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Sep. 12th, 2019 10:51 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
skygiantsTonight genarti and I went to go see SIX, the musical in which the six wives of Henry VIII compete to be lead singer in their pop-rock band by comparing miserable facts about their lives through the medium of catchy and potentially chart-topping singles!
The program: "No longer on the outskirts of history, these Queens are taking over the world!"
Me, reading this out togenarti: Okay, sure, but can anyone really say that the six wives of Henry VIII are on the outskirts of history?
genarti: It's true, they are extremely in-skirted.
Was the show good? ... I mean, what is 'good'? What is 'art'? Is it a synth-heavy remix of "Greensleeves" punctuated by shouts of "Divorced! Beheaded! LIVE!" Is it a pop-feminist musical that takes 75 minutes to come to the conclusion that, perhaps, defining historical women by the men in their lives is Bad? Who am I to say? I'm just a humble theater lover who's here to watch six talented and sparkly women don giant ruffs and fake German accents in a transcendently weird ode to Hans Holbein and Renaissance-era makeup while a hail of confetti rains down on their heads.
(At first I assumed the costuming was inspired by historical portraiture and was disappointed that I couldn't correctly identify which wife was which from the poster except for Anne Boleyn with her signature B, but it turns out their costumes are instead all mostly homages to their pop musical inspiration with some vague Tudor elements so now I feel less bad.)
Do I have beef? Obviously I have beef, I have far too many Tudor opinions not to have beef. My biggest issue is the almost complete and total erasure of political ambition as a motivation for any of the wives, which comes out most significantly in Anne Boleyn's frustrating presentation as an airheaded Mean Girl but seems like kind of a significant oversight in a musical whose stated project is about returning voice and agency to historical women ...
In pettier news, it's not like anyone can prove "Jane Seymour truly loved and was loved by Henry VIII" is wrong, technically, it's just the most boring Jane Seymour take possible in this or any other year.
(genarti's theory is that the Boring Jane Seymour Take reflects the showriter's opinions on Adele and the genre of soulful white girls, on whom her musical stylings are based, as much as it does their opinions on Jane Seymour herself, and this may well be true but I'm still annoyed.)
All that said: were we not entertained? Yes, we were, extremely, and it's entirely possible I'm going to buy the cast recording at some point and happily listen to relisten to the siren sound of synth-pop Greensleeves in the comfort of my own home.
genarti and I went to go see SIX, the musical in which the six wives of Henry VIII compete to be lead singer in their pop-rock band by comparing miserable facts about their lives through the medium of catchy and potentially chart-topping singles! The program: "No longer on the outskirts of history, these Queens are taking over the world!"
Me, reading this out to
genarti: Okay, sure, but can anyone really say that the six wives of Henry VIII are on the outskirts of history?genarti: It's true, they are extremely in-skirted. Was the show good? ... I mean, what is 'good'? What is 'art'? Is it a synth-heavy remix of "Greensleeves" punctuated by shouts of "Divorced! Beheaded! LIVE!" Is it a pop-feminist musical that takes 75 minutes to come to the conclusion that, perhaps, defining historical women by the men in their lives is Bad? Who am I to say? I'm just a humble theater lover who's here to watch six talented and sparkly women don giant ruffs and fake German accents in a transcendently weird ode to Hans Holbein and Renaissance-era makeup while a hail of confetti rains down on their heads.
(At first I assumed the costuming was inspired by historical portraiture and was disappointed that I couldn't correctly identify which wife was which from the poster except for Anne Boleyn with her signature B, but it turns out their costumes are instead all mostly homages to their pop musical inspiration with some vague Tudor elements so now I feel less bad.)
Do I have beef? Obviously I have beef, I have far too many Tudor opinions not to have beef. My biggest issue is the almost complete and total erasure of political ambition as a motivation for any of the wives, which comes out most significantly in Anne Boleyn's frustrating presentation as an airheaded Mean Girl but seems like kind of a significant oversight in a musical whose stated project is about returning voice and agency to historical women ...
In pettier news, it's not like anyone can prove "Jane Seymour truly loved and was loved by Henry VIII" is wrong, technically, it's just the most boring Jane Seymour take possible in this or any other year.
(
genarti's theory is that the Boring Jane Seymour Take reflects the showriter's opinions on Adele and the genre of soulful white girls, on whom her musical stylings are based, as much as it does their opinions on Jane Seymour herself, and this may well be true but I'm still annoyed.)All that said: were we not entertained? Yes, we were, extremely, and it's entirely possible I'm going to buy the cast recording at some point and happily listen to relisten to the siren sound of synth-pop Greensleeves in the comfort of my own home.
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Date: 2019-09-17 11:03 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2019-09-19 01:59 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2019-09-28 05:23 pm (UTC)My friend said the best part of the play was that it made the latter 3 lesser-known wives more interesting to her -- but it didn't change how she thought/felt about the first 3 wives.
It could have been such a stronger play if instead of the ~fake competition~ it was just the 6 wives in the afterlife lamenting that they're only known for the rhyme and deciding to tell their own stories from their own perspective. They could have still bickered, but it would have felt much less like "doing the thing you claim to be critiquing." It also could have felt less ahistorical that way -- it was weird to us that Anne Boleyn doesn't even name her daughter, nevermind anyone naming the Mary/Elizabeth feud that would become so important historically.