*** Many apologies for the delay in this review. I have had quite a few issues of late. ***
All you wanna do,
All you wanna do, baby.
I think we can all agree, I’m a ten amongst these threes.
Six is a musical I only saw for the first time in 2024 but have revisited twice since then. Therefore, when one of my favourite youth groups, Script Musical Youth Theatre announced that they too would be performing a teen edition, I just had to go, not once, but twice. My three earlier were in the West End, on tour recently and another teen edition, and I knew already that nothing is lost in a less-adult offering. However, my reasoning for seeing it this time on two separate nights was this. Script, like many other youth groups often split their casts into two groups for different performances. And knowing the quality of the company, I simply could not leave one lot of six teens out. So, consecutive nights it was.
Six is a 75-minute (or thereabouts) musical in which the six wives of Henry VIII battle in song to decide who was dealt the cruellest blow. And this show is a pop extravaganza from start to finish and even though I knew what was coming (especially twice in 24 hours), I never checked the time once. It is one musical that I would recommend everyone to see, and these two casts totally nailed it in terms of entertainment.
Now, you might think that it was a case of Deja-Vu, with the same theatre, same excellent production team, and same set. However, you would be wrong. Each of the two sets of wives brought something different to the stage and it really was a case of watching two individual and unique shows. In interpretation, character, humour, and voice, they were both top of their game and no, I simply could not separate them, because they were so different. Honestly, I did not have a favourite. The cast of Six were:
Jessica Lewis and Hannah Jones (Catherine of Aragon).
Maia Johnson and Frankie Donohue (Anne Boleyn).
Erin Freeman and Gracie Reynolds (Jane Seymour).
Cassie Cranshaw and Holly Hardcastle (Anne of Cleves).
Niamh Scott-Walters and Lexie Burton (Catherine Howard)
Maddie Howard and Dorothy Twigg (Catherine Parr).
Producer for Six was Louise Homes with choreography by Karen Lyon and musical direction from Ian Cheadle. All can be proud of the end results, and they were supported well with great costumes courtesy of Leo’s Costumes along with excellent lighting and sound. Always a lovely welcome from Front of House and I cleaned up on the raffle both nights.
So, that’s five times for me now watching Six, and it never gets old. One interesting observation, though, in all the performances I have seen, among the many innuendos, nobody in the audience ever seems to get the Francis Dereham one.
Helped him in his office, had a duty to fulfil.
He even let me use his favourite quill.
Spilled ink all over the parchment, my wrist was so tired.
Six is an amazing work by Toby Marlow and Lucy Moss and I urge anyone to see it when they get the chance. Do so, or heads will roll.
Cheers.
Antony N Britt
*Photos taken from social media.
Antony N Britt - Author 