Review: The Gator Lane Players of Land O Lakes High School Presents SIX: THE MUSICAL

The Land O Lakes High School theatre department, led by the indomitable Sabrina Hydes, always puts on wonderful shows, even if the musicals in question are quite flawed (great songs, bad scripts).  In the past, I’ve seen them tackle such hits as Legally Blonde, The Addams Family, Mamma Mia and Mean Girls, all terrifically mounted shows based on so-so material.  They were memorably huge productions where dozens upon dozens of young performers could shine and where, at curtain call, the numerous tech kids got the final bows.

And now The Gator Lane Players have bet the farm by taking a gamble on producing the current favorite SIX: THE MUSICAL (TEEN EDITION),  book, lyrics and music by Toby Marlow and Lucy Moss. Unlike their past behemoths, where the stage was littered with rows of excited thespians, this one focuses on just six uber-talented performers and a handful of backstage tech.  (Never fear, the larger cast and troves of techies are guaranteed for their upcoming spring production of Hadestown.)

Although the show closed at the Wesley Chapel Performing Arts Center on Saturday, October 18th, those of us in the audience will not soon forget it.

SIX: THE MUSICAL has bubbled with buzz ever since it premiered at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival back in 2017 and opened on Broadway just before the pandemic in 2020.  It centers  on the six wives of Henry the VIII telling their tales of woe in a competitive pop concert, sort of like a Renaissance-themed Britain’s Got Talent. In this pop-comp angle, it’s not unlike a poppy Ride the Cyclone, complete with a beheaded singer…although, to be fair, SIX does it one better by boasting two beheaded characters. It’s a razzle-dazzle Vegas-like Revue, fun, fast and furious (and, in the end, quite meaningful, where the ladies vow to reclaim their stories).  Imagine the Spice Girls performing at a Ren Faire and you’ll get an idea of what it’s like.

The Land O Lakes production is just about the tightest high school musical I’ve encountered. It’s always moving, each of the six stars shaking the rafters and showcasing the sheer joy of performing.  And each one equal in immense talent (the future of musical theatre sure looks bright). 

First we have Catherine of Aragon, played to the hilt by the exquisite Jade Ethier, who resembles Botticelli’s Portrait of Simonetta Vespucci.  She’s the first wife, the one that Henry the VIII divorced because she could not produce an heir.  The part calls for a Beyonce-like singer, and Ms. Ethier more than delivers.  Her “No Way” sets the stage for the excellence to come.

Dalainey Moore is a standout among standouts as the doomed Anne Boleyn, Henry’s second wife who was rumored to have a sixth finger on her right hand.  Her raucous “Don’t Lose Your Head” is tied for my favorite song of the show.  The number follows Anne’s tragic trajectory where, as Henry’s mistress, she has to live with Henry’s first wife, Catherine of Aragon, until the church allows for divorce, and then eventually as his wife, how it all leads to her public beheading due to a trifecta of eyebrow-raising charges--adultery, incest and treason.  Thankfully the teen edition of the show alters one of her lines, referring to a sex act, and changed to the more benign (but still somewhat alarming). “I guess you could say things were really coming to a head.” 

Ms. Moore crackles with electricity onstage, with a humorous high-pitched voice and vocals that move the soul.   

Savannah Wardell plays Henry’s third wife, Jane Seymour.  Although Jane produced Henry’s long-awaited male heir, she died in childbirth.  Her lyrics of “Heart of Stone” can be seen as an anthem of female empowerment: “You can build me up/You can tear me down/You can try but I’m unbreakable/You can do your best/But I’ll stand the test/You’ll find that I’m unshakable.”  To find a feminist anthem this strong you have to go back to Lesley Gore’s “You Don’t Owe Me,” Aretha Franklin’s “Respect,” and Gloria Gaynor’s “I Will Survive” (not to mention “The Man” by Taylor Swift and “This One’s for the Girls” by Martina McBride).  It’s a thrilling ride, tied as my favorite song of the show, and is terrifically sung by Ms. Wardell.  The song is supposed to be an Adele-like power ballad, but with Ms. Wardell’s seat-rattling vocal chops, I kept thinking back to the great Ann Wilson of Heart and the way she would shred through songs like “Alone” and “These Dreams.” What a voice, what a song!

Sofia Acosta brings a lot of Minaj-like attitude and gusto to the part of Anna of Cleves, Henry’s fourth wife (more like an honorary sister than actual wife who, after the King annulled their marriage because he wasn’t happy with her looks, became close friends with him).   She rips through “Get Down” like there’s no tomorrow…and for so many of these wives, that’s the case.

Mariah Rojas is sensational as Katherine Howard, Henry’s fifth wife and the second to be decapitated.   In Britney and Ariana-inspired “All You Wanna Do,” Rojas’ Katherine sings through her unhappy journey (from age 13 to her death) with various men.  It’s a rollicking number, brilliantly performed by ms. Rojas, and audience members may never be able to get the refrain (“seize me, squeeze me, birds and bees me”) out of their head.

As the last wife, Catherine Parr, sophomore Sara O’Reilly seems to be the sleeper of the show.  She’s in the background much of the time, waiting for her moment to shine, and that moment ultimately comes with her big number, “I Don’t Need Your Love.”  Ms. O’Reilly is terrific here, holding her own with the other wives in another of the show’s best numbers (which is supposed to be in the style of Alicia Keys, but I found Ms. O’Reilly reminding me more like one of my favorites, Tracey Thorn).  Her song seems to be the anthem of the entire show, inspiring the galvanizing remix at the end. 

The six performers own the stage for nearly ninety minutes.  And I haven’t even mentioned their glorious group harmonies on songs such as “Ex-Wives,” “Haus of Holbien,” and the title song.

There’s a reason SIX is such a hit…it contains some brilliantly realized songs that move the show’s meaning forward.  And it takes six extremely talented young ladies to bring it to life (and, sadly for some of them, death).  Yes, there is sometimes a mind-numbing sameness to some of the more rave-like numbers, but the two big power ballads—“Heart of Stone” and “I Don’t Need Your Love”—break up the monotony at just the right moments.

Did I mention that there is a live band onstage as well, a mixture of pros and students?  Yes, this group, brilliantly led by music director Renee Palma, features Ms. Palma on piano, Jacob Barber on drums, Thomas Battle on guitar and Grace Huang on bass.  There may be just four of them, but they fill the Wesley Chapel Performing Arts Center as if there are a dozen or more of them.    

The production is first rate where nearly everything goes right: The flashy and workable set design by Peter Eales, the eye-popping lighting design by Keith Eisenstadt, and Matt Endo’s sound.  With 243 cues to call, stage manager Amelia Smith and her crew did an admirable job.  My only real qualm in the production would be that I couldn’t understand several of the lyrics or some of  the banter between the wives--certain words couldn’t be deciphered--and this is either due to an enunciation issue or a mic issue.

Guiding all of this is the illustrious director, Sabrina Hydes, along with her creative choreographer Samantha Cressman (the girls get quite an aerobics workout). Ms. Hydes and company have set the bar with this one, where both the show and the performances live up to the hype. 

Its story still resonates.  SIX is about a group of women, dead five hundred years, finally reclaiming their voices; it’s a misogynist’s nightmare.  To prove this point, on the night that I attended the show, a group of unruly young men kept heckling or laughing inappropriately loud during the production; they had to be ejected from the theatre by admin more than once.  This misbehavior reflected poorly on the school and the community; had these young men never been to a show before?  These aren’t some elementary school students who don’t know any better; these are high schoolers, our next generation of leaders, displaying a lack of civility, etiquette and empathy.  I wondered for a moment if they were planted in the audience to prove the show’s point: That some small-minded men, no matter what age, just can’t handle a stage filled with strong women.   

My middle school students love SIX: THE MUSICAL, some of them obsessed with it.  And why not?  It’s a show with six main female leads and not one male to clutter the stage (although men clutter the story, especially the obnoxious Henry the VIII, they are not onstage but you feel his presence in the wounded souls of these six ladies).  Many of my students went to see the show, and when I played the song “Ex-Wives” for my musical theatre class last Friday, they sang along with it, knowing each and every lyric.  It's part of their current obsessions, like The Life of a Showgirl or any fad found on TikTok.  I’m just glad the title of the musical is SIX and not SIX-SEVEN.