W3:My favorite musical: SIX 👑

 

By Chock Jing Yi                                                                                                                    8 July 2023

 Introduction about SIX👑

【Six The Musical 】Ex-Wives | Lyric Video

-The first song that starts the musical and also the introduction of the six queens.

  This is a musical like an interesting history book, telling you the story of the Tudor dynasty in England. At that time, King Henry VIII of England had six wives. Their identities and circumstances were different, but most of them ended tragically. Divorce, decapitation, death, divorce, decapitation, only one started well and ended well. Now the story has been staged in a musical, which received rave reviews after the performance and won two Tony Awards. In the play, the "six queens" become pop music idols, "re-interpreting the historical tragedy five hundred years ago, turning the pain and sorrow into the vitality and carnival of girls in the 21st century!"

The history of Six Queens👑

Catherine of Aragon

“No Way,” a Beyoncé- and JLo-inspired “girl boss feminism” anthem

In order to protect Spain's support for England, Henry VII facilitated the marriage of Catherine of Aragon to Henry VII's eldest son Arthur. Later, Arthur died early, and Henry VII betrothed Catherine to another son, Henry VIII. At the time, however, such a marriage violated Catholic canon. Catherine's mother, Isabella I, then asked the pope to issue a papal bull for permission. So Catherine got engaged to her 12-year-old uncle 14 months after her first husband died. After marriage, Catherine gave birth to Mary I (the famous Bloody Mary), but never gave birth to a male heir. Henry VIII divorced her on the grounds that those who marry brothers and sisters-in-law will have no offspring.

Anne Boleyn

 

“Don’t Lose Ur Head,” a “cheeky” number modeled on Lily Allen and Kate Nash

  Because Catherine was unable to give birth to a son, Henry VIII had an extramarital affair with Anne Boleyn, the maid of honor, and even secretly married her. Later, in order to make this marriage legal, Henry VIII broke away from the Holy See, making the marriage with Catherine automatically invalid. However, Anne Boleyn's three pregnancies after giving birth to her daughter Princess Elizabeth all failed. Two miscarriages and one stillbirth discouraged Henry's hopes of seeking a male heir. Anne Boleyn was later convicted of adultery and was finally beheaded. At this time Henry VIII fell in love with a beautiful woman, Jane Seymour.

Jane Seymour

  

  “Heart of Stone,” a slow, Adele-like ballad

The day after Anne Boleyn's beheading, Henry became engaged to his lady-in-waiting, Jane Seymour, and was officially married ten days later. In the following year, 1537, Jane Seymour gave birth to her son Edward (later Edward VI), but died of puerperal fever in Greenwich on October 24 of the same year. Jane Seymour's crowning and love all her life probably came from her giving birth to a son.

Anne of Cleves

“Get Down” a 16th-century take on the rap and hip-hop “trope of being popular and bragging about your Ferrari and your Grey Goose”

  Henry was anxious to remarry to ensure a male heir. Anne of Cleves was the sister of the Holy Roman Duke of Cleves. The duke believed in Protestantism and was an important ally of Henry against the Holy See. He sent the painter Hans Holbein the Younger to paint Anne. The painting was beautiful, and the courtiers also praised it, so Henry agreed to get married. But when Annie arrived in England, he was greatly disappointed by her appearance, and the acne scars on her face were completely unpainted. But out of the consideration of maintaining the alliance with Cleves, Henry VIII was still reluctant to marry Anne, but after marriage he became more and more disliked by her, and finally divorced Anne, gifted She has a lot of money and real estate.

Katherine Howard

“All You Wanna Do,” a catchy number modeled on the work of “young pop stars sexualized early on in their careers,” like Miley Cyrus, Britney Spears and Ariana Grande

  Because of Catherine's youth and beauty, Henry VIII quickly attracted the attention of Henry VIII when he was serving in the palace, so he married Catherine after divorcing Anne. Catherine had an extramarital affair with her courtier Thomas Culpepper and appointed her former lover Francis Dereham (Francis Dereham) as secretary. After being discovered, she was beheaded for adultery when she was only 22 years old.

Catherine Parr

“I Don’t Need Your Love,” a soulful, Alicia Keys–inspired love song

  In 1543, Henry married for the sixth and final time, to the wealthy widow Catherine Parr, who accompanied Henry VIII through his final days. Catherine had been married many times before marrying the king, but her husbands all passed away due to various reasons. Catherine was originally developing a relationship with Jane Seymour's brother Thomas, but because Henry VIII liked her so much, she had to marry the king.

Present Situation

  SIX won 23 awards in the 2021/2022 Broadway season, including the Tony Award® for Best Original Score (Music and Lyrics) and the Outer Critics Circle Award for Best Musical. The New York Times says SIX “TOTALLY RULES!” (Critic's Pick) and The Washington Post hails SIX as “Exactly the kind of energizing, inspirational illumination this town aches for! The SIX: LIVE ON OPENING NIGHT Broadway album debuted at Number 1 on the Billboard cast album charts and surpassed 6 Million streams in its first month.

Future Vision

  Perhaps it is inevitable to form such a social structure under the environment of the Tudor dynasty. We cannot change the history, but living in a modern age where more people have the opportunity to receive education, technology is more developed, and people's thoughts are more free and open, what can we do? Change? Equal rights may be really idealistic, but a social environment where more people are willing to make efforts for equal rights must be better than a social environment full with discrimination.

Creative solution:

1.Overthrowing the Monarchy - Emphasizing Women's Power

  Not only is the cast of “Six” entirely made up of women ,with the accompaniment of an all-female band, the six actors sing and shout into hand-held mics, often speaking directly to the audience. Casting directors also used colorblind casting, resulting in a racially diverse cast.

2.Subverting history-herstrory

  And this drama has always emphasized the concept of herstory, exploring female roles and female perspectives in historical narratives from multiple perspectives, mocking and reflecting on the shackles and distortions of female narrative frameworks in historical narratives all the time while laughing and cursing.

Although there is a plot of six queens competing with each other, it is not the kind of fight for favor and jealousy, but a bit bitter "comparison", from pungent housewife, silly white sweet, at the mercy of others, self-righteous true love and repeated wrong payment From the tragic story, to the gradual awakening of consciousness, until the end of the whole play, the history is re-deconstructed from the perspective of women.

3.Positive view

  The very simplicity of the plot and the often overused theme of feminism could have been the downfall of this musical but in fact it is quite the opposite. It is the exact combination of the theme, the fact that the whole team is made up of women and that these women happily lean into a modern retelling of their story.

  The queen never used Henry as an excuse to belittle men, but encouraged women to be independent from a women's perspective to control their their own future. Your future is in your own hands and we need to be brave to start the action.

Justification and Implementation:

1.Overthrowing the Monarchy - Emphasizing Women's Power

  From a modern point of view, leaving aside certain areas that were too feudal, women can finally occupy their place in history to some extent and do not have to depend on men.

  The most important thing for women is to love themselves, to distinguish the authenticity of other people's love for themselves, and to be kind to those who love themselves. Women must not lose themselves when they are longing for the love they want. They must also improve their knowledge. The charm of culture will always be preserved. Of course, everyone should be like this.

2.Subverting history-herstrory

Although the subject of discussion is history, today's world is tomorrow's history, which is still very meaningful. This play cleverly breaks through the limitations of historical narrative, and directly pulls the six queens into the same time and space to talk from the perspective of God.

3.Positive view-

Without that man, why don't all other merits and demerits seem to exist in history?

 In the end, they originally wanted to compare who was more miserable, but later It is meaningless to find out that it is miserable. The misfortune of all people is that their names are always attached to the man Henry VIII, and women lack historical status and the right to speak. At the end of the play, the six queens picked up their microphones and imagined a happy ending for themselves, which was both touching and sad.

Visualization and Communication:

Full musical proshot

Six The Musical slime tutorial Broadway Proshot

Reflection

  It is a really good musical for all. I highly recommend all female should watch at least once to boost up confidence. SIX still make me tears every time I watch it. SIX and Legally Blonde is the musical I watch repeating to boost me up when I am down.   

  From my perspective, what is sad is that women in the Tudor dynasty in history, or every woman in history, have the problem of lack of voice. The law of the times that men are superior to women and male roles promote historical development is too common. Unbalanced gender concepts It has profoundly affected the whole world; what is touched is that modern women are paying more and more attention to grasping their own rights, making their own voices, and winning a bright future for themselves. This is probably our deepest mourning and respect for those historical figures.

References

• Meilan Solly,The True History Behind ‘Six,’ the Tudor Musical About Henry VIII’s Wives
• January 5, 2023.THE TOP SIX REASONS TO SEE SIX THE MUSICAL
• Lucy Diaz, Features Editor, November 10, 2022.Arts Hearing “her-story”: an analysis of “Six! The Musical”
• Citrus Cidd,2021,Youtube.【Six The Musical 】Ex-Wives | Lyric Video

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