Tub-thumping and adrenaline pumping musical Six is proving to be the jewel in the crown for Scottish audiences keen to have fun again.
The historical fact-finding musical is back on stage and taking Festival Theatre in Edinburgh by storm.
With a new set of “Queens’’, the show is loud, brash, colourful and best of all, plain silly.
And we all need a bit of that after the last two years, don’t we.? My daughter Flossie (12) is musical mad, so the perfect person to accompany me to the first night of this fantastic show written by Toby Marlow and Lucy Moss.
It premiered at the Edinburgh Fringe in 2017 and has been wowing audiences on Broadway and in the West End, ever since.
Back on home turf in the Scottish capital, the mixed age and gender audience was clearly up for some raucous behaviour.
The show is pure genius, telling the tale of Henry VIII’s six wives and their plight at the hands of the philandering King, from the women’s perspective.
Henry was a selfish, but accomplished king who reigned until 1547 and Six is a modern re telling of how he treated his wives, with each story brought to life through amazing lyrics and music.
The scene was set as each wife took to the stage to tell their tale and prove they were the one who suffered the most.
And the result was a slickly choreographed show, which had the theatre bouncing.
Chloe Hart as Catherine of Aragon stole the show with her big personality and fantastic singing skills, boy can she hit a top note. Anne Boleyn, aka Jennifer Caldwell clearly revelled in her role as she tried to undermine the other Queens, and Casey Al-Shaqsy tugged at the heartstrings with a near perfect performance of love song, “Heart of Stone.’’
Aiesha Naomi Pease’s rap, “Get Down’’ for her character, divorcee Anne of Cleves is a winner and Jaina Brock-Patel opens up the naïve Katherine Howard’s confusion with aplomb. And Alana M Robinson is relaxed as she tells the plight of Catherine Parr through her song “I Don’t Need Your Love.’’
The show runs for 80 minutes with no interval, which is a winner as there is no break to slow down the heart rate and the finale is as good as the opener, only this time, the audience was on its feet and rocking in the aisles.
It’s so good to be back to live theatre and this girl power is just the ticket!
Six The Musical runs at Festival Theatre until March 26th and then moves around the country until early 2023. To find out more about the show and to purchase tickets, please visit: www.sixthemusical.com.
Author Bio:
Rebecca Hay is an experienced travel writer and member of The British Guild of Travel Writers. Follow her adventures with her family on Twitter and Instagram @emojiadventurer and on Facebook via EmojiAdventurers2.
Photographs by Johan Persson
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