The sensation that is Six

It’s no surprise Six is the breakout hit of this Broadway season; it has a killer premise, perfectly executed. This fast-and-furious new musical by Toby Marlow and Lucy Moss, which originated in Britain – and passed through Edmonton’s Citadel Theatre on what ended up being a longerthan-expected journey to New York – reimagines the six wives of Henry VIII as a Spice Girls-style pop group on a concert tour.

Catherine of Aragon, Anne Boleyn, Jane Seymour and the ones whose names you’ve forgotten from history class take turns singing songs about their lives in a quest to be crowned the most hard-done-by queen Henry ever had. Winnipeg’s Andrea Macasaet is an absolute hoot as Boleyn, the mean girl of the group. It makes sense to cast a Canadian in this role given she speaks a little French and, in Gabriella Slade’s costume design, has a certain Avril Lavigne edge. Brittney Mack makes a strong case for Anna of Cleves as queen of the pack, however, performing German techno and Nicki Minaj-inspired numbers that draw clever comparisons between 16th-century portraiture and dating-app profile pics, and show why romantic rejection can be the greatest gift of all.

You could read Six as a satire of a culture of competitive victimhood – but its creators are more empathetic than that. Katherine Howard, played by an Ariana Grande-styled Samantha Pauly, sings about how sexually desired she was from a young age: “Ever since I was a child, I’d make the boys go wild.”

But as she chronicles the experiences of being hit on by men when she was 13 to being married to at age 17, the reality of what that means gradually sinks in. The music industry’s sexualization of minors and our lurid fascination with Tudor history are skewered simultaneously – in a catchy song that I walked out humming. (Compare and contrast the way the most recent Tony Award winner for best musical, Moulin Rouge!, has a mere throwaway line about how its leading lady, Satine, was pimped out by her father at age 13.)

Six’s young writers are not above groan-worthy and obvious jokes, mind you. (“I guess he really liked my head,” is saved only by Macasaet’s ironic delivery). But it has the right fan base (younger) and running time (short) to really hit at this tenuous moment on Broadway.

SIX’S MAIN COMPETITION AT THE TONY AWARDS THIS YEAR

Flying Over Sunset. Currently in previews, opens Dec. 13 Composer Tom Kitt ( Next To Normal), lyricist Michael Korie ( Grey Gardens) and the great playwright James Lapine ( Into the Woods) tell an unlikely but semi-true story, based on the time Cary Grant, Clare Boothe Luce and Aldous Huxley took an acid trip in the 1950s.

Mrs. Doubtfire. Currently in previews, opens Dec. 5

A new musical from the team behind Something Rotten! is based on the beloved family movie of the same name that starred the late Robin Williams; the reviews were promising during the show’s “out of town” tryout in Seattle – especially for star Rob McClure.

MJ. Begins previews Dec. 6, opens Feb. 1, 2022

A purely entertaining bio-musical of Michael Jackson seems impossible given the controversial elements of the pop star’s life, and a serious one seems like a tough sell. Lynn Nottage, a two-time Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright with great artistic integrity, is on board as book writer, however.

Paradise Square. Begins previews Feb. 22, 2022, opens March 20 Garth Drabinsky is back at it after his first big postprison production stumbled in Toronto in 2017. Reviews from the current Chicago try-out suggest this epic set in a Free Black and Irish immigrant neighbourhood in Manhattan during the Civil War era has rich history on its side, but needs work. Canadians in the cast include Chilina Kennedy.