SIX The Musical - West End ★★★★★

Hit musical SIX The Musical has been doing the rounds for a while now, with successful productions touring the UK, North America, Europe, New Zealand and Australia, plus residencies in London and New York. Therefore, producers Kenny Wax, Wendy & Andy Barnes and George Stiles have decided it’s time to freshen up the singers playing the six wives of Henry VIII for the 2026/7 season at the West End’s Vaudeville Theatre. This musical has garnered many fans since its inception in 2017 and many awards for its creatives, but does a bunch of pop-style riffs on some old queens make a great night out? Well, its all-female cast and band conjuring up a joyful and original musical experience with plenty of attitude, sharply focused songs and punchy dance moves on the Vaudeville’s compact stage.

SIX has a very British backstory, worth a show in its own right, where two students studying at Cambridge University are asked to write a short piece for its musical theatre society to perform in a slot at that year’s Edinburgh Fringe. Originally designed to reduce the costs of taking a production to the festival, it instead catapulted the two gifted young writers, Toby Marlow and Lucy Moss, into the world of show business, and their first musical collaboration has become a worldwide success. Since then, the duo has seen other works, such as Why Am I So Single? and Hot Gay Time Machine, performed in the West End.

The exciting new cast is young, energetic and diverse. As the purple and gold curtain rises, we are hit by the bright lights and heavy bass as we are treated to the first rendition of Ex-Wives performed by all the queens. Marlow, Moss and Armitage want this show to feel like being at a pop concert, and it certainly does from the outset. The show’s musical director Beth Jerem also takes to the stage on keyboards, joined by Alice Angliss on drums, Emma Jemima on guitar and Kelly Morris on bass. They seem stiff compared to the shape-shifting queens, but as their ladies-in-waiting, they provide a fitting background to the main action. Each band member, dressed in studded black attire, gets a shout-out from the queens as if we were really watching a concert. The queens’ choreography, designed by Carrie-Anne Ingrouille, is crisp, animated and fitting of artists like Beyoncé and Ariana Grande. They are strong, vibrant personalities, with dazzling outfits and spiky headgear by award-winning costume designer Gabriella Slade, to match. They strut out, appealing to the audience directly, as they determine to pitch themselves against each other in a strange musical competition to find out which one suffered the most during their respective lives. In turn, each character steps forward to solicit the London audience with songs about their tragic lives as wives of the man who led the Reformation in England.

First in the spotlight is Adrianne Langley as Catherine of Aragon, dressed in gold and fishnet stockings, singing defiantly about how she didn’t want to get divorced and sent to a nunnery. Then Marisha Morgan takes the lead vocals, playing Anne Boleyn in a bright green cheerleader-style combo, as funny and sassy as Lily Allen, flirting with the lyrics and audience. Third is Adele-inspired Jane Seymour, heartfeltly performed by a mournful, white-corseted Jessica Aubrey as she sweetly sentimentalises her character’s life as a loyal wife who died in childbirth. The beat picks up as the queens all come together to belt out Haus of Holbein, jumping about the stage as in a European discotheque, decked out in added ruffs and fluorescent green sunglasses. Then Anna of Cleves, Freya Karlettis, clad in a striking black and red pantsuit, with the spirit of a German Nicki Minaj, steps forward into the spotlight. She bashfully sings of her shame at being rejected by the king for not being as beautiful as the depiction in her personalised Holbein portrait.

Fifth wife Katherine Howard is Leesa Tulley playing her character with her own Scottish accent. She brings an ingenue quality to her song, All You Wanna Do, as she sashays about the stage in her pink and purple outfit, playing with her long pink ponytail, describing how men only wanted one thing from her. Finally, West End debutant Nia Stephen comes forward from the backing vocals to sing her role as the sixth and surviving wife, Catherine Parr. Stephens is initially intentionally hesitant and unwilling to continue the battle with the other wives but uses her solo to bring them around to her point of view that they should rewrite their own histories and empower themselves. The show ends with rousing renditions and familiar melodies performed by the ensemble, singing joyfully of the power of being known for themselves rather than for the man to whom they were all married.

The small stage is immediately visually exciting; created by set designer Emma Bailey and lighting creative Tim Deiling, they have constructed a church-like atmosphere behind the band with concentric gold circles on the dance floor and semi-circular steps with inset lights rising up and around to house the onstage musicians. It’s like something you might have found in a Madonna music video, with lamps and LED lights set into the backdrop and a hint of filigree behind that. There are stylised gothic arches and hints of turrets and a massive bank of lights above the stage. Sound designer Paul Gatehouse may have gone overboard with his subs (do we really need 6 of them flown above the front of the stage?), but the whole production throbs with the beat of an arena concert, rattling rib cages in the process. It must be great fun working in the technical team.

This exciting contemporary production with its glittery staging, vibrant costumes and standout singers is a joy to behold. Its distinctive tone and the support of the Vaudeville in its declaration that this will be SIX‘s forever home in the West End mean that we are likely to see many more cast changes in its run. If you love pop and history, sung in a concise and lively fashion, then this is the show for you.