Review by Suzanne Tate
Henry the Eighth’s famous brides are once more gracing Melbourne with their iconic, powerful presence, as the blockbuster show SIX returns once again to the Comedy Theatre.
Since premiering at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe in 2017, SIX has grown into an international phenomenon. Written by Toby Marlowe and Lucy Moss for the Cambridge University Musical Theatre Society, the show began life as a fringe production before selling out, returning the following year in a larger venue, and then transferring to the West End, touring the UK, North America and Broadway. Melbourne has previously enjoyed seasons of SIX in 2022 and 2024, demonstrating just how loved this show is. Presented as a pop concert, SIX gives each of Henry VIII’s six wives the chance to tell their own version of ‘herstory’. The musical inspiration for each queen is drawn from several pop icons, including Rihanna, Sia, Avril Lavigne and Alicia Keys, giving each character a distinct musical style and personality, fostering variety in the musical numbers.
Co-directed by Lucy Moss and Jamie Armitage, and Australian associate director Sharon Millerchip, the production features choreography by Carrie-Anne Ingrouille, with Freya Sands credited as International Associate Choreographer. The choreography remains one of the highlights of the show. It makes excellent use of the relatively small performance space, while keeping all six queens moving with energy and precision. It is sharp, modern, frequently funny, and perfectly captures the atmosphere of a live pop concert.
Lighting also plays a major role in creating that concert feel. Designed by Tim Deiling, with Associate Lighting Designer Jason Fripp, it fills the stage with bold colours and dramatic effects, while also cleverly reinforcing the show’s historical setting. Patterns of light suggest gothic windows and heraldic designs, adding subtle reminders of the Tudor world without interrupting the concert aesthetic. Together with the choreography and costumes, the lighting is particularly effective during the delightfully over-the-top “Haus of Holbein”, one of the production’s visual highlights.
Gabriella Slade’s award-winning costumes, with Associate Costume Designer Nigel Shaw, remain one of the show’s defining features. The glittering, colour-coded costumes immediately establish the concert atmosphere while making it easy to identify each Queen. At the same time, details such as sleeve shapes, collars and silhouettes reference both Tudor and Landsknecht fashion, cleverly blending historical influences with modern pop-star styling. Anyone familiar with earlier productions will notice that the costumes have remained almost identical, with only a few small refinements, including an additional peplum tier on Catherine of Aragon’s gold costume and a matching hip flare added over the leggings of Catherine Parr’s blue costume. They are minor changes, but they add a little extra movement and a more distinctive silhouette, while preserving the iconic designs synonymous with SIX.
In 2024, the cast included 4 new faces within the Queen line-up, with two returning to reprise their roles from the 2022 season. In 2026, there has been a clean sweep, with 6 new performers in the roles, creating a diverse cast. On opening night, they have already developed a great group energy, playing off each other in a very natural, entertaining way. In chronological order, we have Sarah Murr as Catherine of Aragon. Murr was strong and confident and had the advantage that her signature song ‘No Way’ provides possibly the most dramatic vehicle in the soundtrack to showcase vocal power, agility and range. Mia Paros Scalise plays Anne Boleyn as modern and sassy (and just a bit catty), taking verbal swipes at every other queen as she throws out hashtags and snaps selfies. The ‘queenspiration’ of Lily Allen is very evident in ‘Sorry Not Sorry’. Queen number 3, Jane Seymour, is played by Cara Bessey. I found her character a bit contradictory. The song lyrics of her number, ‘Heart of Stone’ suggest strength, steadfastness and love, but the character portrayal was naïve, bordering on ditsy at times. She gained many laughs for it, but it didn’t seem to match the story told in her music. Next in line is Anna of Cleves, played by Kadesa Honeyhill. Her character is introduced by the fun and visually dramatic ‘Haus of Holbein’, but her individual story, told in ‘Get Down’, is also much more upbeat and positive than that of her royal peers. Angela Brischetto as Katherine Howard produced the most impactful, emotional moment of the night for me. ‘All You Wanna Do’ starts out light-hearted but becomes deeply disturbing. Brischetto builds the angst through each chorus, with subtle differences until the distress is strongly evident in the final rendition. Finally, Lorinda May Merrypor plays Catherine Parr, bringing a strong finish to the tales of the queens with ‘I Don’t Need Your Love’. Each of these performers presented a carefully crafted, unique character through their music, presenting a contemporary version of each herstorical queen. Despite the consistently tragic tales, only Murr and Brischetto really moved me emotionally. The show, however, is definitely aiming to provide a high-energy, humorous and generally upbeat and positive night of entertainment, rather than an emotional drama, which they pull off very successfully! The Queens were ably supported by an all-girl band on stage, listed in the programme as Claire Healy (MD and keyboard), Heidi Maguire (Ass.MD and keyboards), Kathryn Stammers (drums), Danielle Coligan (guitar) and Matilda Yang (bass).
The fact that Melbourne has supported 3 seasons of SIX in 4 years demonstrates just how entertaining it is. The audience is always highly responsive, clearly knowing the songs and cheering for their favourite Queen, and SIX provides a high-energy evening of laughter and epic musical performances – as an added bonus, you also walk away with a little bit of extra knowledge of hist..sorry, herstory to expand your mental horizon.
SIX is now playing at the Comedy Theatre in Melbourne’s East End Theatre District.
For more information and tickets: https://sixthemusical.com.au/
Photo credit: James D Morgan
