The cast of the Toronto production of Six, left to right, Maggie Lacasse, Elysia Cruz, Jaz Robinson, Julia Pulo, Krystal Hernández, Lauren Mariasoosay.Joan Marcus/Supplied
The musical Six, a pop concert-style retelling of the lives – and fates – of Henry VIII’s wives, begins with the famous rhyme about them: “Divorced, Beheaded, Died: Divorced, Beheaded, Survived.” But where it goes next is a significant divergence from how we’ve historically come to view each queen, without being a departure from history itself.
Through pop diva-inspired songs, one queen at a time, the musical’s six leading ladies tell their sides of the story. From Catherine of Aragon through to Henry’s final wife and sole survivor, Catherine Parr, Six threads the women’s stories together through their mutually difficult experiences with their fickle, shared husband, and portrays them as the heroes of their own stories – not victims in Henry’s.
“What the show tries to unpack is actually their personalities, their ambitions, their hopes and dreams – not just them in relation to Henry VIII,” said Tracy Borman, a U.K.-based historian who specializes in the Tudor period and recently published a book called Anne Boleyn & Elizabeth I: The Mother and Daughter Who Forever Changed History. “You get to see them as powerful, independent women in their own right.”
Six will open at the Royal Alexandra Theatre in Toronto on Sept. 23. The musical, written by Toby Marlow and Lucy Moss, has proven itself to audiences and critics alike: After its 2019 West End premiere in London, it was set to open on Broadway on March 12, 2020, before the stage went dark owing to COVID-19, and eventually had its New York premiere in October of 2021. That production won Tony Awards for best original score and best costume design.
Critical success aside, Six’s feminist messaging captures the current cultural zeitgeist: from the public rehabilitation of pop icon Britney Spears after years of harsh narratives in the media to a questioning of the unfair treatment of the late singer-songwriter Sinead O’Connor, one of the loudest cultural conversations right now is whether famous women of history have been given a fair trial, so to speak.
In the case of Henry VIII’s wives, those women have been known for centuries by how they died, their inability to bear sons, their alleged unattractiveness, or their rumoured unfaithfulness. “Before, no one wanted to hear what [women] had to say to defend themselves, and I think we live in a world now where now we do, and you see it in pop culture, which I think is refreshing,” said Krystal Hernandez, who is from Boston and plays Anna of Cleves.
Six takes a page from Hamilton’s playbook in the way that it uses modern-day music to teach us about another time period, and “the history behind it is actually impeccable,” Borman said – including the unknown history about each queen that the show highlights.
In the case of Catherine of Aragon, for example, she was “actually one of the first women to go head to head with Henry and to stand up for what she believed in,” says Jaz Robinson, the Whitby, Ont.-born performer playing Henry’s first wife in the Canadian production. “She was tenacious. She was a great debater. I think a lot of people overlook her strength.”
Julia Pulo, centre, and Jaz Robinson.Joan Marcus/Supplied
Or take Anne Boleyn, known for bringing about England’s break with the Pope and for being beheaded.
“I think the way she comes across in history is very much the villain, the other woman, the snake,” said Julia Pulo, the Mississauga native playing Boleyn in this production. “But she is not the villain in this story by any means. What we try to centre is that she was trying to survive. She didn’t want to be another mistress – she wanted a place in history.”
Henry’s sixth wife, Catherine Parr, was said to be quite dull, but the show’s ending reveals that she left behind an incredible feminist legacy: She was the first woman in England to publish books under her own name in English, and she helped Henry pass the Third Succession Act, which returned women to the line of succession to the throne and eventually led to Queen Elizabeth’s rise to power.
“A lot of people don’t recognize her for all these incredible things she did for women,” said Lauren Mariasoosay, a Tracy, Calif.-native who plays Parr. “Her portrait was even painted by a woman. So she really lifted up all these women around her and wanted to give them a platform.”
And despite being known as the “doormat” of the bunch, Six reveals that Jane Seymour, Henry’s third wife who died while giving birth to her son, was actually quite intelligent, witty and pragmatic.
“She had the opportunity to see the two queens before her and how it turned out for them,” said Montreal-born Maggie Lacasse, who plays Seymour. “She really played her cards well and she knew what to do in order to get the best outcome for her.”
And while each of the women’s reputations has been rehabilitated by this show, one retelling has particular relevance in 2023, said Borman – that of Katherine Howard. For the past 500 years, Howard has been cast as a wicked seductress and adulteress. But Henry’s fifth wife was thought to be just 18 years old at the time of her execution. Far from the cunning evil woman, a modern audience can easily deduce that Howard was a vulnerable young girl who was repeatedly taken advantage of.
“In the context of MeToo and the modern perspective, we’re rightly questioning how much agency Katherine Howard had in any of her relationships,” Borman said. Her song, All You Wanna Do, highlights just how much of a victim she was to the men who surrounded her, from her music tutor when she was just 13 years old, all the way through to the King of England.
The impact of giving these historical women a voice and telling their truths has been monumental – including for Six’s cast members. Elysia Cruz, who is from Fort St. John, B.C., and plays Howard, is the youngest member of the cast at just 23 years old, and said she was initially uncomfortable taking up as much space as her role required.
“The director had to tell us, ‘Take up more space. Don’t apologize for it. You’re powerful,’ ” Cruz says.
Six may not have resonated so strongly at another point in time, but now, the climate seems right for a big, bombastic musical that questions some long-held historical beliefs about the stories and portrayals of famous women.
“So much of history is from the male perspective [and has been] retold from the bias of a man,” Pulo said. “And now is the first time in history where women are advocating for themselves and saying ‘No, this is the truth and this is what happened,’ and they’re being believed.”
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