Get your hands up, DC! Get this party buzzin’! You wanna Queen Bee? Well, here’s half a dozen! Everybody knows that they used to be six wives… and just for you tonight (and every night through December 1st 2024) they’re live at Washington DC’s National Theater— count them— one…two…three…four…five…SIX. The high-octane, super-sassy musical sensation (by Toby Marlow & Lucy Moss) has landed— once again in the nation’s capital and is here to wake you up, shake you up, and bring you a much-needed HIS-story rewrite! Directed by Lucy Moss & Jamie Armitage with Choreography by Carrie-Anne Ingrouille, this enthusiastic history-remix-turned-phenomenal-pop-concert will have you bouncing along to every number and cheering your heart out in just 85 minutes!
It’s a glorious audio-visual spectacle— everything from Emma Bailey (Scenic Design)’s concert-esque play-space to the wicked, spinning-blinking-roaming concert-vibe lighting by lighting designer Tim Deiling. And practically perfect sound-balance by way of Sound Designer Paul Gatehouse. (It seems rare these days that the touring shows get this very necessary component of design executed accurately so when it happens it bares mentioning!) This explosive fusion of concert-meets-musical-theatre is ready to shake the house down and not just because it looks and sounds amazing.
But I’d be remiss in my reporting duties if I talked about how sensational the show’s visuals are without mentioning the incomparably visionary sartorial selection of Costume Designer Gabriella Slade. You think you know Renaissance fashion? Think again. See it with exceedingly sparkling fantasticalness by way of Slade’s highly-stimulated creative choices. Each of the Queens has a signature color and a signature pattern on these outrageously amazing royal couture pieces selected for them— personal favorite includes Anna of Cleves’ break-away magic and her thigh-high stunning rhinestone boots. To be clear, they all get rhinestone boots and shoes, but Anna of Cleves is the only one to get proper, full-up thigh-highs.
On stage with the titular queens, ‘The Ladies in Waiting’— the show’s live band— keeps every beat bouncing, every musical note moving, and they pump an insane amount of high-octane energy into each number, even the slightly more tempo-subdued song “Heart of Stone.” Lead by Music Director Lizzie Webb on keys, The Ladies in Waiting (also featuring Emily Davies on bass, Rose Laguana on guitars, and Camilia Mennitte Pereyra on drums) are equal parts thrill-ride and concert-experience. Combine that with Carrie-Anne Ingrouille’s ferociously energetic and spirited choreography and you have a sensationally unforgettable theatrical experience like no other. Ingrouille has such intense moves and enthusiasm packed into the first three songs with her fierce routines that the librettists figured there needed to be a ballad just to give the performers a movement break! It’s truly wild.
We’re gonna go six sorts of out of order here because all half-dozen queens up on that stage are slaying from their hyped-up intros through to the mega-remix-outro, but some will catch your eye with a bit more bombacity, tenacity, and all-round explosivity than others. The Queens, as they are referred to collectively, do get to share three songs as a unit— “Ex-Wives”, “Haus of Holbein”, and “Six” (plus its refreshing post-curtain-call-mega-remix) and they build each other up, support each other divinely and make for one extraordinary show in this fashion. Each of the Queens has their own solo song where the others serve as backup vocals and dancers as they tell their respective tales, setup at the beginning of the show as a ‘contest— one Queen to rule them all’ only in a ‘who had it worse’ sort of way. It’s unhinged!
Katherine Howard (Alizé Cruz) is pitching HER-story as the youngest of the six wives…also beheaded but perhaps not the more infamous of the beheadings in Henry’s court and she is sending out sass-waves for miles! Strutting around the stage with a heightened dose of sassy attitude, Cruz really hits the audience hard with her number, “All You Want To Do.” It’s fast, fun, and fierce, starts off with a great deal of energy and enthusiasm but as it concludes, Cruz drops an unexpected, blindsiding bomb, and it shakes the audience with indescribable intensity.
Wielding the battleax of slow-burn-smolder-down vocals, Kelly Denice Taylor takes up the mantle of Jane Seymour… ‘the only one he truly loved’…and lays down “Heart of Stone” with such a conflagration of heartfelt strength and sorrow that it will readily move you to tears. It’s not a torch-song, it’s not quite the 11-o’clock number, “Heart of Stone” is its very own element, one that Taylor blasts from deep within the cockles of her emotionally charged soul and really makes the audience and her fellow Queens hear. Though her song be down-tempo, she is FIERCE. And her vocals are FIRE.
With equal parts ferocious fire and emotional fortitude, Tasia Jungbauer draws the Queens together in a fashion most unexpected as she plays Catherine Parr, the survivor. Even if you’ve seen the show (several times as one does with this particular theatrical sensation) Jungbauer surprises you with her approach to the whole contest. The vocal purity she’s putting forth, the emotional current that she’s pulsating out into the audience during “I Don’t Need Your Love” is tsunami-grade pathos coming at you unstoppably.
She’s sorry not sorry for being a bubble-gum-pop Queen, and boy oh boy does she bounce around like some electrifying hybrid of Galinda meets Lilly Allen with a sprinkle of Aqua from the late 90’s thrown in! Gaby Albo, the OG-beheaded as it were, is just wild and wondrous strange as Anne Boleyn and she’s a little scene stealer to boot. There are some delectable moments, little silent glances and exchanges and storm-offs, between her and Catherine of Aragon that are simply to die for! And when she bounce-sasses her way through “Don’t Lose Ur Head” it’s a real scream!
Speaking of the original divorcee, Chani Maisonet as Catherine of Aragon is leading the charge when it comes to presenting these queens and their versions of HER-story. Vocally sound, mindfully present of every step she takes in the Spanish-inspired backbeat of “No Way” you feel like you’re on her side of the narrative every step of the way. Maisonet is vocally intense, physically sending her all out into the universe with those intense dance routines, and really gives you a triple-force performance— particularly when it comes to the quick drop-beat section of her solo.
She’s the Queen of the castle— get down you dirty rascals— get down! Miss Anna of Cleves as played by Danielle Mendoza is simply slaying. There’s no other words for it. Fierce and fabulous and ready to knock the whole show from the lip of the stage all the way across the reflecting pond and down to the Lincoln, Mendoza is on fire. She’s got attitude, she’s got vocals for miles, she’s got insanely wild dance moves, she’s got it all. She’s even got the best pair of boots and arguably the most intense costume. Owning the role of ‘Queen Rejected on Looks’, Mendoza is a blazing shooting star that’s rocketing her way through this production and she is astonishing. The crowd goes wild after “Get Down” (and halfway during it too) and you can’t blame them for all the phenomenal cosmic intensity and talent she’s pouring into this performance.
Count them again— Maisonet, Albo, Taylor, Mendoza, Cruz, and Jungbauer— Aragon, Boleyn, Seymour, Cleves, Howard, Parr— that’s one…two…three…four…five…SIX. And they are a stunning sensation— here for three weeks only. DO. NOT. MISS— SIX.
Running Time: Approximately 85 minutes with no intermission
Six plays through December 1st 2024 with Broadway at The National— 1321 Pennsylvania Ave NW, Washington, DC 20004. For tickets call the box office at (202) 628-6161 or purchase them online.
