Review: SIX, the Rock Musical Rewriting Her-Story, Returns To The Sydney Opera House Stage.

BWW REVIEW: Storming The Stage To Set The Record Straight, The Brilliantly Badass Queens Of SIX Rock The Sydney Opera House.

SIX, the high energy, all female, pseudo-concert rock musical about the six wives of Henry VIII is back even better than before. Following the Covid-19 induced hiatus,that impacted theatre around the world, Lucy Moss and Toby Marlow's (both Book, Music, Lyrics) smash hit musical SIX returns to the Sydney Opera House to continue the Queens' quest to re-write Her-story.

For the 2021 summer season, the originating cast of Kala Gare (Anne Boleyn), Loren Hunter (Jane Seymour), Kiana Daniele (Anna of Cleves) and Vidya Makan (Catherine Parr) are joined by Phoenix Jackson Mendoza as Catherine of Aragon and Chelsea Dawson as Katherine Howard. Claire Healey (musical director/keys), Debbie Yap (Guitar) and Jessica Dunn (Bass) are joined by new 'Ladies in Waiting" drummer Alysa Portelli.

The production that sees the six wives of Henry VIII battle it out for who had the most tragic life, putting up with the most "BS" from the Tudor King, feels even better than before as cast have become more comfortable with the characters and the concept of a rock concert, complete with impression of 'live and loose' interactions with each other and the audience. Jackson Mendoza presents Catherine of Aragon with a 'lighter' touch while still conveying that Henry VIII's longest standing wife and mother of the short-lived Henry and Mary, who would eventually become Queen Mary I of England, was well within her rights to be upset at being cast aside for the younger Anne Boylen who was close to a decade younger than Aragon at the time of the annulment. Dawson's portrayal of Henry VIII's youngest bride, she was only 19 when she became his 5th wife, shows Catherine Howard's growth from naive belief that the attentions of older men was love to the realization that she was the subject of distasteful abuse of power as she was set in the path of the 49 year old King following what would now be listed as a string of sexual predators.

At a tight 75 minutes, this high energy visual and auditory treat is a wonderful way to engage with the history that might have once incited boredom in high school as women finally get to control the narrative after years of men writing the narrative that would make them look good and the women look weak, stupid, submissive or the source of their own or the male's demise. SIX rewrites the Queens as having strength and sense in a world where they were forced into their situation by the simple fact of the imbalance of power due to society's view of their gender as lesser, an attitude that hasn't completely been erased even in the 21st century. As recommended when this work was first reviewed for the 2020 original opening, SIX remains a must see and even if you caught it the first time around, go again. Revisiting the work allows for even better appreciation of Moss and Marlow's clever lyrics and dialogue and fabulous music, Gabriella Slade's detailed costuming and Carrie-Anne Ingrouille's choreography. This work, though covering some rather weighty issues, is written with a restraint to ensure that it is also suitable for younger audiences and it was pleasing to see a number of younger teens present on the night reviewed, knowing the power that performance art can have on influencing young minds to rethink the world they are growing up in and inspire them to seek the changes that maybe the adults before them haven't been able to create.

https://www.sydneyoperahouse.com/events/whats-on/musical-theatre/2021/six-the-musical.html

https://www.sixthemusical.com/australia

BWW REVIEW: Storming The Stage To Set The Record Straight, The Brilliantly Badass Queens Of SIX Rock The Sydney Opera House.