Henry VIII's wives are no longer wretches, but pop queens.

BarcelonaThe six wives of Henry VIII are best known for their tragic ends. They have been described and told to us as the wives of a monarch with a reputation as a tyrant and lacking much compassion, whom Charles Dickens defined as "a blot of blood and grease on history." They were Catherine of Aragon, Anna Boleyn, Jane Seymour, Anna of Cleves, Catherine Howard, and Catherine Parr: two died executed shortly after giving birth; and of the other three, two had their marriage annulled by the king. All six are the protagonists of the musical. Six, which has won two Tony Awards, has been nominated for a Grammy, and has traveled around the world since its premiere in Edinburgh in 2017. It is seen by 3.5 million spectators a year, and this weekend it arrives in Barcelona. The six women—Henry VIII does not appear at any point, but is mentioned a lot—will dance and sing at the Teatre Coliseum until May 11.

The idea of having the six wives of Elizabeth I's father sing came from two Cambridge students who were 22 years old in 2017 and preparing for their final year exams: Toby Marlow and Lucy Moss. "Toby wrote on a piece of paper: 'Beyoncé. Six queens.' I have to talk to Lucy," explains George Stiles, who has known Marlow since he was six years old and is one of the musical's producers. The two students were inspired by Beyoncé for the concert. Life at Roseland. "When Toby explained to me that he'd made a musical about Henry VIII's six wives and made them the queens of pop, I thought it was the worst idea in the world," says Stiles. When she saw it, she changed her mind: "Most of the audience was under 27 and they were having a great time. I thought I'd be bored because I know the ending, but the music is gripping and there's a twist in the third song, which I can't reveal, that breaks all the rules," she adds. The show premiered at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival with her fellow students Marlow and Moss in the cast. There, she was discovered by Andy Barnes, one of the other producers. "I went to talk to Toby while he was handing out leaflets about the show. When I told him I wanted to buy the rights to the musical, he didn't know what I was talking about and I had to explain what rights were," Barnes recalls. With more than a billion streams across digital platforms, it quickly became a phenomenon. "We've managed to bring together two audiences: pop music fans and theater fans," says Kenny Wax, also a producer.

Contemporary plots

The idea of six women becoming a pop band competing to see who had the worst experience with a despotic Tudor has ended up appealing to many audiences. On April 6, it was screened in 700 cinemas in the United Kingdom and Ireland. Aside from Beyoncé, Marlow was inspired by The six wives of Henry VIII by Antonia Fraser, and Moss saw the docuseries Six Wives by Lucy Worsley. The songs blend pop, rock, electronica, hip-hop, and reggae, and are inspired by stars like Beyoncé herself, Avril Lavigne, Adele, Rihanna, Ariana Grande, and Alicia Keys. The musical was born the same year as the Me Too movement, and the storylines of the six wives are very contemporary. There are also four musicians on stage. "We've read everything we could about these women; we weren't aware of everything they went through, how difficult it must have been for them, and the strength they possessed. It was very necessary to also know the story through their point of view," explains Erin Summerhayes, one of the actresses.