“Nice neck, by the way.”
The Broadway musical is 80 minutes long Six, this brief line—delivered to a fellow actor by 28-year-old Andrea Macasaet with what quickly becomes her character’s signature petulance—brought down the house the February evening I saw the performance. Macasaet plays Anne Boleyn, so you’ll understand the uproar.
It was buzzing before it opened Six’s Broadway debut was strong—$12 million in advance ticket sales strong—thanks in part to successful runs in Chicago and on London’s West End and the unprecedented popularity of the show’s studio recording, which—by February 2020—had been streamed 100,000,000 times on Spotify and Apple Music. Some referred to the musical, written by Toby Marlow and Lucy Moss while still students at Cambridge University, as a feminist HamiltonIt’s a good example of this, and it isn’t too far off base in others. Like Hamilton, SixUncovering the dusty history books is a good idea. It brings up the source material with unapologetic asynchronism and shares its disregard for historical accuracy regarding casting.
But what makes it so special? SixIts framing device, however, is so unique. Formatted as a one-night only concert—complete with a female band on stage—the six-woman cast of varying ethnicities and body types each play one of King Henry the VIII’s scorned wives fighting for the audience’s input on, essentially, who had it the worst being married to such a creep. During the hour-and-twenty-miniute spectacle, each queen slinks to the forefront as a rotating protagonist to fill us in on her backstory in the loose style of a specific pop star. Beyonce vibes will be emanated from Catherine of Aragon, the first wife. There will also be shades of Rihanna and Britney from the other wives.
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All of them are excellent, but it’s difficult not to notice Macasaet, a Filipino-Canadian actress, for her razor-sharp comedy timing and testy disposition as wife number 2. Her Boleyn—the king’s second wife who was, as we’re constantly reminded, beheaded in 1536—takes cues from early 2000s sneer pop reminiscent of Avril, Miley, and Lily Allen. Her big number “Don’t Lose Ur Head” tells of a sexy young French girl who arrives in England to marry a horny king only to, well, lose her head. Macasaet mixes the mannerisms of pop stars with valley girl nuances. She would be able to sit alongside the likes Cher Horowitz and Elle Woods. (“Everybody chill. TotesAnother crowd pleaser is “God’s will”.
The show’s Broadway buzz was dimmed in March 2020 when the then-governor shut down all theater in New York and the cast of SixThe news was delivered on the opening night. Tragic for a young cast, most of whom were making their Broadway debut, but the music—pure, uncut, can’t-get-it-out-of-ur-head pop—took on a new life on streaming platforms and social media, and by the time SixMacasaet announced that the show would be reopened October 2021. He said that scores of young people from the audience would hear a song and attribute it TikTok.
Source: Glamour
