Review: Six Film Captures the Substance, If Not the Spirit of the Show

Toby Marlow and Lucy Moss’s Six is unquestionably one of the most successful stage musicals of the last decade, with open-ended runs on Broadway and the West End, as well as ongoing tours of North America, the UK, Ireland, and Australia (it also performed for several years on Norwegian Cruise Lines). A pro shot of the stage show is the obvious next step for this contemporary of Hamilton and Hadestown, and Focus Features has delivered with director Liz Clare’s perfectly adequate film of the original West End cast performing from the stage of the Vaudeville Theatre.

Clare captures the gist of this fantasy concert that reimagines the six wives of King Henry VIII as members of a girl group. Each gets a solo to plead her case as to why she had the roughest go, with a gold medal in this oppression Olympics being the lead spot in the band. Seeing Six live is an exhilarating experience for history dorks and pop music girlies alike. It’s what I imagine it would feel like to do molly with JJ Scarisbrick at a Pussycat Dolls reunion. But feel is where this pro shot is most lacking.

It is a solid immortalization of Moss and Jamie Armitage’s direction, with sleek scenic design by Emma Bailey, concert lighting by Tim Deiling, and smartly color-coded costumes by Gabriella Slade (Anne Boleyn really does have green sleeves) that look like a Renaissance-themed runway show. There are enough wide shots that you can absolutely learn Carrie-Anne Ingrouille’s sassy and stylish choreography from repeat viewings, should this pro shot land on a streaming service.

The six actors perform those dances with militaristic precision, telling the story of a pop group that is ready for an arena tour, but also perhaps a cast that has been at this for years and is desperately trying to ward off staleness by making everything faster, brighter, and sharper.

But the solos allow us to see distinct takes on the characters which still feel opening night fresh. Playing Catherine of Aragon, Jarnéia Richard-Noel is Beyoncé as a Catholic princess, all menacing big sister energy during her number “No Way.” Millie O’Connell seems to be auditioning for the next season of The Only Way Is Essex in her performance as Anne Boleyn, playing the role of the apologetic shit-stirrer who secretly knows exactly what she’s doing. Her rendition of “Don’t Lose Ur Head” will give you flashbacks to the golden age of Avril Lavigne. Following that sugar rush, Natalie Paris brings us back to earth as Jane Seymour, delivering a showstopping interpretation of the power ballad “Heart of Stone.”

The queens don glow-in-the-dark glasses and ruffs for the techno polka number “Haus of Holbein,” silly good fun that fits well within the musical theater’s grand tradition of German minstrelsy. It tees us up perfectly for Alexia McIntosh’s delightful take on Anna of Cleves, performing the song “Get Down” with a giggly twinge in her voice that tells us that while she won’t win this competition, she won in life.

Aimie Atkinson gives the most memorably disturbing performance of the evening as Katherine Howard (my personal choice for the most wronged). Her dynamic rendition of the song “All You Wanna Do” tells the horrifying tale of a young girl seeking affection and protection (Howard was just 17 when she wed the 49-year-old King), only to realize the real danger she’s in by the time it is too late.

Clare’s one major artistic liberty comes near the end of the show, when it’s survivor Catherine Parr’s turn to sing, and she says, “You know, I’m good…I can’t keep doing this,” and asks the cameraman to cut the feed (Maiya Quansah-Breed is quite convincing in this moment). It then picks up from what seems to be a clandestine iPhone cam in the audience, capturing this seemingly unscripted moment TMZ-style. It’s a thrilling break from a ho-hum concert format that makes one wonder how else Clare could have contributed to the storytelling in this leap to film.

Of course, she does manage to convey the innovation that I suspect has a lot to do with the success of Six, when the actors invite the audience to pull out their phones and record the finale mega-medley, breaking a hitherto longstanding taboo in the professional theater. That sample platter of radio-ready songs, captured millions of times and uploaded to the Internet, has done more to spread the word about Six than any official film ever could. We see the sensation as the camera pans over the audience, a sea of smartphones pointed right at the stage. It’s enough to make a no-phones traditionalist weep, but it does point one way forward for a commercial theater struggling to stay relevant.

Six is playing in movie theaters around the U.S. and Canada on August 14. Find a screening near you.