Divorced. Beheaded. Died. Divorced Beheaded. Survived.
More often than not, the most fascinating stories in our entertainment cannon come not from the creative minds of literary masters but from the true stories of the headlines and history. And when it comes to history, the current plight of the present day royals (who have done a great job of keeping us entertained and provided decades of fodder for the thoroughly juicy Netflix series The Crown) have nothing on the greatest soap opera in world history, King Henry VIII of England and his infamous Six Wives.
It’s almost as if when the unexpected side-tale of Alexander Hamilton became an international musical sensation in the 2015 Broadway season, a voice from across the pond inspired two Cambridge University students, creators Toby Marlow and Lucy Moss, to realize “We have history too! Better history!” (no arguments, it’s my fantasy scenario). And hence began the inspiration for a musical history of the Six Wives of Henry VIII—as a girl group rock band using infectious dance club music and concert lighting to tell their stories in a competition to be the lead singer—the wife with the best story and the most harrowing circumstances she had to face. And as their lyrics playfully state, “history’s about to be overthrone”. They also raise a great question–who was married to Henry I-VII? Are these fascinating women famous because they were married to Henry, or do we know all we do about Henry because he was married to them?
And in the latest stop on their world tour, the Six Wives seize the audience to tell their captivating stories—which were determined and retold for centuries by men—in their own words. The introduce themselves with “You know us from PBS”, but what we get from there on out is truly Masterpiece Theatre–a solid history lesson wrapped in a raise-the-roof rock concert that shapes the stories of six fascinating icons, giving them all equal time and attention.
For the pledge drive challenged, a brief history lesson that is not necessary but incredibly helpful to follow Marlow & Moss’ intricate, fact-filled, witty recounting of each of their tales:
[THE SIX WIVES OF HENRY VIII Episode 1] 1501—King Henry VII of England was searching for a suitable match for his son, crown Prince Arthur, and settled on Spanish Princess Catherine of Aragon, daughter of Ferdinand & Isabella, for a strong European alliance. But Arthur died 5 months later at the age of 15, before ascending, and King Henry kept Catherine in England as Ambassador to Aragon (the first female ambassador in European history) until it was decided to keep the alliance intact, she should marry Arthur’s younger brother Prince Henry, now 17 (and 6 years her junior), a proposal neither of them wanted. When Henry ascended to the throne in 1509, Catherine became pregnant soon after but had four stillborn children until finally giving birth to Princess Mary. Following subsequent miscarriages and Catherine’s advancing age, Henry became obsessed with the issue of a male heir and his eye began to wander. Catherine’s lady in waiting Anne Boleyn caught his eye and the two carried on a tempestuous affair. When Henry decided a biblical passage in Leviticus banning marriage to a brother’s wife cursed his union to Catherine in the eyes of God, he vigorously pursued an annulment from the Vatican. But the Pope refused to grant his wish. After a long politico-religious battle, Henry decided the only course of action was to officially break England away from the Catholic Church and established the protestant Church of England, appointing himself, as monarch, the head.
[Episode 2] Anne had previously turned down Henry’s proposals, partly because he was married (and had once had an affair with her sister Mary), but as the machinations to dissolve the Catholic Church were set in motion, the couple was married in 1532, resulting in Henry and Anne’s excommunication from the Church. Several months after their marriage, Anne gave birth to Princess Elizabeth and all looked positive for the new Queen. But three miscarriages later, Henry’s eye began to stray looking for a potential mother to a male heir, and turned his attentions to Anne’s lady in waiting Jane Seymour. The outspoken Anne had become unpopular for her disregard to Henry’s inner circle and she and her father made many powerful enemies. When Henry began looking for a reason to dissolve their marriage, they seized every opportunity to feed him with ammunition. Accusations of adultery, incest with her brother, and even witchcraft were lodged against her, all historically unfounded with confessions coerced from the accused adulterers under torture, and Anne was found guilty of treason against the King and beheaded in 1536.
[Episode 3] Henry promptly married Jane, a gentle good woman who had been raised in a convent, the day after Anne’s execution. The following year she produced him the son he longed for, Prince Edward. Unfortunately, Jane died days later from complications of childbirth and Edward survived but was a sickly child.
[Episode 4] Upon Jane’s death, Henry decided to scour Europe for another political alliance and he set his eyes on Protestant Germany to strengthen his power against the Catholic stronghold of the rest of the continent. He sent revered artist Hans Holbein the Younger abroad to paint portraits of Anne and her sister as potential fiancées. He chose Anne who, upon her arrival, left Henry disappointed that she was significantly less attractive than the portrait and reports and painted. She was no more attracted to him but to cancel the union would endanger his valuable alliance with the Germans. They went through with the marriage, which was never consummated, and divorced amicably and remained friends with Anne receiving a very generous settlement and an estate in Richmond.
[Episode 5] Once again, Henry’s attention had been turned by a queen’s lady in waiting, Katharine Howard. A beautiful, vivacious 16-year-old pushed by her politically-inclined father into this union, Katharine, a first cousin of Anne Boleyn, was the subject of continuous attention from tutors and diplomats in the service of her step-grandmother the Dowager Duchess of Norfolk. Thrust into a marriage she was hardly ready for, and not at all attracted to her almost 50-year-old obese husband, Katharine’s single crime was being young. Developing a friendship with courtier Thomas Culpepper, the friendship turned romantic and the affair was discovered, which, along with subsequent details about her prior sexual encounters before marriage, sent her to the same fate as her cousin.
[Episode 6] Final wife, Catherine Parr, was a wealthy widow who was a third cousin to Henry and goddaughter of Catherine of Aragon. She initially resisted his advances because of the fate of her five predecessors, but when the King calls, one answers. She became his final wife and survived him after his death. An accomplished writer, Parr became the first English woman to publish a work under her own name, in an era when women had to adopt masculine noms de plume. [END OF MASTERPIECE THEATRE ABRIDGED. Return next week for the historical turmoil of the battle of Henry’s next gen successors.]
These six colorful and vibrant women are represented here by 6 strong comic singer/actors who deliver infectious dance music recitals of their themes. Marlow & Moss have cleverly given these characters from the Middle Ages contemporary dance beats in the style of today’s popular artists to stress the point that women’s issues haven’t changed that much in the last year or 700. And the sextet live up to the high expectations set for them and all deliver knock-out performances.
Modeled after Beyoncé and Shakira, Gerianne Pérez gets the show off to a strong start as Catherine of Aragon, with all the authority of the O.G. Queen who put up with a lifetime of subservience at the hands of her father and husband dictating her fate. But in her solo “No Way”, Pérez uses the confidence of Queen Bey to parallel the strength of Queen C., who lasted far longer than any of her successors with a 24-year-long reign battling for her security and that of her daughter, least favored child Princess Mary.
Zan Berube instills her Anne Boleyn (patterned after Avril Lavigne and Lily Allen) with a fun, scene-stealing ditziness and biting humor, making her severed head the punchline to several behind the music patter jokes. Perhaps the flashiest and most vivacious of Henry’s wives, Berube lives up to her expectations, updating her Anne as a mean girl with a social media obsession. Her solo, “Sorry, Not Sorry” is probably the most factually packed with detail and history and she nails every nuance.
Pérez and Berube have the easy job fleshing out the longest lasting and best known of the six (by comparison, Showtime’s The Tudors devoted 2 entire seasons to the Henry/Catherine/Anne triangle, but only 4 episodes to each remaining wife), but their castmates—and their composers—get bonus points for making the latter quartet equally as engrossing and complex. Most of the latter wives have been relegated to defining words that sum up their careers. Usually, as portrayed by men, derogatory words like “mousey” (Seymour), “homely” (Cleves), “promiscuous” (Howard), and “matronly” (Parr). But this quartet see to it that we leave with an understanding of them as women, as deep as their predecessors have been granted throughout “herstory”.
As an Adele and Sia inspired Jane Seymour, Amina Faye blows the lone ballad, “Heart of Stone” out of the water with all the vocal power of her influences. As self-espoused favorite wife, she reminds us that Jane never got to embrace any of the joys of motherhood, ironically the single quality she was revered for.
Terica Marie is a surprise as fish-out-of-water Anne of Cleves, having a blast with “Get Down”, her Nicki Minhaj/Rhianna-esque tale of a poor divorcee banished to a fully fledge life of luxury in the countryside complete with palace, carriages, horses, hunting, furs, and money to burn–and no man around to bother her. Even if she loses the competition, she wins on all fronts.
Aline Mayagoitia plays audience favorite Katharine Howard as a party girl with more than a passing resemblance to inspirations Ariana Grande and Britney Spears. Another surprise, Mayagoitia momentarily stops the show with a deep sadness and regret in “All You Wanna Do”, her story of a young girl whose looks have always provided the attention of men, but for only one thing. Which becomes even more disturbing when she drives home the point that male historians have traditionally glossed over–the fact that if Howard was only 16 when she married Henry, the sexual “attention” she received from grown men before marriage was actually sexual abuse at the age of 12-13.
Sydney Parra as Catherine Parr closes the contest with shades of Alicia Keys and Emili Sande in “I Don’t Need Your Love”, a bittersweet acknowledgement that as a mature woman, she is enough alone, even though she is called to duty by another husband. Parra, like Parr, is no theatrics, no drama, just a heartfelt lyrical theme which she slays.
But in addition to great subject matter and phenomenal performances, this show is first rate from top to bottom. Scenic Designer Emma Bailey provides an arena-ready concert stage with all the built-in special effects to allow Lighting Designer Tim Deiling to showcase his intense lighting with the virtual choreography and precision of a 7th performer. Costume Designer Gabriella Slade invents a stunning original style that is Tudor fashion via way of Starlight Express, and that is meant with the highest compliments. And that’s just the visuals.
Sound Designer Paul Gatehouse provides the mandatory clearest sound to make sure every one of Marlow & Moss’ intricate, fact-laden lyrics are crystal clear. Carrie-Anne Ingrouille provides fascinating precision choreography that you’d expect from any pop diva show today. Music Supervisor Joe Beighton oversees the vocal and musical integrity of the catchy score and their all-girl backup band, The Ladies In Waiting, is flat out flawless.
Directors Lucy Moss and Jamie Armitage keep everything running at a tight engaging pace, and assist each character in bringing out an equally fascinating aspect of their story. But the true stars of this breathtaking tour are Marlow & Moss, who not only envisioned the innovative concept, but researched it, and set it to one of the best pop scores in recent years. Every wife’s solo is radio ready (and better than most major hits by the artists that inspired them, let alone the lesser sounds available today), and make clever parody of the anachronistic juxtaposition of the ages by smart touches incorporating today’s society in their music. The outspoken Anne Boleyn pokes fun at how her comments stir up trouble when they go viral, and Anne of Cleves mentions her troubles started when Henry claimed she didn’t look like her profile picture. They also judiciously sample appropriate pop passages like Beyoncé’s “Survivor” (Catherine Parr) or Kanye’s “Golddigger” (Anne of Cleves) for fun touches. This smart, fast, funny, and ultimately fascinating score is one of the most deserving Tony Winners in recent years and the lyrics some of the best ever. If the late lyrical master Stephen Sondheim was ever brave enough to compose a dance score, he would wish it was Six.
If I had to make one criticism of this soaring show, it would be the intended compliment that I wish it was longer. At six solos and three group numbers (plus a well earned encore) the show runs a tight 80 minutes. But it’s a perfect 80 minutes. There is not one moment of the evening from lights up to lights out that is weak or lesser than. No filler in this brilliant event. Perhaps the only real flaw is the packaging. Marlow & Moss sell themselves a little short. They dub their masterpiece Six. I call it a “10”.
Six runs 1 hour and 20 minutes with no intermission.
Six, runs through April 16, 2023, at the Hippodrome Theatre in the France-Merrick Performing Arts Center at 12 N. Eutaw Street. For tickets call the box office at 410.752.7444. or purchase them online