For Broadway producers picking the ideal show to champion is like catching lightning in a bottle. It’s that rare, against-all-odds production where all the stars manage to align.
When producers Kenny Wax and Kevin McCollum discovered the show Six they knew they had found lightning in a bottle. The musical spotlights the six wives of King Henry VIII, placing them front and center, allowing them to tell their stories about divorce, beheading and survival from their perspective.
In this musical, King Henry, who typically looms large when his wives are mentioned, never appears in the show. Here the Tudor queens recount their lives 500 years ago, on their terms, against the backdrop of a catchy pop score. As they sing, “Listen up let me tell you a story...History’s about to get overthrown.”
Created by Toby Marlow and Lucy Moss, who met when they were students at Cambridge in 2017, the musical had scrappy beginnings. They wrote Six to be presented as the Cambridge University Musical Theatre Society’s submission to the Edinburgh Festival Fringe.
With 3,398 shows at Edinburgh, Six became a stand-out with a sold-out run. Composer and producer George Stiles, who was in a band with Marlow’s father decades before and a family friend, came on board. Stiles then enlisted producing titan Kenny Wax MBE. “I had known and worked with George for many years,” says Wax whose credits include The Play that Goes Wrong, Top Hat and Once On This Island. “He said, ‘Kenny, you've got to see this. It's whip smart. 80 minutes long and really clever.’”
Wax remembers the electric feeling he had after watching Six for the first time when the musical was brought to Cambridge a few months after the Fringe festival. “The show was starting very late around 11:15 in the evening. My daughter and I drove from London for an hour and a quarter and met Toby and Lucy on the stairs. The lights went down. I like to think I’m a scholar of musical theater. I’ve seen hundreds of shows. And there was something extraordinary about this—the songs, the characters, the craft,” says Wax. “You hope that in your life you get to do something with a piece of art like this.”
From there they did the show at the Arts Theatre in London, created a tour and an album to promote it all. In 2019 when Six had a North American tour Wax brought on another producing titan, Kevin McCollum. "I have a long, wonderful relationship with Kenny and his organization. We did all the Goes Wrong shows with Mischief Comedy together including the Play That Goes Wrong which is now playing in its seventh year in New York,” says McCollum. And from the moment he saw Six, he was hooked.
Growing up in America and being raised by a single mom, I thought this is a big idea for America about the voice of women in our country. I felt it innately,” says McCollum whose credits includes Rent, Avenue Q, The Drowsy Chaperone and In The Heights.
“I saw the genius of Toby and Lucy. I thought, I am on this journey locked with the power of finding your voice—not to be maligned in the culture. They were married to one person who defined the lives of these women—and that person was pretty terrible. Even though he was seen as a historical pivot point for culture and religion, there was chaos around him.”
McCollum also connected with the element of the unexpected at every turn. “Everyone knew the music was great and it was funny and made me laugh,” he says. "Every time I thought I knew what was going to happen next, they surprised me. Successful theater is always about the surprise. And this was non-stop surprise. I was sold.”
As Wax describes it, the production went to a new level when McCollum suggested they bring the show to New York. “I said, ‘yes, we’re planning to bring Six to New York. Off-Broadway,’” recalls Wax. “He said, ‘No, not off-Broadway.’” Wax was convinced the show could run for years in 200-300 seat houses off-Broadway. But McCollum kept insisting that Six could be a Broadway show in a 800-900 seat theater. “He said, ‘Kenny, I promise you. This is a Broadway show.’ And you know what? He was right,” says Wax. “That’s the only time I’ve been right,” kids McCollum. “Thank you.”
Six wasn’t just a Broadway show, it became a hit Broadway show. Now playing at Lena Horne Theatre and directed by Lucy Moss and Jamie Armitage and choreographed by Carrie-Anne Ingrouille, Six recently celebrated its third anniversary with over 1300 performances to date. Six went on to win Tony awards for Best Original Score and Best Costume Design. In addition to playing on Broadway and London Six can be seen around the world from Singapore to Sydney and everywhere in between. With tours in the United States, United Kingdom and Europe, the show is soon to open in Japan. Also, Six's combined Broadway and UK cast albums recently hit one Billion streams. The Broadway cast album alone has been streamed over 123 million times.
With all the accolades Wax and McCollum hope that after seeing Six people not only leave entertained but see some of its messages. “I hope people come away with an understanding that we need to be kinder to people.” says McCollum. “Also, as history is under threat in our public schools, we have to tell stories that excite the imagination of our youth to build our civilization and continue to build it in as healthy way as possible. It's important that we learn from our history.”
Wax continues to be emboldened by the show’s don’t judge us message. “It’s saying, let us have our own voice. Let us reclaim our stories. Don’t let our stories be told through his-story, which is a male definition. We tell her-story in Six.” In fact, Six fans call themselves “the Queendom,” which has been a rallying call for many. “It has gathered hundreds of thousands of women across the world," says Wax. “They feel that Six speaks to them in a way that maybe no other musical has before.”
A Forbes contributor since 2016, Jeryl Brunner profiles people who are guided by a deep passion for what they do. Following their joy inspires them to think
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