Divorced. Beheaded. Empowered: How Broadway’s ‘Six’ reclaims the wives of Henry VIII

Divorced. Beheaded. Died.

Divorced. Beheaded. Survived.

Over the last 500 years, the six wives of Henry VIII of England — Catherine of Aragon, Anne Boleyn, Jane Seymour, Anna of Cleves, Katherine Howard, and Catherine Parr — have often been portrayed as pawns, victims or vessels within the infamous king’s court, known more for the ways their marriages ended than anything else.

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‘Six’ writers never imagined their musical would make Broadway. Now it’s a hit. June 9, 2022 / 05:30

But for recent graduates Lucy Moss and Toby Marlow – who dreamed up the idea for “Six: The Musical” while completing their final year at Cambridge University – they saw the complicated history behind these figures as an opportunity to reimagine their stories and empower these women by channeling them through today’s famous divas.

In the high-octane concert-musical extravaganza, their version of Catherine of Aragon resembles Beyoncé; Anne Boleyn is inspired by Billie Eilish and Anna of Cleves echoes the vocal stylings of Nicki Minaj.

But what Moss and Marlow did not see coming was the show’s meteoric rise from the Edinburgh Fringe Festival in 2017 to the bright lights of Broadway, with six productions now running worldwide.

Add to that eight Tony Award nominations this year, including best direction of a musical and best new musical. For Lucy Moss, who became the youngest woman to direct a Broadway musical at 26, the show’s success continues to stun her.

“Honestly, this was just a summer project that we were doing with our friends in August 2017,” she told Know Your Value contributor Joelle Garguilo.

She explained that when commercial producers approached her and Marlow about taking the musical to London’s West End, they brought on a lawyer who suggested a clause in their contract in case the show ever made it to Broadway. “We were literally laughing in [our lawyer’s] face … at this idea of it ever doing anything more,” Moss recalled.

Two years later, Moss was glad she listened to her attorney.

Nevertheless, the road from London to New York’s Brooks Atkinson Theatre wasn’t without serious challenges. The Covid-19 pandemic shut down the show on its opening night when an usher who had been working in the theater tested positive for the virus on March 12, 2020.

“Ninety minutes before opening was when we found out that [Fmr. Gov. Cuomo] was shutting down Broadway,” recalled writer Toby Marlow, who also spoke to Garguilo.

It would be another 18 months before the production could return to the stage. When it did, the musical became an instant, girl-powered hit. “The intention was to show lots of different versions of amazing and empowering women,” Moss said of the characters. “Seeing women and young girls respond to that has been my favorite thing about this.”

For Marlow – who also made history as the first out, non-binary composer-lyricist nominated for a Tony Award – showcasing the all-female and non-binary band onstage has been a defining feature of the program.

“In general, across the music and theater industry there is such a gender discrepancy among the musicians,” he said. “If Six is doing anything to inspire young girls to pick up instruments they didn’t think was their place to play, then that’s really nice.”

But the concept behind the production – giving these famous figures back their stories after 500 years of historical heartbreak – has been the key to the show’s draw.

“The idea of thinking about whose voices have been marginalized, whose voices have been left out of stories,” Moss said. “With the six wives it was really about they’re so famous, but they’re so related to this one man and told by his perspective.”

Moss – who graduated with a degree in history – intentionally used their stories to help reclaim more space for women. “The way in which history works is all about the people who write it – those who control the narrative – there’s many layers of patriarchy going on,” she said. “How can we use this specific group of women to think about what hasn’t changed in terms of power dynamics?”

For Marlow, it boils down to the way modern audiences can think differently about the impact of these women as individuals.

“Using all the facts that we know, here’s another interpretation, which is kinder to these women and less generalizing of their experience and also just as valid as other interpretations,” he said.