From Stage to Screen: ‘SIX: The Musical Live’ Delivers a Fierce, High‑Energy Film of the Broadway Sensation

Synopsis: Tells the story of the six wives of Henry VIII, reimagining them as pop stars who reclaim their narratives from their infamous husband’s shadow.
Director: Liz Clare

When I saw Broadway Across Canada’s musical SIX at the National Arts Centre in 2024, I went in knowing virtually nothing. By the time I left, I was wondering when I could see the show again.

Then I had the privilege of seeing it on Broadway. I wasn’t done yet and wanted another viewing.

Apparently, the answer is at the movies.

SIX The Musical Live! brings the enormously successful stage musical to the big screen, and while watching a filmed theatrical production obviously can’t completely duplicate the feeling of sitting in a packed theatre, this is about as close as you can get.

More importantly, the thing I loved most about SIX the first time around hasn’t changed.

These songs are ridiculously catchy.

Written by Toby Marlow and Lucy Moss, SIX takes the six wives of Henry VIII — Catherine of Aragon, Anne Boleyn, Jane Seymour, Anna of Cleves, Katherine Howard and Catherine Parr — and turns their stories into something resembling a modern pop concert. The women initially compete to determine who suffered the most while married to Henry, with the winner earning the right to become the group’s lead singer.

It’s history class by way of a concert.

Each queen gets her opportunity to tell her story, and the varied musical styles allow her to establish an individual personality. The show was deliberately created with contemporary pop influences, with everyone from Beyoncé and Adele to Rihanna, Britney Spears, Ariana Grande and Alicia Keys serving as inspirations for the queens’ musical identities.

The result is one fantastic song after another.

“Ex-Wives” gets things started, immediately establishing the show’s infectious energy, while “Don’t Lose Ur Head” is the type of song that will get stuck in your head whether you want it to or not. “Get Down” remains an absolute blast, while “Heart of Stone” demonstrates that SIX can slow things down and deliver something genuinely emotional.

Then there is “All You Wanna Do,” a song that initially seems playful before revealing something considerably darker underneath. It’s one of the best examples of what SIX does so well. The music is accessible, funny and incredibly catchy, but beneath all of that are stories about women who experienced betrayal, abuse, exploitation and tremendous loss.

The production never forgets that.

When I reviewed the touring production at the NAC, I wrote about how empowering SIX was without ever feeling preachy. That remains one of its greatest strengths.

At first, these women are competing over their trauma. Each wants to prove that Henry treated her worse than the others. Eventually, however, Catherine Parr raises the question that changes the entire direction of the show: Why should any of them continue defining themselves according to the man they married?

That’s when SIX becomes more than an entertaining history lesson with some great music.

Henry VIII might be one of history’s most recognizable monarchs, and his six wives are frequently reduced to a rhyme: divorced, beheaded, died; divorced, beheaded, survived. SIX essentially says that isn’t good enough. These were six women with their own personalities, accomplishments, ambitions and stories.

Instead of making Henry the centre of their universe, they take the spotlight for themselves. That’s empowering.

It also makes the title SIX increasingly appropriate. This isn’t really Henry VIII’s story. It’s theirs.

The film version has another major advantage: the original West End cast. The production was filmed at London’s Vaudeville Theatre in 2022 and features Jarnéia Richard-Noel, Millie O’Connell, Natalie Paris, Alexia McIntosh, Aimie Atkinson and Maiya Quansah-Breed as the six queens.

They are phenomenal.

The vocal performances are outstanding individually, but the show becomes even more impressive when the six performers come together. Their harmonies, choreography and chemistry make the production feel less like traditional musical theatre and more like watching a pop group performing a concert.

That concert atmosphere is important because SIX has never been a conventional musical. There aren’t elaborate sets constantly changing or dozens of supporting characters moving the story along. The queens are the show. The music is the show. Their personalities are the show.

That simplicity translates extremely well to the screen.

The camera can get closer than the audience ever could, capturing facial expressions and small moments between performers while still pulling back enough to appreciate the choreography, lighting and energy of the full production. Most importantly, it doesn’t feel like the filmmakers are trying to reinvent something that didn’t need reinventing.

They understood the assignment: Capture SIX. Let these women sing. Let the audience have fun. Mission accomplished.

I gave the stage production an A- when I saw it at the NAC. Seeing it again confirms that my enthusiasm wasn’t simply the excitement of discovering something new.

SIX is just that good.

It’s funny, colourful, energetic and surprisingly educational. More than anything, it’s empowering. It takes six women, remembered largely for the man they married, and hands them microphones so they can finally control the narrative.

And yes, once again, I’m going to be listening to the soundtrack after it’s over. Some things don’t change.

And while I will default to seeing the show live as the preferred option, for those that don’t have that option on the horizon, seeing the film version is a close second.

Grade: B+