Review: All Hail The Queens of SIX at San Diego Civic Theatre

Musical theatre royalty is in town as the women of SIX, bring attitude, dance moves, and vocals to blow the roof off of the San Diego Civic Theatre through July 9th. This musical is sure to have you cheering as the six wives of England’s Henry VIII teach you more about their lives than you probably learned in school and have you dancing in your seat.

If you know anything about Henry VIII it’s probably that he had six wives in his quest to have a male heir, but do you know their names?  

Don’t worry, this show will tell you all about them while introducing his wives, Catherine of Aragon (Khaila Wilcoxon), Anne Boleyn (Storm Lever), Jane Seymour (Natalie Paris), Anna of Cleves (Olivia Donalson), Katherine Howard (Courtney Mack), and Catherine Parr (Gabriela Carrillo).  Also known as Divorced, Beheaded, Died, Divorced, Beheaded, Survived.

The musical opens with the women competing to tell the story of their time with the egomaniacal monarch, and she who suffers the most wins the designation of "best” queen. Once this one act starts the energy and the emotions only build as the girl group sings with tight pop harmonies while always moving in the dynamic choreography.  They are supported by the onstage band Valerie Maze, Janetta Goines, Rose Laguana, and Paige Durr.

The queens perform in a concert-like atmosphere, speaking directly to the audience and singing pop-inspired songs that you will surely be humming on your way out.  In the history of pop songs, some of the best are about dealing with no-good men, and honestly, Henry is perfect fodder for this.  Each Queen has a solo moment to not just tell their story, but make their indelible impression with beautiful vocal runs,  atmospheric high notes, and making the audience laugh with snarky commentary. 

Wilcoxon as Aragon opens the show with high energy in a defiant number song explaining that there is “No Way” that  Henry would get a divorce from her and send her to a convent.  Instead, she vows she would be “a Queen til the end of her life.” Lever as Bolyen, who is arguably his most known wife in pop culture, is played with flirty brattiness, she’s “sorry not sorry” but she’s just looking to have some fun.

Paris' Seymour is the queen of the power ballad as she emotionally talks about giving Henry his coveted son, but lost her chance to be a mother as she died shortly after childbirth.  Donalson has a lot of fun as Anne of Cleves, who enjoyed a castle and funds provided by Henry who divorced her as soon as he saw her in person. 

If you think of modern dating, there’s also a fun number about the insane beauty standards of sitting for painter Hans Holbein, who painted portraits for royals looking for spouses.  I guess not looking like your profile pic is a centuries-old problem.

Mack as Howard is a classic mean girl, who is beautiful and has an attitude that acts as armor from all the misuse from the men in her life who only wanted her for one thing, and that included Henry.  Carrillo as Parr brings is emotion and introspection as the woman who had a love that she had to leave when Henry decided to make her his final wife.  (Don’t worry she married the other guy after Henry died, but that's a whole other story.)

The costumes by Gabriella Slade are all inventive and colorful takes on Tudor-inspired designs,  using historic-based necklines, sleeves, and shapes but rendering them in contemporary colors and materials.  Each queen is unique, but together they make a cohesive group, and the costumes look wonderful under the lighting design by Tim Deiling, and during the choreography by Carrie-Anne Ingrouille. 

It just so happens that I specialized in this specific time period along with theatre in college, and I could happily give way too much information on these people and how this show mixes modern aesthetic and pop influences to tell their stories.  But I won’t and you’re welcome.  

The only thing about this show that I can never shake is that while the girl power vibe has a distinctly progressive point of view that these women are more interesting than just being labeled  “Henry’s wife” in history, it then chooses to only care about their time with him.  By the end, when they wink at the audience and proclaim that they were actually teaching us that lesson all along it just hits hollowly, especially since these actual real people were, for their times, very interesting even without the Henry of it all.  Except, without that wink, there wouldn’t be a show and the show is so fun it can be easy to excuse away.

The queens of SIX royally rule the stage with their vocals, amazing energy, and fun choreography, it is a show that will have you yelling “all hail the queens!”

How To Get Tickets

SIX is playing through Broadway San Diego at the Civic Theatre through July 9th.  For tickets and show times go to www.broadwaysd.com.

Photo Credit: Khaila Wilcoxon as Catherine of Aragon in the national touring production of SIX  at the San Diego Civic Theatre. (Courtesy of Joan Marcus)