This weekend we once again ventured over to the Bristol Hippodrome, this time to watch the musical SIX.
It feels like we have been to the theatre a lot this summer, I’ve watched more musicals than I think I ever have before in such a short space of time and honestly, it has been spectacular.
I think a lot of the bookings were from last year when I was up all night with my newborn baby boy – I know some people shop on Amazon during night feeds, my thing was buying tickets to the theatre!
SIX is a musical I’ve wanted to see for a few years now and whenever I’d looked at buying tickets they’d already sold out.
So, when the tour was announced for the Bristol Hippodrome I made sure that I got in there quickly and got some tickets.
Luckily this was another musical my husband was happy to come and watch with me. I did consider taking our little girl, who is six, but on reflection decided she was a little bit too young despite her being familiar with some of the songs from the show.
What Is SIX The Musical About?
The musical SIX is a retelling of the lives of each of the wives of Henry VIII in the style of a singing competition – the queen who was treated the worst by Henry, gets to be the lead singer of the band.
Each queen sings her song recounting events from her history in the style of an iconic modern singer – for example, Catherine of Aragon’s song is in the style of Beyonce.
As the show goes on, the queens realise they were all treated terribly and they should focus on the things that bring them together, rather than tearing each other apart even further
The musical is fun, high energy and filled with catchy songs that feel modern and relevant.
SIX The Musical – UK Tour Review
One of the best things about SIX the musical is that you can see every single one of the queens is giving it their all for every single second of the show – they just don’t stop, especially as none of them leaves the stage for more than a few seconds throughout the one hour and twenty-minute performance.
The costumes are fantastic and really help each queen to stand out. I don’t think I’ve ever been to a show with quite so many sparkles!
I loved the use of the lights around the back of the stage – SIX feels really modern despite the content being about women who lived hundreds of years ago.
While all the queens were wonderful, for us, Hannah Victoria as Anna of Cleeves was the stand-out performer.
I was already familiar with all of the songs in SIX so it’s really hard for me to pick a favourite – I think it might be the show opener, Ex-Wives. My husband’s favourite was Haus of Holbein.
One of the things I loved most about SIX is the ‘Mega Six’ at the end of the show, where the audience can film, dance, sing along and join in.
I think this is a great way to try to limit the use of mobile phones during the show as the audience knows they can grab some pictures and videos at the end.
Overall, we loved this production of SIX the musical and would happily watch it again.
Bluey’s Big Play Review UK Tour
Is Six The Musical Suitable For Children?
This is such a tough question and is, of course, up to individual parents.
However, I was personally quite surprised by how many very young children there were at this performance.
I expected to see a lot of teenagers as I know that SIX is very popular with that demographic, however, I didn’t expect to see so many 4-9-year-olds, as the recommended age is 10 plus.
There are a lot of very adult themes, including sex references as well as continual talk about decapitation and while this might go over some younger children’s heads, overall I don’t think this show is appropriate for very little ones.
Unfortunately, we had some young children behind us who were well behaved during the songs but very noisy during other parts of the show when the Queens were speaking and this did dampenour experience overall.
I think this was due to the fact they were familiar with and enjoyed the music but weren’t interested enough in the dialogue to concentrate on it. We did choose not to say anything on this occasion but I do believe this is another reason SIX isn’t suitable for very young children.