“Divorced, Beheaded, Died: Divorced, Beheaded, Survived." Can you name all of Henry VIII's six wives? Find out who's playing who and how they're singing their way out of the history books and onto the West End stage in the London premiere of Edinburgh Fringe hit SIX, coming to the Arts Theatre...
Casting is announced today for the professional premiere of SIX, which runs at the West End’s Arts Theatre for four Monday dates on 18 December 2017 and 8, 15 and 22 January 2018.
With songs including Ex Wives, Haus of Holbein and Don’t Lose Ur Head, this pop concert remixes five hundred years of historical heartbreak into one hour of 21st-century sass. If you thought SIX was all about one man – you thought wrong!
We may have an exciting announcement coming today... pic.twitter.com/LakFbjxTdP
— SiX ð (@sixthemusical) November 30, 2017
The 16th-century monarch's wives will be played by:
- Aimie Atkinson (Katherine Howard) was Daniela in In The Heights, Elizabeth the lead in Dirty Dancing and won the BBC Voice of Musical Theatre contest.
- Izuka Hoyle (Catherine Parr) was Selena in the musical Working at Southwark Playhouse. She was Stephen Sondheim Society Student Performer of the Year 2017.
- Renée Lamb (Catherine of Aragon) was Roz Keith in the musical 9 to 5.
- Genesis Lynea (Anna of Cleves) is best known as series regular Maddie Harper in The 4 O’Clock Club, the CBBC series about hip hop and homework.
- Christina Modestou (Anne Boleyn) was Nina in In the Heights, she was also in Shrek and Urinetown and covered and played Killer Queen in We Will Rock You.
- Natalie Paris (Jane Seymour) was Louise in Sunday in the Park with George at the Menier Chocolate Factory and appeared in West End musicals Billy Elliott, Chitty Chitty Bang Bang and Les Miserables, as young Cosette
SIX started life with Cambridge University Musical Theatre Society at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe 2017, where it was nominated for the inaugural Musical Theatre Review Best Musical Award. The original amateur production attracted the attention of West End producers Kenny Wax and Global Musicals, who are presenting this all-new production for the show’s professional premiere at the Arts Theatre.
Writers Toby Marlow and Lucy Moss met at university, where they spent three years making theatre together and neglecting their degrees. In January 2017, they made their first foray into writing as a duo with the musical, SIX. The pair also make up two-thirds of the award-winning theatre company Hot Gay Time Machine, whose show, Hot Gay Time Machine, also enjoyed considerable success at the fringe this year, and had a sold-out stint at London's The Other Palace in November.
At the Arts Theatre, SIX will be directed by Lotte Wakeham, with choreography by Cressida Carre, musical direction by Joe Beighton, orchestrations by Tom Curran, sound by Andy Graham, lighting by Rebecca Fry, costumes by Roberto Surace and associate direction by Jamie Armitage.
Did you see SIX's spread in the Evening Standard?
