Maggie Lacasse, Elysia Cruz, Jaz Robinson, Julia Pulo, Krystal Hernández, Lauren Mariasoosa in Six, the Canadian production. Photo by Joan Marcus.

By Liz Nicholls, 12thnight.ca

“History’s about to get overthrown!” sing six Tudor queens who come charging out of the 16th century “live in consort,”in their hot opening  number in Six The Musical. Greensleeves and lutes don’t stand a chance.

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“Tonight we’re gonna do our ourselves justice/ ‘cause we’re taking you to court.” In the slick and sassy 80-minute musical fashioned by Toby Marlow and Lucy Moss (a couple of clever young Cambridge students who took it to the Edinburgh Fringe in 2017), the six ex’s of Henry VIII, English history’s most (in)famous serial husband, are reimagined as girl-power pop stars. And now in a cross-century remix, backed by a live all-female (all-Canadian) band, The Ladies-in-Waiting, they’re onstage to air their grievances. First prize to the one got dealt the worst hand.

And they have to lot to work with. “Divorced. Beheaded. Died. Divorced. Beheaded. Survived (as the Brit History 101 mnemonic goes). But, hey, Edmonton, “just for you tonight we’re Divorced. Beheaded. Live!”

We’ve met the wronged wives, “now, ex-wives!\,” before. In 2019 the Citadel was the only Canadian stop for Six en route from the West End to  Broadway big-time. The pandemic put a hold on that, and its Tony Award-studded sold-out Broadway run, still in progress, didn’t open till 2021. This time the Citadel is where a new Canadian touring production gets launched before it goes to the Royal Alex in Toronto in September.

The creative team, led by co-directors Moss and Jamie Armitage, remains in place of course. Six is great fun to look at, and listen to. The visuals that play on Emma Bailey’s set with its light-up Tudor arches and rock show proscenium are a knockout. The production looks and sounds like the splashy high-end arena rock concert that’s also its premise. Gabriella Spade’s sparkly costumes have witty Tudor top notes (fishnets meet ruffs). Tim Deiling’s razzle-dazzle rock concert lighting, a barrage of flashing lights, cross-beams, a blinding proscenium, is matched by Carrie-Anne Ingrouille’s rock star choreography.

Maggie Lacasse, Elysia Cruz, Jaz Robinson, Julia Pulo, Krystal Hernánd
ez, Lauren Mariasoosay, the Canadian cast of Six. Photo by Joan Marcus.

What’s new is the cast, all but one Canadian. They’re all dexterous pop singers, and in ensemble numbers and as each other’s backup singers, they’ve got the moves too, some more than others (which the show itself makes fun of, in its meta way). And each queen gets a showcase song that nods to signature styles of pop divas like Avril Lavigne, Adele, Ariana Grande…. Marlow and Moss are top-drawer purveyors of witty pastiche; they know their pop music, and they write the real thing.

Jaz Robinson is a tall, fierce Catherine of Aragon, the Spanish princess who had religious grounds for defiance of Henry the career philanderer. She nails the Beyoncé-esque No Way, “no no no no no no no way.”

The scene stealer is the pert French-educated Anne Boleyn, in a very funny performance by Julia Pulo. Her song Don’t Lose Ur Head has a hip-hop flavour, with lyrics in text-speak. “Tried to elope but the pope said nope…. everybody chill it’s totes god’s will.”

Sincere Jane Seymour (Maggie Lacasse), the queen who died after giving birth, gets the power ballad Heart of Stone à la Adele. “What hurts more than a broken heart?” she asks, trying to make a case for herself in the victim contest. “A severed head?” offers Anne Boleyn.

All You Wanna Do, in one way the catchiest bubble gum of the songs and in another the most reflective under the glitter, belongs to the other decapitated queen. In it, Katherine Howard (Elysia Cruz) shrugs that her fate is a natural outcome of a lifetime of getting pawed by guys.

Six has a witty way with anachronisms. Online dating disappointments have a poster girl in Anne of Cleves (Krystal Hernández), who got rejected by The Man when she didn’t live up to her Hans Holbein portrait. She makes a good case for pre-nups. Palace living, with loads of cash, is a better outcome for victims of the patriarchy than, say, beheading. Just sayin.

It’s Catherine Parr (Lauren Mariasoosay), the sole survivor of Henry’s marital rampage, who plants the seeds of the snazzy finale in I Don’t Need Your Love (“I’ll never belong to you”). The queens put aside their differences, powered by the thought that “a pair doesn’t beat a royal flush.” And they come together as history’s snazziest girl-pop group.

Six works itself up to a point about empowerment, kind of in reverse (via a contest to determine who took the most abuse), but doesn’t mope, to say the least. The lack of female agency, to turn a feminist phrase, has never been more fun. Or had zingier rhymes or cheekier anachronisms. OK, yeah, there have been a couple of divorces and beheadings and abandonments in their group history. But showbiz is the best revenge. I mean, is Henry up there singing and dancing in something that makes the crowd go crazy?

REVIEW

Six The Musical

Theatre: Citadel Theatre and Mirvish Productions in association with Chicago Shakespeare Theater

Created by: Toby Marlow and Lucy Moss

Directed by: Lucy Moss and Jamie Armitage

Starring: Jaz Robinson, Julia Pulo, Maggie Lacasse, Krystal Hernández, Elysia Cruz, Lauren Mariasoosay

Running: through Sept. 14

Tickets: citadeltheatre.com