New York Magazine - 02.03.2020

march 2–15, 2020 | new york 73

Anne

of Cleves

married 1540

Played by Brittney Mack

IRL: Next up: a strategic political marriage

to one of the sisters of Germany’s Duke

of Cleves. Most famous for being rejected

by Henry for not looking as good as her

portrait (or so he claimed). Six months in,

she accepted an annulment and a generous

settlement. The show calls her Anna of Cleves.

AS A DIVA: The “Feeling Myself ” vibe

ofNicki Minaj and Beyoncé, plus the

wealth parody of Iggy Azalea and Charli

XCX’s “Fancy” and Lorde’s “Royals.”

HER SONG: “Get Down,” in which Marlow

and Moss reframe contemporary odes to

opulence with brags about “pheasant instead

of Grey Goose,” as Moss says. “When you

hear ‘Get Down,’ immediately you want to get

into this ‘urban’ approach to her,” Mack says.

“But as a black woman portraying this role, I

don’t want to do that.” Mack cites the poise of

Jane d Ti n

for h nce

wonderful that” in every production of

character is not always played by a blac

STANDOUT LYRIC: “Okay, ladies,

let’s get in Reformation.”

Catherine

Howard

married 1540–42

Played by Samantha Pauly

IRL: Henry became smitten by another

of the queen’s ladies-in-waiting. They

lasted a year or so, but then he had her

beheaded for treason on the basis of

adultery. Moss and Marlow conceived of

her as the survivor of sexual abuse. The

show spells her first name with a K.

AS A DIVA: An amalgam of “young pop

stars sexualized early on in their careers,”

as Marlow puts it, like Miley Cyrus,

Britney Spears, and Ariana Grande (the

inspiration for the queen’s ponytail).

HER SONG: “All You Wanna Do,” in which

Moss and Marlow use the earwormy hooks of

a repeated chorus to emphasize the repetitive

nature of the abuse she experienced.

THE TONE: The dark core of the bubblegum-

packaged song isn’t necessarily apparent out

s playing her has to

he music and lyrics.

“I have to stay in this pop-show mode,” Pauly

says. “But I also have to make it clear things

aren’t what they seem. It isn’t until the end

of the song that people are like, ‘I’ve been

laughing the whole time; maybe I shouldn’t.’”

Catherine

Parr

married 1543–47

Played by Anna Uzele

IRL: The one who outlived him, marrying

Henry after having several relationships of

her own (she was a widow). Catherine pushed

for women to be able to study the Bible

unsupervised by men (a big step for the time).

She got his daughters Mary and Elizabeth

restored to the order of succession and acted

as regent when Henry went to war with

France. She survived him by a year and a half.

AS A DIVA: Emeli Sandé, Alicia Keys,

and “the side of Beyoncé when she’s

talking to the audience as if she’s their

best friend,” according to Moss.

HER SONG: “I Don’t Need Your Love,” a jazzy

solo that starts as a letter to the man Catherine

had to abandon for Henry and morphs into

a group number directed at the king.

THE TONE: In a show of tricky tonal

shifts, Six’s transition from the devastation

at the end of “All You Wanna Do” to the

rousing, girl-power spirit of “I Don’t

Need Your Love” might be the hardest

to pull off without seeming glib.

what if, after all the divorces (or, technically, annulments), beheadings, and deaths, Henry VIII’s six wives
got together in a kind of 16th-century version of VH1’s Divas Afterlife? That’s the concept behind Six, a musical that imagines
all the wives in a singing competition—with six solos, three group numbers, and, of course, one megamix—about who had the
worst go of it. Six was created in 2017 by Toby Marlow and Lucy Moss when they were Cambridge undergrads. They were always wor-
ried about the possibility that Six could be “terrible” given its audacious concept. But, says Marlow, “Lucy was like, ‘Maybe a way of not
making it terrible is to give the show a sense of humor.’ ” And it’s definitely not terrible: It has already traveled to London’s West End,
Chicago, Boston, Edmonton, Sydney, and several cruise ships. Now, it’s finally on Broadway. How exactly did history and diva worship
coalesce into one remarkable show? Marlow, Moss, and the American cast walked us through the creation of the six queens of Six.

Wife Wife Wife