Six - U.K. Tour

Seeing the show from the first few rows is absolutely worth it, concert vibes definitely achieved when you’re right next to the Queens. The costumes are gorgeous too up close

looks like whatsonstage might be announcing the new cast tomorrow

www.whatsonstage.com/edinburgh-theatre/news/six-announces-new-tour-cast_55836.html?utm_source=facebook&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=1February2022&fbclid=IwAR2Y0R-IBD4vUXI2jLsdokSbLbHKcZ3qmBaVDjzNPW2vd_S9q6S1vvhtcXc

* The new touring Queens will be played by Chlöe Hart (Catherine of Aragon), Jennifer Caldwell (Anne Boleyn, previously one of the alternatives), Casey Al-Shaqsy (Jane Seymour), Aiesha Pease (Anna of Cleves), Jaina Brock-Patel (Katherine Howard) and Alana M Robinson (Catherine Parr). Grace Melville, Leesa Tulley and Natalie Pilkington (Dance Captain) also feature in the cast as alternates, with super swing Harriet Caplan-Dean. *

Nice to see Jen Caldwell finally being bumped up to main cast, after covering both the tour and West End productions for most of the pandemic!

What a great night it was tonight with the new cast and a full auditorium at the Liverpool Empire. Toby Marlow and Lucy Moss have created a fantastic show full of great songs (Heart of Stone is my No1 song in the set) and packed with plenty of humour as well. The success that this show has had since its beginning back in 2017 is just fantastic to see and long may it continue. What was great to see was that there were plenty of folk in the audience seeing the show for the first time and loving it from the positive comments I overheard on my way out after the show. I appreciate SIX isn't everybody's cup of tea, but if shows like this can help put bums on seats and hopefully encourage more people to support theatre in the future by going to other shows then that's great.

I have never come away disappointed from watching SIX either on tour or in the WE and this cast didn't disappoint. Tonight, we had all the main cast on with Grace Melville playing Anne in the absence of Aiesha Naomi Pease. All the ladies sounded great and worked well together. Having paid £17 for a front stalls ticket with my ATG card, this was money well spent.

They're selling so much merchandise in Sheffield, they've just had a Friday afternoon re-stock.

Not one, not two, but three pallets. All made in China, of course, for pence.

I had to pause my game of outdoor snooker to have a nosy!

Jaina Brock Patel has left

“Yaaaaaaas Queen”.

In this social media driven age it is sad to see this sort of behaviour, especially those at the start of a career.

For me, this was a case of history repeating itself.

I avoided Hamilton for over a year as I was sure it was not my thing. The West End Whingers' review convinced me I must be wrong, and thus it was that I endured one of my most miserable nights in a theatre.

So too with Six, at the Coventry Belgrade tonight. I had clung to the hope that this would be another Thriller or another &Juliet, shows I expected to hate but enjoyed rather much. Sadly, despite procuring a great front stalls seat for less than twenty quid, and despite chilling my mood with a large white, it became apparent fairly quickly that Six was not a show for me.

The £7.00 programme confirmed that the 77 minutes of singing had featured drama-school-trained performers, and not X-Factor wannabees, for there was scant evidence of well-trained voices. Instead my ears were laid siege to by unpleasant, overdone melisma, shouty vocals, shrill tones, and, in one case, quite a few missed notes.

If history provides any fascinating anecdotes about the back-stories of the wives of Henry VIII, they are unused in the lyrics here. The queens are reduced, with some degree of misogyny, to airheaded, one-dimensional characters who speak in various regional accents the sort of "OMG" dialogue associated with trash Essex-girl stereotypes, while decked in raised conical mini-skirts and cleavage-enhancing bodices.

I am pretty catholic in what makes me laugh: I'll chortle as much at a clever highbrow gag as I will at puerile toilet humour. It just has to be funny. Not a single joke in the lyrics of Six -- and there are many -- landed successfully for me; I not once cracked even a wry smile.

And what of the choreography? What indeed? Just an insipid half-hearted effort. I've seen ageing, reformed boybands with more creative moves.

Jeez did the time drag. I lost count of the times I checked my watch. Hamilton at least had a narrative story.

I suppose it's a good thing that the Belgrade was full and bringing in much-needed revenue, but it's rather depressing that this pap is what is drawing them in.

One star.

One act: 20:03-21:20

I finally got to see this yesterday afternoon in Stockton, and really enjoyed it. I'd been wanting to see it for a long time, but had never been quick enough off the mark to get a ticket. By the time I found out it was on in York last year, the weekend shows were sold out. So I did something I've never done before and booked a theatre ticket a whole year in advance, to see this in Newcastle in July this year. I thought I'd best take my chance while I had it.

I then found out it was also coming to Stockton, which was sooner, is nearer to me, and had better seat availability (at the time, this was still a good few months ago) - I could get a seat on the front row, rather than the back stalls I'm booked in for at Newcastle. I had a bit of a dilemma in that without first seeing it, I wouldn't know whether I would want to see it a second time, but had to make the decision beforehand. So I went ahead and booked Stockton too, thinking if I thought the show was really that bad I wouldn't have to go to Newcastle (perhaps better to waste my money than my time).

Overall I had a great time, and am looking forward to seeing it again, so I'm very glad I took the leap and booked Stockton as well. I loved the costumes, and the attention to detail - I noticed the girls were all wearing big hoop earrings with Roman numerals in, each with their own number as to which wife they are. I thought this was great as I expect it would only be the first few rows who could even notice them, let along spot the relevance of the detail.

I hated history at school, with the exception of Henry VIII and his wives, so was intrigued to see this. I think all history should be taught like this, it would make it much less dull!!