“Six" at the Adler Theatre -- November 23 and 24.
Monday, November 23, and Tuesday, November 24, 7:30 p.m.
Adler Theatre, 136 East Third Street, Davenport IA
With the Chicago Tribune lauding the "dynamic" entertainment for its "sense of humor and spirited radicalism," the touring production of Broadway's Tony Award-winning musical Six will be staged at Davenport's Adler Theatre on November 23 and 24, the New York Times hailing this crowd favorite as "a rollicking, reverberant blast from the past."
Six is a modern retelling of the lives of Henry VIII’s six wives: Catherine of Aragon, Anne Boleyn, Jane Seymour, Anna of Cleves, Katherine Howard, and Catherine Parr. In the show, the sextet has come together as a band to stage a pop concert and invite the audience to hear their stories. They cannot decide who should be the lead singer, so they initiate a competition, or singing battle, to see who suffered the most as Queen. Each wife believes they had it toughest, and initially, they belittle each other’s attempts to prove their hardship. However, the women become frustrated that their place in history is defined by one man. Together, they decide to pick up the pen and the microphone, and re-write their own stories, realizing that they are more than a rhyme, more than a wife, and much more than one king could handle.
Tony winners for Six's original score, Toby Marlow and Lucy Moss were also responsible for the show's book and lyrics. In late 2016, Marlow was selected by the Cambridge University Musical Theatre Society to create and write a new musical that would be presented at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe in 2017. Marlow, who was in their final year at Cambridge University, created a concept for a musical that would involve re-telling the story of King Henry VIII's ex-wives. They partnered with fellow student Moss, and began working on a concept for the musical together. Initiallu, Six was not intended to focus on the story specifically of Tudor period wives of Henry the Eighth. What interested Marlow and Moss more was the representation of women in musical theatre culture.
They were mainly interested in shaping and reforming how women are viewed, just like the very characters featured in Six. Yet as they began working on the musical, Marlow researched the ex-wives stories by reading Antonia Fraser's The Six Wives of Henry VIII, while Moss viewed a documentary series, Six Wives by Lucy Worsley. They also watched and drew inspiration from the 2011 Beyoncé concert and story-telling performance, Live at Roseland: Elements of 4. The foundation for the musical was consequently written over the course of approximately 10 nonconsecutive days, and from these humble beginnings, Six would go to to receive eight 2022 Tony nominations including Best Musical, winning for Marlow's and Moss' score Gabreilla Slade's costume design.
The touring production of Six will be performed in Davenport on November 23 and 24, admission to the 7:30 p.m. performances starts at $46.55, and tickets are available by calling (800)745-3000 and visiting DavenportLive.com/the-adler-theatre.
