Happily Married: Averted. None of Henry's wives seemed particularly content with their marriages except for Jane Seymour (who despite having the most positive relationship towards Henry still expresses mixed feelings and eventually rejects his love), and Anna of Cleves (who wasn't married to him long enough to feel more than stung when he rejected her to begin with, especially considering the divorce turned out great for her). Grace Mouat’s Costume- https://divorcedbeheaded.tumblr.com/post/184743930784/so-as-you-know-the-understudies-cover-all-six Six: The Musical is a musical written by Toby Marlow and Lucy Moss. It premiered at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival in 2017 as a student production. Six then had its first professional production Off-West End at the Arts Theatre later that year. Lady in a Power Suit: Catherine Parr, historically an advocate of women's rights, wears a costume reminiscent of a power suit. This also applies to any queen that happens to be portrayed by someone ◊ wearing ◊ an alternate ◊ costume ◊ with ◊ trousers ◊. Haus of Holbein" has the line "You bring the corsets, we'll bring the cinches / No one wants a waist over nine inches". During the 16th century, the corset was not actually used to cinch the waist—rather, it was used to mold the torso into a more cylindrical shape and raise the bustline. The extreme tight-lacing to create a tiny waist didn't become fashionable until the 19th century.

The original pink alternate costume ◊, with its large cap sleeves and open peplumed skirt, was assigned to Aragon and Howard. On stage, the colour of the costume can either look pink or purple— the latter of which suits Aragon due to its connotations to power and royalty. Cultural Translation: In non-British productions, some lines are altered to reduce English slang (mostly the word "mate". See the notes for original wording. The biggest moment of this trope comes near the end of the show, where they lament to each other about how "awesome it would have been" to reclaim their stories by singing about it. Cue all the queens slowly and smugly turning towards the audience. Arguably the most (in)famous of the six wives, Anne is alternatively portrayed as a scheming, power-hungry seductress; a victim of her callous father’s vaulting ambition; or a worldly, charismatic woman who rose to the kingdom’s highest office only to be targeted by jealous men. Only Sane Man: Catherine Parr, who is the first one to realize that the competition is stupid and that her story shouldn't be centered around Henry. It's subverted when the Queens sarcastically hint that the competition was fake all along.Musicalis Interruptus: After Anne Boleyn finishes her "I Am" Song "Don't Lose Ur Head", she tries to immediately follow up with another song, "Wearing Yellow to a Funeral" about the death of her romantic rival for Henry; Catherine of Aragon. She almost calls Aragon a certain C-word before getting cut off by the other characters. The song: “ All You Wanna Do,” a catchy number modeled on the work of “young pop stars sexualized early on in their careers,” like Miley Cyrus, Britney Spears and Ariana Grande, as Marlow told Vulture The musical follows the popular myth that Anne Boleyn was the one who prompted Henry's idea to get divorced from Catherine. In reality, there were rumors in Henry's court that he wanted a divorce as early as 1520 (Henry met Anne as late as 1527) due to physicians telling him between 1524 and 1525 that Catherine was unlikely to give birth again.

Smitten Teenage Girl: Katherine Howard was barely an adolescent when she engaged with her first two lovers (thirteen with Mannox, and around fourteen or fifteen with Dereham), and seems to have been genuinely infatuated with them at the time. Unfortunately, they take advantage of this and start a sexual relationship long before she's ready. In American productions, Aragon says "I hit that high C". In productions outside of the US, the line is "I hit that top C". Remarried to the Mistress: Anne Boleyn is the obvious example, but this also applies to Jane Seymour since historically, Henry VIII had been showing signs of affection towards Jane during his marriage to Anne. Nowadays, the queens' hairstyles are mostly standardised (Aragon gets large curls, Boleyn gets space buns, Seymour gets a half-up half-down hairstyle or similar, Cleves gets a mohawk, Howard gets a high ponytail, and Parr gets side curls), but in earlier productions this wasn't as much enforced. From this, we got gems such as mohawk Boleyn ◊ and short-haired Seymour ◊. Ms. Fanservice: Katherine Howard frequently draws attention to her own attractiveness, and her outfit is by far the most provocative out of all the queens. All of this is downplayed in "All You Wanna Do", where she sings about her experiences with sexual abuse and enters an emotional breakdown in the last chorus.Historical Relationship Overhaul: Catherine of Aragon was Catherine Parr's godmother. This is never mentioned in the musical. Jane Seymour sports a simple, modest crown with small spikes. In some productions, the crown is entirely white.

Speak Ill of the Dead: Anne Boleyn's song, "Wearing Yellow to a Funeral", which she wrote after finding out about Catherine of Aragon's death. Prayer Pose: The queens briefly form a group prayer pose during No Way. Catherine of Aragon also takes this pose ◊ while pleading to Henry. Doom Magnet: Henry VIII is an offstage example. Becoming his wife is a recipe for misfortune. The only queen to avoid this fate was Anna of Cleves, who accepted the annulment and got out of dodge the second she could. I was studying history but couldn’t remember much about the Tudors, beyond Henry possibly writing Greensleeves about Anne Boleyn. Anyway I had my dissertation to write so didn’t have much time for reading. My main research was Lucy Worsley’s TV series. I love the way she gets dressed up, pretending to be a lady in waiting and looking over her shoulder at the camera. It’s so ridiculous! The Unapologetic: Anne Boleyn, and proudly so. She insists she means no harm, but also refuses to genuinely apologise for anything — even if it gets herself killed.The musical implies that Katharine Howard lost her virginity to the much older Thomas Mannox. In reality, while they certainly had a deeply inappropriate relationship there's no evidence it went beyond sexual touching — perverted and wrong, but not actual sex. Both insisted when interrogated at Katharine's adultery trial that this was the case even when Mannox was put to torture to get the truth. In addition, some historians have questioned if Mannox was actually older than Katherine, as reliable information about his age at the time is hard to come by. Recurring Riff: The tune of "Greensleeves" is the first piece of music played in the show leading up to the opening number. This motif occurs a few more times throughout the score, particularly in "Ex-Wives" and the beginning of "Megasix". During "Get Down", Anna of Cleves asks an audience member to dance for her. If they refuse, she'll make a scripted joke about Henry VIII's impotence. Gratuitous Foreign Language: Anne Boleyn grew up in the French court, so she sprinkles a few French lines in her song "Don't Lose Ur Head". Catherine of Aragon, shipped over from Spain, slips in some Spanish words into her speeches before and after her solo. The show also uses a lot of Gratuitous German between three songs; during Anna of Cleves' verse in "Ex-Wives", all throughout "Haus of Holbein", and a few lines in Anna of Cleves' solo "Get Down".

Catherine Parr ◊'s signature crown used to be a spiked headband ◊. Her costume also didn't have a peplum ◊. Deliberate Values Dissonance: Katherine (supposedly) doesn't see anything wrong with the fact that she was thirteen to Henry Manox's twenty-three, and a sixteenth-century audience likely wouldn't have either; it gets a 21st-century audience squirming in discomfort. The truth of the matter depends on which scholar one asks. Most of Anne’s letters and papers were destroyed following her May 1536 execution on contrived charges of adultery, incest and conspiring to kill her husband, so much of what is known about her comes from outside observers, some of whom had reason to paint her in an unforgiving light. Even the queen’s date of birth, writes historian Antonia Fraser, is a fact “that can never be known with absolute certainty (like so much about Anne Boleyn).”Named After Somebody Famous: A weird, meta example. Catherine Parr was likely named after Catherine of Aragon, which clashes with the musical's timeline (in which they're all the same age). Cool Shades: During "Haus of Holbein", the queens (and the band, too), wear shades with glow-in-the-dark rims. Catherine of Aragon: If you can just explain a single thing I've done to cause you pain… I'll go. ( Beat) No? When Jane Seymour bounds towards and scolds Catherine of Aragon for daring to use Mary as a way to one-up everyone else, an increasing popular acting choice is for her actress to (subtly or not-so-subtly) punctuate her tirade by vainly posing towards the audience afterwards.