Henry VIII’s six wives are finally given a voice in this soon to be West End touring musical. Highly energising and brilliantly choreographed, this is an unmissable production. This feminist revisit of their stories will empower and entertain and the songs will remain in your head long after the show has finished. In this case, that will only make you want to go again and again.
The solos were as equally catchy and ingeniously put together as the whole group sets. Genres ranged from R&B, to pop, EDM and rock. The songs, written by Toby Marlow and Lucy Moss, manage to encompass all that one would want from a West End style performance. Undeniably addictive melodies accompanied by power vocals structure a set that is as compelling as entertaining. This is a show with a high production value which has clearly had a lot of thought put into it. Nevertheless, it remains cheeky and endearing.
Each of the queens seemed to create a unique and hilarious version of the wives, although the historical accuracy of such characterisations may have been a little off! Certainly, all the queens were as bold and strong as funny and engaging, seeming to give life to the women forced to live in Henry VIII’s shadow.
The message of recapturing women’s stories in history is clearly an extremely valuable one. It is shows like this which reclaim female voices, highlighting how misrepresented historical women have been and preventing history from being a solely male dominated narrative. This performance goes some way to showing that these women were so much more than wives of a King; they were independent, thinking and feeling beings who faced their own prejudices.
The show is inspiring in itself, as a vehicle to promote exploration of more women’s stories in history. It is also just a deliciously exhilarating 75 minutes and one of those performances you never want to end. Definitely a must-see.
Underbelly, until 27th.
