cross laces on the top and the pants appear to be reminiscent of corset laces historically.

Middle: Courtney Stapleton (West End), who alternated primarily as Jane Seymour and Catherine Parr, but also understudied all the other roles. From the hair accessories, it looks like she’s probably going on as Catherine of Aragon or Cleves. This costume looks the same as Stewart’s, except it’s missing the straps in between the top and pants.

ADDED 11/30: Right: Harriet Watson of the UK tour. Her costume is similar to Hana Stewart’s and Courtney Stapleton’s orange outfits above, but looks to have slightly different sleeve material. Plus the top isn’t a crop top. Oh, and the pants are definitely different from Stewart’s; Stewart’s pants have two thinner orange stripes and criss cross lacing , but Watson’s look to just have one big orange stripe.

These pics are from the instagram accounts of costume designer Gabriella Slade and Camden Costumes, one of the people who sew and assemble the costumes. I don’t think these costumes have been used in the show yet, as I can’t find any photos of them anywhere, but they do look really interesting and exciting for the future! The costume in the second from the right looks very similar to the shape of Catherine of Aragon’s dress, but has the checks of Boleyn. The one on the far right reminds me most of the current orange costume, with its peplum, but it has the mesh of boleyn’s costume. The belt detail seems borrowed from Cleves’ shorts.

Finally, the pink costumes!

Shekinah McFarlane (West End), who alternated primarily for Aragon and Cleves. It appears that when she stood in for Cleves though, she wore the regular costume instead of a special alternate costume. She now is Cleves on the UK Tour. This lovely opalescent pink dress has the general shape of Aragon’s dress, with the split skirt and long sleeves. The sleeve top is similar to the blue Duncan costume above, with a Jetsons sort of feel to it. The neck decoration is really interesting - I love how it continues the vertical stripe in the bodice up around the neck. Haven’t seen anything like that in the other costumes. This outfit also has a split peplum on the skirt, which feel similar to the epaulettes seen in other alternate outfits, but is different enough that it stands apart.

Zara McIntosh (West End), who alternates for Howard and Aragon. In these photos, she’s made up for Howard. It’s clearly the same or similar style dress as the one McFarlane is wearing.

I haven’t seen any other opal pink costumes but the fabric is absolutely gorgeous, so I certainly hope that changes soon!

Six the Musical Queens 4-6: Historical and Modern Costume Inspirations

All My Six Posts!
Over-Analyzing All the Historical References in Six- “Ex Wives,” “No Way,” “Don’t Lose Your Head” “Heart of Stone” “Haus of Holbein” “Get Down”
The Tudor Crown Inspiration in Six’s Logo; The Tudor Fashion Elements of the Costumes in Six (with Painting References)
Six the Musical Wives 1-3: Historical and Modern Costume Inspirations; Six the Musical Wives 4-6: Historical and Modern Costume Inspirations
The Ladies in Waiting of Six: Historical Inspirations and Costumes; Details from Six Costumer Gabriella Slade’s Instagram Takeover
The Early Costumes of Six the Musical: From Edinburgh to Cambridge to London
Updated Six the Musical Costumes for Broadway!; The Shoes of Six the Musical
The Alternate Costumes of Six the Musical; How the Six Alternates Change Their Styling for Each Queen
Virtual Dance Workshops and Q&As with Different Six Cast Members!

So I’ve gotten pretty obsessed with the musical Six lately, which is based on the lives of the six wives of Henry VIII. It’s set up as a girl group pop concert, in which the six women each sing the stories of their lives.

I’ve been dying for more information about the costumes in the show and haven’t been able to find a ton of information. The costume designer, Gabriella Slade, was nominated for an Olivier award for her work. In one article, she said:

“It was an amazing brief. There needed to be an echo of Tudor fashion, but obviously the contemporary influence of the pop industry. It’s an amazing thing to be able to infuse period costume with contemporary style. Lucy [Moss, writer] had ideas about which pop stars related to which queens. Catherine of Aragon is Beyoncé, Jane Seymour is Adele, Catherine Parr is Alicia Keys, Catherine Howard is Ariana Grande, Anne Boleyn is Lily Allen and Anne of Cleves is Nicki Minaj meets Rihanna.”

Other than that though, I haven’t been able to find a lot about her process or inspiration in designing these costumes. So I decided to look into the costumes myself. I’ll be directly comparing them to their historical counterparts and their modern pop artist inspirations.

These are all just educated guesses (based on lots and lots of reading and photo/portrait examining), but I am by no means a fashion or a pop music expert! If you have any contributions or comments, please send them my way - via the comments here, Twitter (@RachaelDickzen), Facebook (@RachaelDickzenAuthor), or email at Rachael.Dickzen@gmail.com. I’d love to hear what you have to say!

This is the second of several posts on the costumes in Six. The first post on the costumes of Wives 1-3 can be found here. The third will take a look at the alternates’ costumes! I also want to do a post looking at how the costumes evolved over time.

Historical Note: Spelling wasn’t standardized in Tudor times, so you’ll see these Queens’ names spelled a number of different ways.

Anne of Cleves, by Hans Holbein the Yougner, c. 1539. Oil and tempera on parchment mounted on canvas.

Anne of Cleves (Alexia McIntosh) in the West End production of Six, Unknown Photographer

Anne of Cleeves, ~1540s by Barthel Bruyn the Elder

Ich bin Anne of Cleves (Ja)
When he saw my portrait he was like- (Jaa)
But I didn’t look as good as I did in my pic
Funny how we all discuss that
But never Henry’s little-

Anne of Cleves (Queen from January -July 1540) has been one of the queens most maligned by Tudor Propaganda. Even today, if I refer to her, my husband asks “the one who looked like a horse” (he knows better, he just says it to mess with me because it’s such a common misconception). Here’s the thing: Henry saw a painting of Anne by Hans Holbein beforehand and liked what he saw. Holbein had been specifically instructed NOT to flatter the women in the portraits. If the portrait of Anne was indeed so inaccurate, would Henry VIII have then kept Holbein in his employment afterward? No. Thomas Cromwell lost his head over the whole Anne of Cleves incident; Henry certainly wouldn’t have kept around a junior-level painter (yes, he was junior, Holbein was never the highest paid painter in Henry’s employ. But he’s the one we all know several centuries later, so /shrug/) if he actually believed Holbein messed up so badly. In addition, everyone at the time said it was a good likeness of her.

So who was Anne? Anna von Kleve, as she was known in German, was the second daughter of a Duke in Cleves. Her father was heavily influenced by humanism and wanted to follow a moderate path toward reformation, but the family itself was unaligned religiously; her brother was a Lutheran and her mother was described as a strict Catholic. Anne was betrothed to the Duke of Lorraine at the age of 11. Though this betrothal was never fulfilled, it was later used as an excuse to annul her marriage with Henry. Henry’s chief minister Thomas Cromwell pushed Anne forward as a candidate because of her connections to Protestantism (her brother-in-law John Frederick, Elector of Saxony, was called “The Champion of the Reformation”).

Though Henry VIII later stated that Jane Seymour was his favorite wife and claimed to have mourned her fiercely, in reality, he started looking for a new wife pretty soon after her death. He sent Hans Holbein the Younger around Europe to paint pictures of numerous eligible women, including Anna and her younger sister Amalia. Holbein also painted Christina of Denmark, who famously said “If I had two heads, I would happily put one at the disposal of the King of England.”

There likely was one specific incident at the heart of Henry’s dislike of Anne. Henry was actually quite a romantic and fancied himself a chivalric knight, so in the tradition of courtly love games, he disguised himself, rode out to meet Anne early without any warning, and surprised Anne with a kiss and a gift. She had no idea who he was, didn’t know anything about this courtly love tradition, and was rather shocked and freaked out by the unknown man who tried to embrace her. She was polite, but didn’t pay much attention to him until he took off his disguise and came back in all his kingly splendor. The situation likely wounded Henry’s pride, and immediately after he tried to get the wedding called off, stating that he “liked not her looks.” It couldn’t be done without endangering their vital alliance with Anne’s family, so the wedding went forward, but the marriage only lasted about half a year (the “Flanders Mare” phrase used to describe Anne, by the way, didn’t show up in any contemporary evidence and wasn’t used in any descriptions of her until 1679).

Henry claimed the marriage was never consummated and Anne never said anything to the contrary. Henry asked for an annulment, Anne (who probably was thinking of what happened to Catherine of Aragon) consented, and in return, was given a generous settlement of numerous estates. She also was referred to as “the King’s Beloved Sister,” and was given precedence over all women in England save his own wife and daughters. Anne stayed in England for the rest of her life, outliving both Henry and his son Edward IV and living well into the reign of Mary I.

Historical inspiration: The portrait’s influence can be seen in the red color scheme and stripes present in Anne’s costume. The shape of the costume seems to pay homage to the Holbein painting as well; the crop top mirrors the belt at Anne’s waist and the puffed sleeves, gloves, and the arms peeking through emulate the length and volume of the dress’s sleeves. Even the high collar on the jacket and the criss-crossing straps on the chest seem to refer to Anne’s necklaces.

If you look carefully, this costume also features black fur, which may be a reference to Anne’s German background. Alternatively, it may just symbolize how cold it really was at the time; the English renaissance took place during a “little ice age,” after all. It was not uncommon for dresses to be lined with fur for warmth then. We know that canals and rivers (including the great Thames in London) froze frequently enough that “frost fairs” would be held on the solid ice.

Rihanna on the Diamonds World Tour

Rihanna in the What’s My Name music video

Rihanna

Modern Inspiration: The Rihanna influence is pretty apparent. Rihanna has often worn crop top and short sets, stripes, and spikes. The West End actress’s pixie cut is similar to Rihanna’s ever-changing hair, which has been cut very short several times; you can see in the photo at the top of this post that the actress in the Chicago production has her hair done in a bun which keeps it similarly close to the head.

I’ve also read interviews that say Cleves is also loosely inspired by Nicki Minaj; I’ve included some Nicki pictures that show her in shorts and spikes, just like Cleves.

The song itself actually reminds me much more of Fancy by Iggy Azalea than any of Rihanna’s songs, but the background music, style, and vocal range of “Get Down” definitely share a lot of elements with Rihanna’s R&B style. The lyrics are absolutely packed with pop culture references. The chorus is based on the classic children’s rhyme of “King of the Castle” (which goes back to at least 1850), which adds a fun touch of playfulness to the musical. It’s also a classic hip hop song in its use of the braggadocio style to focus on how awesome Anne of Cleves and her life is. I feel like we don’t hear as many bragging songs about women as we do about men so contextually, it’s very empowering. She also drops her own name (the German “Anna of Cleves”) over the very end of the song, which is another hip-hop trope popular in braggadocio that has been more recently picked up by pop artists (see: 2 Chainz, Nicki Minaj, Usher, Britney Spears, Jason Derulo). This song also cleverly references Beyonce’s Formation (“Come on Ladies, let’s get in Reformation”) and Kanye West’s Gold Digger (“I ain’t sayin’ I’m a gold digger, but check my prenup and go figure”).

I actually didn’t really like this song in Six for a long time, as it didn’t seem to fit with the “telling the story of each wife” structure of the musical. While writing this post though, I read an internet comment that described “Get Down” as a celebration of Cleves’ annulment and freedom from Henry. THAT is a really interesting idea and I like it quite a lot, although I think it could have been made clearer in the song. The non-linear structure of the song means you hear a LOT about how happy her life is and how awesome she is before you hear about all the estates and money she got from Henry as part of the annulment, which explains /why/. Nevertheless, the song is really feminist, as Cleves takes back the narrative, so she’s no longer the “ugly wife” in the story, but the lucky woman who survived Henry and went on to live a happy, full, and rich life.

Accessories Note: Only two queens in the musical have crown-like spikes in their hair, Catherine of Aragon and Anne of Cleves. This may be because their historical counterparts were royal /before/ marrying Henry VIII.

Nicki Minaj at the 2017 CFDA/Vogue Fashion Fund Awards in custom Alexander Wang (Getty Images)

Nicki Minaj

Nicki Minaj at the 2013 Billboard Music Awards in Frankie Morello

Portrait of a Lady, perhaps Katherine Howard, circa 1540, watercolour on vellum, by Hans Holbein the Younger

Katherine Howard (Aimie Atkinson), Photo by Idil Sukan.

Portrait of a lady, probably a member of the Cromwell Family (formerly identified as Catherine Howard), ~1535-1540, oil on panel, By Hans Holbein

Prick up your ears,
I’m the Katherine who lost her head
For my promiscuity outside of wed-
Lock up your husbands
Lock up your sons
K Howard is here
And the fun’s begun

Catherine Howard (Queen from July 1540-November 1541) was a member of the illustrious aristocratic Howard family and Anne Boleyn’s first cousin. Her immediate family however, was not wealthy and her father often had to beg for handouts from his rich relatives. Her mother had five children with her first husband and then had another six with Catherine’s father; as one of the youngest children, Catherine was likely not her parents’ top priority.

After her mother’s death when Catherine was about 5 years old, she was sent to live with her father’s stepmother, the Dowager Duchess of Norfolk, along with several of her siblings. Although it was common for noble families to send their children to be trained in other noble households, the Dowager Duchess’s household was somewhat notoriously lax and undisciplined. It is reported that the children there ran a little wild; several of the older girls there entertained male visitors in the girls’ dormitory at night, receiving gifts in return.

Catherine could read and write but was not as well educated as many of Henry’s other wives. She was apparently quite vivacious and giggly. At age 13, her 36-year-old music teacher Henry Mannox molested her repeatedly. Once she was moved to a different house at 15, she allegedly took Francis Dereham (who was at least 28), one of the Duchess’s secretaries, as her lover. They referred to each other as husband and wife and Catherine kept track of Dereham’s money for him while he was away on business. This relationship was apparently common knowledge among many of the Duchess’s maids of honor and attendants. However, the Dowager Duchess of Norfolk put a stop to it when she discovered it.

Later, her uncle, the influential Duke of Norfolk Thomas Howard, obtained a place for her in Anne of Cleves’ household, where she served as a lady-in-waiting. Henry met her there and became a bit infatuated, claiming he had never known her “like to any woman” and giving her great gifts of land and expensive cloth. He called her his “very jewel of womanhood,” but the story that he called her “his rose without a thorn” is likely a myth. She married Henry less than a month after his marriage to Anne was annulled. We don’t know her exact age, but she was around 16-17 and Henry was 49, which was pretty elderly for the time. At this time in his life, Henry was obese and had developed very painful ulcers on his legs; he had a bad temper and often took it out on his councilors.

 Unlike the baseless claims for Anne Boleyn’s “affairs,” Catherine Howard’s sexual activities both before and during her marriage are pretty well documented. She became involved with one of Henry’s favorite courtiers Thomas Culpeper, who called her “my little sweet fool” in his love letters. Catherine’s lady-in-waiting Jane Boleyn, Lady Rochford (George Boleyn’s widow), apparently assisted with their secret meetings throughout a royal progress. At the same time, people who knew of the situations with Dereham and Mannox began to blackmail her for her silence; she may have appointed some of these to her royal household. Update: I have read into this even more in recent years since writing this post and the evidence for Catherine Howard’s adultery is actually much thinner than I previously realized. It was pretty common for people to write extremely flowery letters expressing over the top love to their friends at the time. Sure, it’s still more evidence than actually existed against Anne Boleyn, but that’s really not saying much.

It was really through behind the scenes rumors and gossiping that Catherine met her downfall. Allegedly, a fairly random man named John Lascelles tried to get his sister Mary to work for the Queen, but she refused, saying she knew of Catherine’s sexual activities when they both lived together in the Duchess’s household. Lascelles reported this to the Archbishop of Canterbury Thomas Cranmer, who spoke to Mary Lascelles and Lady Rochford while pursuing a case against Catherine. His investigation turned up a love letter from the Queen in Culpeper’s chambers. Henry was probably unaware of the entire situation until he received a warrant of her arrest.

Catherine refused to admit that there was a precontract between her and Francis Dereham, even though that precontract would have terminated her marriage to Henry and possibly saved her life. She was imprisoned in Syon Abbey (which her ghost supposedly haunts to this day). Culpeper and Dereham were both executed; the noble Culpeper by beheading and the commoner Dereham by being hanged, drawn, and quartered. Catherine was later beheaded.

Historical Inspiration: To start off, there’s no evidence that Catherine Howard actually ever sat for a portrait and although many portraits have been identified as her traditionally, there are no authenticated versions. On the Tudor Trail wrote a really interesting blog post about it here. However, the two I’ve shared here are some of the most commonly attributed to be her, so if any inspiration came from a historical portrait of her, it was likely one of these.

However, I’ve had trouble finding really any historical elements or inspiration in this costume. Nothing seems to indicate any clothing or accessories from that period at all, except perhaps the somewhat square shaped neckline and the grommeting, which mirrors the beading in the portraits.

UPDATED 01/15/2020: Holy cow, how did I miss this until now? The open front skirt and the contrasting skirts around it are in retrospect, a pretty obvious style reference to the classic Tudor dress look where a kirtle (underskirt) was layered under a contrasting overdress. This isn’t too obvious in a lot of the six wives’ portraits, but you can totally see it in this portrait of Princess Elizabeth (future Elizabeth I).

Howard is the only main queen that has this style of skirt (Aragon does too, but hers blends in with the rest of her gold and black and isn’t a distinctly contrasting color), but a LOT of the alternate costumes have this look.

Ariana Grande on her 2015 Honeymoon Tour. Photo: Getty

Britney Spears at the 2003 American Music Awards.
Photo: Ron Wolfson/WireImage

Ariana Grande at the 2014 Victoria’s Secret Fashion Show. Photo: Getty

Modern Inspiration: The overall feel of Catherine’s look and song seems to be sexy but really young and naive, which is reflected in the youthful color scheme, hairstyle, and accessories (chokers are very “in” right now). The contrast between the long sleeves and the crop top could be read to signify that she doesn’t necessarily want to be the “sexy” one, but as it’s the only way she’s ever gotten attention or power, it’s what she knows.

The bottom of the outfit is clearly based off of one of Ariana Grande’s signature looks. I could honestly have included about 5 more photos of Grande wearing a similar high-waisted hot pants + skirt flaps, as they are EVERYWHERE. Britney Spears has also been cited as an influence on this character as well; the top is definitely similar to Spears’ 2003 AMA outfit, particularly in the long sleeves, color scheme, and complicated neck decorations.

The hair is also quite clearly based off of Ariana Grande’s signature look. Grande had to bleach and dye her hair intensely for three years while playing a character on a TV show and apparently it really messed up her hair, so for a while, a ponytail was the only look that really worked for her. She continues to wear it that way pretty often. The high pony and pink tips emphasizes how young and naive Catherine was and how much that affected her decisions and life. Britney Spears also wore her hair in ponytails/pigtails a lot when she was very new in her career, so it also ties into the “pop princess” feel of Catherine.

“All You Wanna Do” is a classic pop princess song that sounds a lot like Britney Spears. In particular, it has a really similar melody “If You Seek Me,” and shares a similar theme of “everyone sees me as a sex symbol” (although the song from Six is much darker). It’s the one I’ve seen reviewers cite most often as one of their favorites, I think because it’s such a perfect match of song style to character. Many pop stars started out as young, naive teenagers just like Catherine Howard and quickly found themselves in over their head as they were endlessly sexualized by society and by the people around them. The end of the song also defies the expectations set out by the braggadocio beginning - “I think we can all agree I’m the ten amongst these threes…And ever since I was a child I made the boys go wild” with the overwhelmed and desperate “I thought this time was different, Why did I think he’d be different, But it’s never, ever different.”

Accessories Note: It appears from photos that the only two queens in the show with choker necklaces/choker style necklines are Anne Boleyn and Katherine Howard, who were both beheaded. True, their historical portraits also contained chokers, but if you look closely, you’ll realize that ALL of the queen’s historical portraits shows them wearing choker-like necklaces (I guess the look was just really popular then?), so the decision to have only Boleyn and Howard wear them seems pretty deliberate. The two women were also cousins and are the only queens to sport their initials on their necklaces. While Anne’s “B” is in her historical portrait, I think Katherine’s “H” symbolizes her familial connection to Anne Boleyn and their similar downfalls and deaths.

Katherine Parr, by an Unknown artist. Oil on Panel, late 16th century.

Catherine Parr (Maiya Quansah-Breed - West End)

Catherine Parr (Anna Uzele - Chicago) (Photo by Liz Lauren)

Catherine Parr, seventeenth-century copy of a sixteenth-century original

Five down, I’m the final wife
I saw him to the end of his life
I’m the survivor, Catherine Parr
I bet you wanna know how I got this far

Catherine Parr (Queen from 1543-1547) was Henry VIII’s last Queen and the last queen consort of the House of Tudor. She holds the record for the most-married English queen and had four husbands in her life.

Catherine was actually the daughter of one of Katherine of Aragon’s ladies-in-waiting, Maud Parr, and Katherine herself served as her godmother. She was highly educated and fluent in French, Latin, and Italian. She married Sir Edward Burgh when she was 17; he died four years later.

Her second husband, John Neville, Baron Latimer, was twice her age and a strong supporter of the Catholic church. He opposed Henry VIII’s first annulment and marriage to Anne Boleyn. However, when Catholic rebels rose against the king in 1536, they threatened violence unless Latimer joined them. Catherine and her step-children lived alone without Lord Latimer for many months, during which time they were taken hostage. The rebels ransacked their house and sent word to Lord Latimer that if he did not return immediately, they would kill his family. Fortunately, he successfully talked the rebels into releasing his family and letting them leave. Latimer later had to formally condemn the rebels and submit to the king’s clemency to ensure that he would not be found guilty of treason. This damaged Latimer’s reputation and forced the family to stay away from the royal court for many years; he was later blackmailed by Henry’s chief minister Thomas Cromwell and forced to do his bidding. However, after Cromwell’s death, the family was able to return to London. This is when Catherine became acquainted with her future fourth husband, Sir Thomas Seymour.

After the death of Lord Latimer, Catherine joined Lady/Princess Mary’s household, where she attracted the king’s attention. Although Catherine had become romantically involved with Seymour, when Henry proposed, she accepted. Henry then conveniently gave Seymour a job which moved him to Brussels. During their marriage, Catherine became close to all three of Henry’s children. She was also the second of Henry’s queens to rule as regent while he was away in France on campaign (the first was Katherine of Aragon).

However, Catherine held strong Protestant views that several Catholic officials viewed with suspicion. She sometimes debated religious issues with Henry, to the king’s annoyance. Though some of Henry’s officials tried to turn the king against Catherine and get her arrested, Catherine managed to see the arrest warrant beforehand and reconciled with the King by vowing that she had only argued with him about religion to take his mind off the pain from his ulcerous leg. The following day, an armed guard tried to arrest her while she was with the King, but Henry dismissed him angrily. In her life, she wrote and published three religious books: Psalms (anonymously) “Prayers or Meditations” (the first book published by an English queen under her own name), and “The Lamentation of a Sinner.”

Only six months after Henry’s death, Catherine secretly married Seymour (who had already proposed or made advances to Princess/Lady Mary and Princess/Lady Elizabeth because he was a gigantic cad). Seymour later was known to make several inappropriate physical advances toward the 13-year-old Princess Elizabeth while she was living with him and Catherine; Catherine eventually had to send her away. Again, he was a gigantic cad. After Catherine died, Thomas Seymour tried to kidnap the young king Edward and shot his dog in the process. He was beheaded for this, naturally.

ANYWAY - back to the story at hand. King Edward VI (Henry’s young son) and the ruling council were not informed of Catherine’s marriage to Seymour for several months. Once it became common knowledge, everyone was pretty annoyed at the quick and secretive marriage; they were publicly censured and reprimanded by the ruling council and both the king and Lady/Princess Mary were vocal in their disapproval of the union. Somewhat surprisingly, given that she had not conceived during her first three marriages, the 35-year-old Catherine became pregnant by Seymour. However, she died a few days after giving birth to a daughter, Mary Seymour. Mary doesn’t show up in records past a certain point, which makes historians believe she died before she was two.

Historical Inspiration: Parr’s costume in Six has a few elements in common with her historical portrait; the inspiration is particularly obvious in the puffy sleeves, stripes, high collar, and highly visible shirt cuffs. The spiked hairband seems to emulate the beaded hood in the portrait. In addition, both actress’s hair is voluminous in a way that is loosely reminiscent of the feather on the hat in the portrait.

Catherine Parr is the only queen to wear pants in the show. This may refer to Parr’s forward-thinking, powerful views and her unusual outspokenness, as she’s literally wearing “the pants.” Additionally, Parr’s feather-topped beret in her portrait was of a style also commonly worn by men; I don’t believe any of the other queens are painted wearing any similarly androgynous style. I imagine the pants could also be pointing to that. The laces in the pants are probably a tongue-in-cheek reference to the lacings on renaissance women’s dresses and corsets.

I’ve shared both the West End and the Chicago versions of the costume here because I couldn’t find a good performance photo from the West End. As you can see, though the costumes are similar, there are a few key differences, most obvious in the amount of skin shown.

Modern Inspiration: Alicia Keys commonly wears pants and tops with voluminous sleeves. She’s also been seeing wearing stripes on numerous occasions. The blue in Parr’s costume could also refer to Alicia Keys’ R&B style, which stands for “Rhythm & Blues.”

 The song itself “I Don’t Need Your Love” is stylistically very classic R&B, with smooth, lush vocals laid over synthesizer chords. The verses overall are more conversational and longer than in many of the other queens’ songs. The use of “boy” in the lyrics also is reminiscent of many R&B songs, particularly Alicia Keys’ “Diary.”

It appears that the beginning verse actually is speaking to Thomas Seymour, who Catherine loved; however, when the king proposed, she pretty much had to accept him, so her marriage to Seymour was delayed for several years. Thus, the first chorus of “I don’t need your love, no, no” is her trying to talk herself into letting Seymour go, the second chorus is her imagining what she’d say to Henry VIII if she was able to actually refuse, and the final chorus is her joining with the other queens to state that they are people in their own right who don’t need Henry or his love, which brings the musical toward its end in a strongly feminist way.

Photo: Getty

Photo: Kevin Winter / Getty

So that’s it for now! I plan to write future blog posts on the alternates’ costumes and on how the costumes have evolved and changed over time. : ) Thanks!

Six the Musical Queens 1-3: Historical and Modern Costume Inspirations

All My Six Posts!
Over-Analyzing All the Historical References in Six- “Ex Wives,” “No Way,” “Don’t Lose Your Head” “Heart of Stone” “Haus of Holbein” “Get Down”
The Tudor Crown Inspiration in Six’s Logo; The Tudor Fashion Elements of the Costumes in Six (with Painting References)
Six the Musical Wives 1-3: Historical and Modern Costume Inspirations; Six the Musical Wives 4-6: Historical and Modern Costume Inspirations
The Ladies in Waiting of Six: Historical Inspirations and Costumes; Details from Six Costumer Gabriella Slade’s Instagram Takeover
The Early Costumes of Six the Musical: From Edinburgh to Cambridge to London
Updated Six the Musical Costumes for Broadway!; The Shoes of Six the Musical
The Alternate Costumes of Six the Musical; How the Six Alternates Change Their Styling for Each Queen
Virtual Dance Workshops and Q&As with Different Six Cast Members!

So I’ve gotten pretty obsessed with the musical Six lately, which is based on the lives of the six wives of Henry VIII. It’s set up as a girl group pop concert, in which the six women each sing the stories of their lives.

I’ve been dying for more information about the costumes in the show and haven’t been able to find a ton of information. The costume designer, Gabriella Slade, was nominated for an Olivier award for her work. In one article, she said:

“It was an amazing brief. There needed to be an echo of Tudor fashion, but obviously the contemporary influence of the pop industry. It’s an amazing thing to be able to infuse period costume with contemporary style. Lucy [Moss, writer] had ideas about which pop stars related to which queens. Catherine of Aragon is Beyoncé, Jane Seymour is Adele, Catherine Parr is Alicia Keys, Catherine Howard is Ariana Grande, Anne Boleyn is Lily Allen and Anne of Cleves is Nicki Minaj meets Rihanna.”

Other than that though, I haven’t been able to find a lot about her process or inspiration in designing these costumes. So I decided to look into the costumes myself. I’ll be directly comparing them to their historical counterparts and their modern pop artist inspirations.

These are all just educated guesses (based on lots and lots of reading and photo/portrait examining), but I am by no means a fashion or a pop music expert! If you have any contributions or comments, please send them my way - via the comments here, Twitter (@RachaelDickzen), Facebook (@RachaelDickzenAuthor), or email at Rachael.Dickzen@gmail.com. I’d love to hear what you have to say!

This will be the first of several posts on the costumes in Six. Second post will be Wives 4-6 and the Third will take a look at the alternates’ costumes! I also want to do a post looking at how the costumes evolved over time.

Historical Note: Spelling wasn’t standardized in Tudor times, so you’ll see these Queens’ names spelled a number of different ways.

Portrait of a noblewoman, traditionally considered Catherine of Aragon c. 1502 (but also could be Mary Tudor), by Michael Sittow.

Catherine of Aragon, portrayed by Jarneia Richard-Noel. (Idil Sukan)

My name is Catherine of Aragon
Was married 24 years, I'm a paragon
Of royalty, my loyalty is to the Vatican
So if you try to dump me
You won't try that again

Unknown artist, oil on panel, early 18th century (copy of a lost original portrait)

Catherine of Aragon was a Spanish princess, the youngest child of the famous Ferdinand and Isabella (yes, the same ones who sent Christopher Columbus out on his fun genocidal adventure, but THAT’S another blog post). She was Queen of England from June 1509 - May 1533.

She was betrothed to Henry’s older brother Arthur, Prince of Wales, when she was three years old and married him when they were both 16. However, he died in 1502, only a few months after they married.
What movies/TV shows don’t often tell you about Catherine of Aragon was that she had a HELL of a hard time after Arthur died (The Spanish Princess on Starz got a /bit/ into this, but didn’t fully explore the length of this time in her life. Henry was TEN when she married his brother). By the terms of her marriage contract, if she returned home to Spain, King Henry VII had to return her 200,000 ducat dowry (half of which he hadn’t even received yet). King Henry was broke and totally couldn’t afford this. He briefly considered marrying her himself (after his wife Elizabeth of York died in 1503 after trying to give him another son to replace Arthur), but eventually it was decided that she would marry Henry, Duke of York. However, he was five years younger than her, so they had to wait for him to grow up. His father also continually delayed their marriage. For the next seven years, Catherine lived in near-poverty in London, trapped between her father and her father-in-law. She had to sell many of her goods to survive and was not often seen at court due to the shabbiness of her clothes.

She finally married Henry after his father’s death and his ascension to the throne in 1509. They were married for the next 24 years and for many years, they appeared to be quite in love. Catherine got pregnant seven times but most of her children either miscarried or stillborn; only three survived the birth, and only one, Princess Mary, survived past two months of life. Catherine was always known as a highly intelligent and religious woman, but as more and more of her children died, she became increasingly devout and more interested in academic matters, particularly in ensuring the education of her daughter.
After Henry became obsessed with Anne Boleyn and his all-consuming desire to have a son, he attempted to get his marriage to Catherine annulled on the basis that she was his brother’s wife first. He also asked Catherine to retire to a nunnery. She steadfastly refused all efforts to put her aside and maintained until her death that she was Henry’s rightful queen and wife. Because of her stubbornness, Henry moved her out of his household and into increasingly shabbier and more isolated homes. He also refused to let her see her daughter, Mary. By the time she died in 1535 (probably of cancer), she likely had not seen her daughter for three or so years.

Catherine’s daughter Mary eventually became England’s first queen regnant and ruled the country for five years.

Historical Influences: The costume has some pretty direct homages to Catherine of Aragon’s portrait as a young woman. You can see that in the gold chains and gold grommeting around the collar, the square neckline, and the overall color scheme of the costume. In addition, Catherine somewhat famously had auburn hair, which is clearly shown in at least this actress’s hair. There are fewer similarities to her second portrait, but I’ve included it anyway. This portrait too, though, features a dark dress with a square neckline and touches of gold. The gold throughout the Six costume could also be referencing the wealth of Spain and her royal credentials.

Beyonce at the 2017 Grammys (Getty Images for NARAS)

Beyonce at the Super Bowl 2016 (Christopher Polk/Getty Images)

Beyonce in 2018 (Kevin Mazur/Getty Images)

Pop Culture Influences: The character of Catherine is supposed to be inspired by Beyonce, which comes across pretty clearly in her song “No Way.” Stylistically, it fits with Beyonce’s more melodic songs (like “Irreplaceable,” below), and content-wise, the righteous anger throughout reminds me a lot of some of the songs on the brilliant “Lemonade” album (see “Sorry”).

I also think you can see hints of Beyonce in the costume - particularly in the gold “crown” in her hair. The character’s hair (which appears to be a wig, from videos and photos I’ve seen) is very similar to Beyonce’s, albeit shorter (it does appear that the character’s hair started out a lot longer and then was cut down in both volume and length over time). In addition, the overall cut and strong silhouette of the outfit really seems influenced by Beyonce’s style.

I did find a video in which one of the Aragon actresses said she considered Shakira an inspiration for the character as well, but I’m not really finding any Shakira outfits that are similar to this costume at all. I’m guessing that’s really more of a musical inspiration, as there is a definite Latin beat to Aragon’s song, which represents her Spanish heritage.

Accessories Note: Only two queens in the musical have crown-like spikes in their hair, Catherine of Aragon and Anne of Cleves. This may be because their historical counterparts were royal /before/ marrying Henry VIII.

Anne Boleyn, by Unknown English Artist, oil on panel, late 16th century, based on a work of circa 1533-1536

Anne Boleyn, portrayed by Millie O’Connell. (Photographer Unknown)

Portrait of a Lady, thought to be Anne Boleyn, by Hans Holbein

I’m that Boleyn girl
And I’m up next, see
I broke England from the Church
Yeah, I’m that sexy
Why did I lose my head?
Well, my sleeves may be green
But my lipstick’s red.

Anne Boleyn - Henry’s second wife (who was queen from May 1533- May 1536) is probably the most well-known and notorious, as she was the victim of a vicious propaganda campaign that has lasted for so long that even well-educated people these days will refer to her as a whore. And honestly, I think you can see a lot of that propaganda even in her song from Six, which characterizes Anne as “just tryin’ to have some fun,” which is in my opinion, tremendously unfair to the brilliant woman she really was. I will write a FULL TED TALK LECTURE worth of opinions for a blog post later, but I should probably give you a brief overview so we can talk about the costumes now, yeah? (Note: I have not had the opportunity to see the full show yet , so my posts are just based on the costumes and songs. I’ve been advised that the dialogue provides a much more fleshed out, non-stereotypical view of Anne. I’m seeing it on Broadway in February and may then come back and update my posts!)

Anne Boleyn was Henry’s first English wife, the daughter of a highly respected diplomat and a noble lady from the Howard family (the daughter of the Duke of Norfolk). She was by no means a “commoner,” but she certainly wasn’t a princess like Catherine of Aragon. Anne was considered so precocious and talented that at age 12 (or possibly younger!), she was invited to join the court of Margaret of Austria. In her youth, she also was a maid of honor to Mary Tudor, the new Queen of France, and Queen Claude, the even newer Queen of France (Maids of Honor were young, unmarried noblewomen who attended on women of higher rank). Here, Anne was almost certainly exposed to the ideas of both Renaissance humanism and courtly love (which I’ll explain more in a later post, but didn’t actually involve any physical love), which influenced a lot of her later actions and words.

Anne was recalled to England to marry a cousin to settle a land dispute, but this plan fell through. She went on to the English court to serve Catherine of Aragon and became known as a tremendously charming, intelligent, and quick-witted woman. Henry VIII began pursuing Anne in 1526, but we know from his love letters to her throughout their seven-year courtship that their affair remained unconsummated for a very long time. Both Henry and Anne assumed that his marriage could be annulled fairly easily, as the Pope had granted annulments to several Kings in the past without much fuss. However, Catherine’s connections to the Holy Roman Emperor Charles (her nephew) ensured that this did not happen, and Henry would eventually have to break with the Catholic Church and form the Church of England to get his longed-for annulment. By the that time, most of England and Europe hated Anne and called her a whore. A mob of Londoners actually attacked her during dinner once; she barely got away.

Henry and Anne did eventually get married, after she was already pregnant with the future Princess Elizabeth. By all accounts, she was a doting mother and frequently visited her daughter (and thus, I’m pretty annoyed that Anne’s song in Six literally doesn’t even mention Elizabeth, even though Aragon’s and Seymour’s songs mention their kids). Anne was paranoid for her safety and the safety of her child, and when Henry began pursuing other women at court, she lost her temper at the king publicly several times. Her anger at seeing Henry with Jane Seymour may have led to her final miscarriage.

It’s a bit unclear who actually orchestrated Anne’s downfall - it may have been Henry’s chief minister Thomas Cromwell (although there were numerous sloppy mistakes in the falsified evidence, which seems too careless for Cromwell, IMO). But in the end, Anne would be tried and convicted of high treason due to adultery with five men, including her own brother. All six of the accused were arrested and executed in late April- mid-May 1536. There’s really no evidence supporting any of the charges and historians widely believe that the charges were completely manufactured.

In a final fuck you from the grave though, Anne’s daughter Elizabeth I would ultimately become one of England’s greatest monarchs. She reigned for over 40 years in a golden age of progress and led England to becoming a great world power.

Historical Inspiration: The historical inspiration for this costume is more subtle, but you can still see a few touches. The beading in Anne’s dress is reflected in the silver grommets in the modern costume. The actress also has Anne’s famous dark hair and eyes. Her blush even looks like it might be applied to match Anne’s? And of course, there’s the giant “B” necklace. The green of the costume appears to be tied to the legend that Henry VIII wrote “Greensleeves” about Anne, which is referenced several times in the musical’s soundtrack.

Kate Nash

Lily Allen (PA Images)

Avril Lavigne

Pop Culture Inspirations: Anne is supposed to be inspired by Lily Allen, Avril Lavigne, and Kate Nash (per Millie O’Connell, an early originator of the role). The Lily Allen influence is most obvious in Anne’s song “Don’t Lose Ur Head,” which has the same sort of sassy wit and obvious non-posh British accent usually found in Lily Allen’s work. I’m guessing the use of this accent in the song is meant to refer to Anne’s “commoner” status; although she was from a good family, she wasn’t a Spanish princess! (And yes, that could just be the actress’s natural accent, but I’m sure they would have had her sing with a less emphasized accent if they didn’t want it in the story).

The Lily Allen fashion influence seems to come across in the dress silhouette. The punky checks are reminiscent of outfits commonly worn by both Kate Nash and Avril Lavigne (and also can honestly be seen worn by many female artists with a “punk” style, like Gwen Stefani or Pink). The wrist covers are a common punk fashion element as well.

The hair is more confusing though; I couldn’t find any photographs of the stated influences for Anne wearing double buns. However, double buns are pretty popular among young stars that go to Coachella; the real life Anne had a reputation for being very fashionable, so it’s possible this is a reference to that.

Apparently the green hair accessories shown in this photo have been replaced with leather and spikes. Anne’s costume is the only one that exposes the shoulders and a significant amount of arm.

Accessories Note: It appears from photos that the only two queens in the show with choker necklaces/choker style necklines are Anne Boleyn and Katherine Howard, who were both beheaded. They were also cousins and are the only queens to sport their initials on their necklaces.

Left: Kendall Jenner (Credit: Madison McGaw / BFA.com)
Right: Chiara Ferragni (Credit: Ari Perilstein / Getty)

Jane Seymour, Queen of England. Oil on Wood. 1536, by Hans Holbein.

Jane Seymour, portrayed by Natalie Paris. (Photographer Unknown)

Jane Seymour, from “The Family of Henry VIII” c. 1543-1547. Unknown artist, after Holbein. Hampton Court Palace.

Jane Seymour, the only one he truly loved
(Rude.)
When my son was newly born
I died, but I’m not what I seem?
Or am I?
Stick around and you’ll
Suddenly see more

Jane Seymour was Henry VIII’s third wife and Queen of England from 1536-1537. She was his second English born spouse and the daughter of a courtier who was knighted by Henry VII. She had a much more traditional woman’s education than either Catherine of Aragon or Anne Boleyn and though she could read and write, she was better at household management and needlework. She was from a large family, which may have contributed to Henry’s interest in her, as presumably, she was as fertile as her mother.

Jane was definitely a maid of honor to Catherine of Aragon as of 1532, but may had been serving her for several years before that. She then went on to serve Anne Boleyn. The first reports of Henry courting Jane are from February 1536, about three months before Anne’s execution and indicate that Jane had rejected a gift from Henry. In March, he sent her another gift; she responded by saying that she had “nothing in the world but her honour, which she would not wound for a thousand deaths.” Jane eventually did accept a small portrait of the king, which she wore on a necklace. Henry had given a similar present to Anne during their courtship; it’s reported that Anne snatched the necklace from Jane’s throat when she saw it.

in April 1536, Jane’s brother and sister-in-law moved into Thomas Cromwell’s former chambers in Greenwich, which were connected to Henry’s apartments by a secret passage. Henry visited her there with her family as chaperones. Jane was kept away from court during Anne’s trial, but was betrothed to Henry only a day after Anne was executed. They were married within two weeks.

She had well-publicized sympathies with Catherine of Aragon and Princess Mary and took efforts to reunite Henry with both of his daughters. She was praised by various ambassadors and courtiers as being very gentle, peaceful, and meek (basically the polar opposite of Catherine of Aragon and Anne Boleyn).
Jane Seymour became pregnant in early spring 1537 and gave birth to Prince Edward on October 12. Later that day, she reportedly was sitting up in bed writing letters and received guests on the day of Edward’s Christening. However, she fell ill and passed away on October 24. It’s believed she died of puerperal fever, an infection that can occur after childbirth.

Henry wore black for months after Jane’s death and did not remarry until 1540. Years later, when a family portrait was painted for Henry VIII, the painting included Jane Seymour, her son Edward, and his daughters Mary and Elizabeth. When he died in 1547, he was buried next to Jane’s grave on his request.

Historical Influences: I’m not seeing much of an homage to Seymour’s portrait here, aside from slight similarities in the neckline and necklace line. Jane’s character is depicted with the longest skirt by far, which may be a reference to her meek reputation. She also has the heavy grommets seen in the other costumes, but in silver, rather than in gold. The white in the costume may refer to her peace-making efforts. Jane’s dress also has strong armor vibes, although I’m a bit unclear on what that could refer to.
UPDATE: Since I wrote this post initially, the designer has confirmed that Jane Seymour’s costume is heavily influenced by Tudor architecture. I’ve added in an example of a Tudor style house below.

Tudor House, Southampton

Lady Gaga in her music video for “Telephone”

Adele (Credit: Kevin WInter / Getty)

Pop Culture Influences: Adele, Sia, and Lady Gaga have been listed as inspiration for Jane Seymour in Six. Jane’s power ballad “Heart of Stone” has a definite Adele power ballad feel to it. The piano background is reminiscent of numerous Adele and Lady Gaga songs. The high whistle notes part at the end is a bit more Mariah Carey than any of these singers though, IMO; Gaga and Sia are both known for high /belting/ at the end of songs, but that’s not quite the same.

Adele is known for wearing a LOT of black (in one interview, she said she sometimes goes out wearing color and people don’t recognize her) and she often goes for long sleeves and classic silhouettes that emphasize her hourglass figure, just like Jane’s costume. Sia uses black and white in her wigs and costumes on a pretty regular basis.

I initially thought I’d have trouble finding Lady Gaga inspirations, but the prison dress outfit from the Telephone music video definitely seems similar to Jane’s strong black and white stripes ensemble, plus they both share that trademark light blonde hair. Jane’s pulled back hair with volume seems like a pretty clear Adele reference as well.

Accessories Note: Earlier photos of Jane show that her costume used to incorporate a black leather hair piece with little silver spikes, but that appears to have been removed at this point.