Broadway's ‘Six’ pops on Orpheum stage

For centuries, the six wives of Henry VIII have been remembered by a grim rhyme: divorced, beheaded, died, divorced, beheaded, survived.

The Broadway touring production of Tony award winning “Six,” which recently played a brief run at Omaha’s Orpheum Theater, tosses that shorthand aside in favor of a clever, high-energy musical review. Created by Toby Marlow and Lucy Moss, the play takes a pop music swing at the six queens as they take the stage as a modern pop girl group determined to reclaim their stories from the absent king who came to define them.

The staging is less traditional musical and more concert experience. The stage is awash in pulsating neon and strobe lights. 

The loose plot has the sextet of Catherine of Aragon (Carlina Parker), Anne Boleyn (Anna Herte), Jane Seymour (Kelly Denice Taylor), Anna of Cleves (Hailey Alexis Lewis), Katherine Howard (Abigail Sparrow) and Catherine Parr (Tasia Jungbauer) vying for the spotlight, American Idol-style. Each uses song and modern social media-tinged nomenclature to make their case that they endured the worst fate in Henry’s sordid life.

Parker, Hertel and Sparrow were alternates on opening night at the Orpheum but one could hardly tell. The touring cast delivers with confidence and charisma of seasoned pop performers, supported by an all-female rock band that drives the show with infectious energy.

From the first number, “Ex-Wives,” the show moves at a rapid pace. Each queen’s solo number borrows from a different modern pop style, giving the show a musical variety feel that keeps its brisk intermission-free, 90-minute runtime moving.

Parker, as Catherine of Aragon, is a standout. She channels commanding pop diva energy as the first of Henry’s wive as she refuses to accept his attempts to cast her aside. 

Anne Boleyn, as played by Herte, follows with the sort of mischievous, punk-pop anthem that highlights her bouncy yet rebellious reputation. She got the biggest laughs at Orpheum with her beheading quips and ditsy, Britney Spears-esque energy.

Perhaps one of the night’s biggest crowd-pleasers was Lewis, as Anna of Cleves, and her rendition of “Get Down,” a dance-heavy celebration of the queen who arguably got the best deal post-divorce as she walked away from Henry with riches and her independence intact.

But “Six” isn’t all playful swagger.

The musical doesn’t shy away from weaving the sadness and loss these women suffered into the narrative. Taylor’s solo ballad “Heart of Stone,” tells of her love for Henry and the heartbreak of her death following the birth of their son, future King Edward. Katherine Howard’s “All You Wanna Do” begins with glossy sweetness before revealing the darker story beneath the historical headlines that is the emotional heart of the show.

What elevates “Six” beyond a clever, pop jukebox gimmick is its final number. It’s a pivot that is as much female empowerment as historical reclamation. The queens, rather than continuing to compete over who suffered most, ultimately choose to rewrite their own endings, taking back their image and their stories outside Henry’s formidable shadow. The show’s closer, the self-titled “Six” brought the Orpheum crowd to its feet.

The show does sometimes feel rushed at times, leaving little time to linger with its characters, their choices and it is perhaps too reliant on its own staginess. But the production’s witty lyrics and arrangements and, most of all, the powerhouse performances by the six queens make it a rare theatrical experience where royal history makes the leap to pop royalty.