Six is a modern retelling of the lives of the six wives of Henry
VIII presented as a pop concert, as each of the wives take turns singing and
telling their story to see who suffered the most due to Henry and should,
therefore, become the group's lead singer.
The show opens with the six Queens performing an opening
number in pop-concert, girl-group fashion introducing themselves. They also
welcome the audience to the performance ("Ex-Wives"). They address
the crowd through means of breaking the fourth wall and tell them that this
show will feature a competition, and whoever had the "biggest load of
B.S." to deal with from the man who married them, Henry VIII, will be the
one to lead the group ("Ex-Wives (Reprise)"). Catherine of Aragon
starts off and recounts her marriage to Henry and later annulment, and almost
being put into a nunnery when he began lusting after Anne Boleyn ("No
Way"). When Aragon claims that she is the winner, the other Queens mention
Anne and how she overlapped with Aragon during the former's marriage, resulting
in said annulment ("Anne Boleyn (Interlude)"), and Anne recounts her
time as Queen with Henry and her eventual execution ("Don't Lose Ur
Head"). She then continues to argue that she deserves to win the
competition due to her execution and further begins to sing a new solo 'about
the moment [she] found out Catherine of Aragon had tragically died'. This
attempted solo is interrupted by the other queens. Jane Seymour then announces
it's her turn to recount what she put up with, but the other Queens mock her
for not having as much to deal with as, in her words, she was "the only
one he truly loved". Jane admits that while she may have been lucky for
not having to suffer at his hand, she still stood by him throughout all his
faults ("Heart of Stone").
The story then shifts as the Queens are suddenly turned into
members of Hans Holbein's painting studio, talking about how they make the
women he paints look beautiful for their portraits ("Haus of
Holbein"). In a set-up parodying Tinder (or another similar dating site)
they present three women: Christina of Denmark, Amalia of Cleves, and Anna of
Cleves, Amalia's elder sister. When Henry "swipes right", so to
speak, on Anna, they all assume he will marry Anna and that they will have a
happy, long-lasting marriage ("Haus of Holbein (Playoff)"). Of
course, their union is ultimately ill-fated as he rejects Anna, and she
pretends to make a big deal about how she is then forced to live in a beautiful
palace in Richmond as a result, though she's not really complaining ("Get
Down"). After the Queens point out how Anna's life doesn't sound that
difficult, Anna says "Oh, well, back to the palace". As Katherine
Howard is next to go, the Queens belittle her for being "the least
relevant Catherine", but Katherine retaliates by mentioning flaws in the
other Queens' reasons for winning, such as how Anne Boleyn wasn't the only
beheaded wife and how Jane Seymour only died due to natural causes. She then
recounts her life and the men who abused her, leading into her marriage to
Henry as she breaks down, fully realizing the trauma she suffered with her
relationships and how these "all-powerful men" led to her eventual
beheading ("All You Wanna Do").
As the Queens continue to squabble about who should win the
contest, a frustrated Catherine Parr puts a stop to it. Questioning the point
of it all, she brings up the fact that they're remembered solely by their
shared connection to Henry, not as individuals. When they refuse to listen,
claiming she has no story to tell that involves Henry, Parr tells her story,
and of the accomplishments she made independently of Henry ("I Don't Need
Your Love"). The other Queens, realizing that they've let themselves be
defined by Henry for so long, stop the contest and declare that they don't need
his love to feel validated as people ("I Don't Need Your Love
(Remix)"). With only five minutes left in the show after the fact, they
decide to use their remaining moments on stage to "rewrite" the
stories they told and sing for themselves for a change, singing together as a
group rather than as solo artists and writing their own happily ever after
("Six").
Brooks Atkinson Theatre
The Brooks Atkinson
Theatre was designed by architect Herbert J. Krapp. It was constructed
as the Mansfield Theatre by the
Chanin brothers in 1926. After 1933, the theatre fell into relative disuse
until 1945, when Michael Myerberg bought and leased it to CBS for television
productions. Known as CBS Studio 59, the theater played host to the
long-running panel shows What's My Line? and I've Got a Secret.
In 1960, it was renamed after the former New York Times theater critic,
Brooks Atkinson, and returned to legitimate use. The Nederlander Organization
purchased part-ownership of the Atkinson in 1967. In 2000, the interior was
refurbished with restored decorative finishes by EverGreene Architectural Arts,
and now the theatre is once again illuminated by the original chandelier that
had been removed over 40 years prior. It has 1,069 seats and is one of the
Nederlander Organization's nine Broadway houses.
