50 Fun Facts About Six: the Musical

Which pop star's 2011 Roseland concert film inspired the staging of Six and its Catherine of Aragon?

Beyoncé's Live at Roseland was what the two writers watched on their first day of work, to learn how a pop gig could also tell a life story.

What forced every Broadway theatre to close on the very day Six was due to officially open in New York?

The COVID-19 pandemic closed every Broadway venue on 12 March 2020, so Six did not officially open until 3 October 2021.

Which weapon did the executioner of Anne Boleyn use after Henry VIII spared her the usual axe?

A sword was the mercy Henry VIII allowed: he commuted her sentence from burning and sent across the Channel for an expert swordsman.

In Six, the queen judged to have suffered most under Henry VIII is promised which role in the group?

Lead singer is the prize, but the contest falls apart when Catherine Parr asks why the queens still define themselves by one man.

At which festival did Six have its first run in August 2017, performed by a cast of students?

Edinburgh Fringe crowds were selling out the student run within days, yet Six left without a major award and still drew professional producers.

Which future monarch was the daughter of Anne Boleyn, who sings Don't Lose Ur Head in Six?

Queen Elizabeth I took the throne in 1558, and only then was her executed mother honoured as a heroine of the English Reformation.

Which British chart-topper was a model for Jane Seymour and her ballad Heart of Stone in Six?

Adele shares the credit with Sia and Celine Dion, because every queen in Six is a blend of real chart stars rather than a copy of one.

Which Broadway hit did one writer of Six study for a dissertation while the other refused to hear it?

Hamilton was the obvious comparison for a pop history show, so one co-writer avoided every song from it to keep its sound out of Six.

Which Tudor tune, wrongly credited by legend to Henry VIII, recurs as a musical motif in Six?

Greensleeves is built on an Italian style that reached England only after Henry VIII died, so he cannot have written it for Anne Boleyn.

Gabriella Slade, costume designer of Six, also dressed which reunited pop group for a 2019 tour?

Spice Girls outfits for the Spice World tour came from the same designer, who went on to win a Tony Award for dressing the six queens.

At which university were the two writers of Six final-year students when they created the show?

Cambridge supplied the commission too: its student musical theatre society chose one of the pair to write a new show for a summer festival.

Henry VIII's fight to end his marriage to Catherine of Aragon led to the creation of which religious body?

Church of England clergy gave Henry VIII the annulment the Pope had refused, and Catherine of Aragon never saw him or their daughter again.

Catherine of Aragon was first married to which relative of Henry VIII, who died months after the wedding?

His brother Arthur had been heir to the throne, and Henry VIII later used that first marriage as his grounds for seeking an annulment.

Which American pop star was a model for Katherine Howard and her solo All You Wanna Do in Six?

Ariana Grande and Britney Spears both feed into the character, whose upbeat number turns dark as the truth of her story comes out.

Which encore do the queens of Six perform after the title song, a number left off the 2018 studio album?

The Megasix is a mashup of the queens' earlier songs, and the Broadway cast album includes it because that one captures every number in the show.

What name is given to the four-piece backing band that plays on stage beside the queens in Six?

The Ladies in Waiting are characters too: each player wears a costume and takes on a historical attendant's persona, as María, Bessie, Maggie or Joan.

How were Anne Boleyn and Katherine Howard, the two executed queens in Six, related to each other?

First cousins through the Howard family, the two shared an uncle in the Duke of Norfolk, who found the younger one her place at court.

Which court painter's portrait of Anne of Cleves persuaded Henry VIII to marry a bride he had not met?

Hans Holbein travelled to her homeland to paint her, and Henry VIII complained on meeting her that she looked nothing like the result.

Which member of the creative team of Six went on stage as Catherine Parr for two West End shows in 2019?

Toby Marlow, who co-wrote the show, stepped in when one cast member was on holiday, two standbys were ill and the last cover was playing another queen.

In which American city did Six give its first North American performances in May 2019, before Broadway?

Chicago hosted the run at its Shakespeare theatre, where Six broke box office records and found the six actors who later opened it on Broadway.

Anna of Cleves, who sings Get Down in Six, travelled to England from a duchy in which modern country?

Germany's city of Düsseldorf was her first home, yet she stayed on in England after the annulment and outlived Henry VIII and his other five queens.

Catherine of Aragon, the first queen to take a solo in Six, was born a princess of which country?

Spain kept using her after she was widowed: in 1507 she served as its ambassador to England, the first known woman to hold such a post in Europe.

Which modern invention do the queens of Six parody in the techno number set in a portrait painter's studio?

A dating app is the joke: Henry VIII chooses his fourth bride from a line-up of portraits, then rejects her for not matching her profile picture.

Which American R&B star was a model for Catherine Parr and her solo I Don't Need Your Love in Six?

Alicia Keys and Emeli Sandé shaped the sixth queen, whose number starts as a goodbye to a lover and turns into a list of what she achieved herself.

What does a typical 80-minute performance of Six run without, unlike most West End musicals?

An interval is missing on Broadway too, where the 80 minutes run straight through with no intermission, much like the pop gig the show imitates.

Which piece of stage kit does each queen in Six carry, with a holder built into her costume for it?

A handheld mic replaces the head-worn kind most musicals use, a choice the writers made to echo a pop star's stage show, in-ear monitors and all.

At which landmark were both Anne Boleyn and Katherine Howard, two of the queens in Six, executed?

Tower of London executions of queens took place privately inside the walls, a privilege of rank that spared both a jeering public crowd.

Which event did Jane Seymour, the third queen in Six, outlive by less than two weeks in 1537?

Her son's birth gave Henry VIII the male heir he had sought through three marriages, and that boy became King Edward VI at the age of nine.

Six won two Tony Awards in 2022, one for costume design and one in which other category?

Best Original Score went to the show's two writers, one of whom became the first openly non-binary composer and lyricist to win a Tony.

Which venue hosted the Australian premiere of Six in January 2020, a site it returned to in 2021?

Sydney Opera House hosted the first night, and Six played the same venue again from December 2021 before touring the rest of the country.

Who became the youngest woman to direct a Broadway musical when Six arrived, beating a 1978 record?

Lucy Moss was 26 and shared the job with a co-director, having already co-written the show and choreographed its student premiere.

The Broadway home of Six was renamed in 2022 for which performer, the first Black woman so honoured?

Lena Horne had won a Tony for a 1981 show staged with the theatre's owners, who renamed the Brooks Atkinson for her while Six was playing inside.

In the closing title song of Six, what do the queens imagine about Henry VIII?

That he never married them is the fantasy: the queens write their own happy endings and sing together as a group rather than as solo rivals.

Which riverside royal home does Anna of Cleves boast of living in, husband-free, during Get Down in Six?

Richmond Palace really was hers: Henry VIII handed it over in 1540 as part of an annulment settlement she had the sense not to contest.

What job did Henry Mannox hold in the childhood home of Katherine Howard, the fifth queen in Six?

Music teacher to the young Katherine Howard under her step-grandmother's roof, he taught her the virginals and was later named in the case that ended her reign.

Which accomplishment made Catherine Parr, the sixth queen in Six, a first among the queens of England?

Publishing her own book came in 1545, when Prayers or Meditations appeared under her name and sold strongly, a year after an anonymous first try.

Henry VIII chose to be buried beside Jane Seymour, the third queen in Six, at which royal residence?

Windsor Castle holds them both in St George's Chapel, where her stepdaughter Mary had led the mourners at her funeral in 1537.

From 2019, which cruise line staged full productions of Six for passengers on two of its ships?

Norwegian put the show on its ships Bliss and Breakaway in 2019, so cruise passengers saw Six before audiences on Broadway or in Australia.

Which show beat Six to the Tony Award for Best Musical in 2022, despite winning only one other prize?

A Strange Loop took the top prize and one writing award, leaving Six with two Tonys from its eight nominations.

Abigail Barlow, who played Katherine Howard in Six, won a Grammy for an unofficial musical of which TV drama?

Bridgerton also brought her a lawsuit: Netflix sued over live concerts of the album in 2022, then dropped the case after a reported settlement.

Which author's study of the queens of Henry VIII did a co-writer of Six read while researching the show?

Antonia Fraser's group biography was one writer's homework, while the other watched a television documentary series about the same six women.

Which West End venue gave Six its first professional run, on Monday nights from December 2017?

Arts Theatre audiences got Six back in January 2019, when its open-ended run began on the same stage before moving to two other West End venues.

Which country staged the first production of Six in a language other than English, opening in March 2023?

South Korea saw a local-language cast take over in Seoul three weeks after the touring British company had begun the run there in English.

What made the Broadway cast album of Six a first in Broadway history?

Recorded live on opening night in October 2021, it carries a bonus song by the alternates and went straight to number one on Billboard's cast album chart.

At which televised New York event did the Broadway cast of Six perform in 2021?

Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade put the queens in front of a national television audience less than two months after their delayed Broadway premiere.

Which Pixar film inspired the 2021 online benefit musical that featured the whole Broadway cast of Six?

Ratatouille: The TikTok Musical cast them as an ensemble of rat queens, with a co-creator of Six directing, and raised $2 million for The Actors Fund.

Aimie Atkinson, the first West End Katherine Howard in Six, later starred as Vivian Ward in which musical?

Pretty Woman reached London in 2020 with her in the part Julia Roberts played on screen, and she put her old crown back on when Six was filmed in 2022.

Which London institution holds the Catherine of Aragon costume that Gabriella Slade designed for Six?

V&A Museum curators took the outfit into their theatre and performance collection and showed it in a display called Re:Imagining Musicals.

In the traditional rhyme about the six queens of Henry VIII, which single word sums up Catherine Parr?

Survived is the rhyme's last word, though she outlived Henry VIII by less than two years and Anna of Cleves, cast off years earlier, outlasted them both.

Which rapper joins Rihanna as a model for Anna of Cleves and her solo Get Down in Six?

Nicki Minaj lends the brag: the fourth queen pretends to complain about her fortune, then admits her life was never tragic and quits the contest.