The performers' pumping fists and outstretched, Mick Jagger-esque tongues give it away.
"Six," the electrifying women empowerment show that held its press opening Tuesday at St. Paul's Ordway Center, owes more to a Beyoncé concert than to the type of musicals that are legion on Broadway, where it is slated to begin performances in February.
Like "Hamilton," to which it is sometimes likened, "Six" remixes a slice of history with contemporary musical styles and attitude. In this case, the splashy show uses pop, R&B, reggaeton and dance music to tell the stories of the six wives of English monarch Henry VIII, giving the women platform shoes and mics to reclaim their herstory.
In this telling, these queens are not just distant figures attached to a stone-cold pill who did not hesitate to have some of them put to death. They are real, relatable women, even if they appear more like Cardi B, Gwen Stefani and Ariana Grande than your average niece or daughter.
Unlike "Hamilton," "Six" dispenses with strong dramaturgy and an engagingly theatrical story. The show uses a thin narrative frame that's delivered with a nod and a wink. The "Ex-Wives" are divas in a singing group backed by an all-female quartet, the Ladies in Waiting. Each queen competes to be queen bae by telling us how her victimization was worse than all the others.
Off the top, those who were beheaded should have a leg up.
Composed with lyrics and book by ex-University of Cambridge students Toby Marlow and Lucy Moss, this English import is laced with sardonic wit and a lot of attitude. It's also full of innuendos. When Andrea Macasaet's Anne Boleyn sings "Don't Lose Ur Head," she doesn't even have to lick her lips to make the double entendres clear.
If "Six" were an album, it would be an EP, with just nine songs. The choreography, by Carrie-Anne Ingrouille, also comes from the concert world, with lots of hip movements.
