I Saw Six on Broadway! — Rachael Dickzen

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Over-Analyzing All the Historical References in Six- “Ex Wives,” “No Way,” “Don’t Lose Your Head” “Heart of Stone” “Haus of Holbein” “Get Down”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!

Here are some of my scattered initial observations and thoughts on finally seeing Six, which i will clean up and organize and format more formally later (the square space app is buggy when it comes to formatting with bullets and photos) when I’m less tired and less sick (yayyy having a cold).

Me with my friends Arielle, Hannah, and Sarah, about to go see Six!

I loosely dressed up as Historical Anne Boleyn for the show, wearing a square necked black blouse, black skirt and leggings, and a replica “B” necklace. I paid homage to the show version by putting my hair in space buns and wearing sparkly green eyeshadow and red lipstick. There were LOTS of people there with space buns, haha.
My friends and I bought Disney Princess crowns at the Times Square Disney store before the show and wore them for several hours and it was SO much fun. People repeatedly assumed we were a bachelorette party or that one of us was celebrating a birthday. I went in as the obsessed fan with my friends Sarah (who had listened to the soundtrack previously) , and Arielle and Hannah (who both deliberately went in blind). It was utterly delightful to watch their faces as they discovered this show and all the wonderful wordplay throughout it.
Before the show, “Joan” on the keyboard was playing covers of modern pop songs on the harpsichord setting, so it sounded all old school. I distinctly heard Lizzo’s “Truth Hurts” and Camilla Cabello’s “Havana” and there were many others in there as well that I couldn’t figure out.
The Brooks Atkinson Theater is GORGEOUS and super colorfully decorated.
The line to get into the matinee for people who already had tickets literally wrapped around the block, so my friends and I used the opportunity to grab a quick bite to eat at Pret a Manger and use the restroom there before jumping in the (now moving) line at like, 2:45 for the 3 pm show. We didn’t see any benefit to standing outside in the cold waiting for a super long time. This ended up working really well and has the bonus of being an Anne Boleyn line!
Right before the show started, they flashed lights in the shapes of Tudor roses all around the auditorium!
Jane Seymour gave me MAJOR Celine Dion vibes, and this actress had a slightly different twist on it than the soundtrack. She did her high whistly notes earlier in the song rather than at the end.
it sounds like the actresses are all using American accents except where the rhyme NEEDS a British accent.
like, this is obvious, but The choreography and acting add SOOO much to the songs. “Get Down” was absolutely brilliant and in person, it’s really obvious how idiotic Henry’s excuse is and how hot she KNOWS she is. I actually didn’t know that Cleves strips off her outer layer (with the help of the other queens pulling on either side of her costume) during her song until last week and that is just SUCH a show stopping move; it’s totally something Rihanna (Cleves’ main pop inspiration) would do as well. I also suddenly understand why the alternates have to wear such a specific Cleves jacket/costume when they play her- hook and loop fasteners! (Aka Velcro, a registered trademarks)
Cleves got funnier and funnier as the show went on. My favorite line is probably “guys. I have the plague. Lol, just kidding, my life is amazing!”
“All you want to do” was so affecting, I was sobbing by the end. It’s such a compassionate and human portrayal of Katherine Howard, who I think is often just put down as a cheater or a silly girl. No, she was a young teenager who was abused by men throughout her life and neglected and exploited by the people that were supposed to protect her. The choreography in that is really beautiful, how more and more of the other queens touch Katherine Howard’s shoulders in more and more invasive ways as she gets more and more despondent and dances less and less energetically until she’s left alone on the stage at the end, hunched over in despair and almost crying.
When Catherine Parr is pointing out at the end that the only reason everyone knows Henry VIII is BECAUSE of his six wives, she asked who the wives of Henry VII, Henry VI, and Henry V were. I was delighted and like quietly raised my hand, hah. all my friends laughed at least.
also Howard coming out and just nonchalantly saying “Catherine of Valois” was amazing. I liked Boleyn’s complicated feminist sum up as well, but in the context, I felt that it made her character seem like she had the same level of education/intelligence/maturity as Howard, when in fact, Boleyn was really highly educated and Howard was fairly poorly educated for a noble girl, considering that she was pretty much pawned off on neglectful relatives most of her life.

Arielle and Hannah at Brooks Atkinson Theater

That observation feeds into my next thought . Everyone who said that my thoughts on the portrayal of Anne Boleyn would change when I saw the show was wrong. She’s a fun character, but she’s portrayed as a huge self involved ditz who just wants to party, when in real life, she was actually an extremely well educated and accomplished woman who influenced religion and politics more than probably any other queen did. I think of her the same way I think of Shakespeare’s Richard III- I love the play and I love the character but I recognize that it’s a totally inaccurate portrayal of the historical figure, who i also love for completely different reasons.

they actually pack in a LOT of history into this play, like during Boleyn and Aragon’s argument over mistresses and miscarriages and who had it worse. Plus I love a casual Thomas Cromwell name drop.
You can really see the colorful Swarovski crystals on the boots in the lights! It’s subtle but visible if you look for it.
Cleves’ new thigh high boots are AMAZINGGGG.
I tried to check if the lighting matched each character’s main costume color; it seemed like yes, it mostly did, but I didn’t check on all of them.
The lighting at the end of “Don’t Lose Your Head” fades out to just a direct spot on Anne Boleyn’s head and like, surrounding pink lights. It was very effective.
The “10 amongst these 3s” pin sold at the merch table has an incorrect apostrophe in between the “3” and the “s” and it drives me madddddd. PLEASE FIX THAT.
j loved that Catherine of Aragon started her song by calling for Maria on the drums to start her off; “Maria” is named for the historical Catherine of Aragon’s lady in waiting and lifelong friend, Maria de Salinas, so it’s totally fitting that they join together on that.
The whole musical is such a girl power piece, but it also realistically talks about the fact that these women wouldn’t be known without history and how little agency they had in their own lives. The only other musicals I’ve seen that are that self aware and self reflective of their own characters’ legacies are Hamilton and Assassins.