Company originally centers on a man named Bobby on his 35th birthday where he is surrounded by his coupled-up friends who are all pushing him to get married. What follows is a series of vignettes where he visits these various couples and witnesses their shenanigans, and we also follow his relationships with three different women, none of whom seem to be quite right for him. However, in this revival, we get a gender swap, where our lead is a 35-year old woman named Bobbie, played brilliantly by Katrina Lenk. And of course, we've got Patti LuPone reprising her role as Joanne, Bobbie's older, cynical, oft-divorced friend, who will belt the hell out of "Ladies Who Lunch" in the second act.
It's amazing what a little gender flip can do. In the original version, Bobby's relationship with an airhead flight attendant, April, can feel a bit played out, but now watching Bobbie struggling to make it work with the airhead flight attendant, Andy, made me chuckle. The engaged couple of Paul and Amy are now a same-sex couple of Paul and Jamie, and hearing "Getting Married Today" sung by a panicked groom instead of an anxious bride is so much fun. The staging of this show is also impeccable, with every piece of the set containing surprises (during "Getting Married Today" characters will pop out of the most unlikely places and you will be delighted). The costumes are vivd and memorable, with Lenk's red jumpsuit tying the whole show together, but then LuPone swanning out in her glasses and fur coat for "Ladies Who Lunch" is a showstopper. We also had technical difficulties during the second act that took about fifteen minutes to fix - in that time, some of the cast, including LuPone, came out to entertain the audience, with Patti declaring "theater is an accident waiting to happen." I swear to God, Broadway is the only place where a mistake can make things even more exciting than a perfect show.
Given Stephen Sondheim's recent passing, it feels even more poignant to watch this show and see how his work has been adapted and re-vitalized for the 21st century. The show's themes are of course as relevant as ever, but this fresh take on the casting is an exciting update and made these familiar and popular songs feel brand new again. So get some tickets (there's a daily lottery, or there are rush tickets at the box office to cater to every budget!) and treat yourself to the best that Broadway has to offer.
The show kicks off with the familiar rhyme, "Divorced, beheaded, died, divorced, beheaded, survived." But there's nothing familiar after that, as we get six women claiming the stage with their microphones and iconic outfits and competing to be recognized as the most well-known of Henry's wives. They each get a solo performance to make their case - though you can expect most of them to be interrupted by Anne Boleyn who claims that if they didn't get beheaded, they can't possibly win this contest of who has the most tragic tale. Each woman has such a singular story of what particular nightmare she had to face as a wife of Henry VIII and then more generally as a woman in this particular time period. And of course, they are all only remembered because they were his wives, but no one knows anything about them beyond that.
This musical is a spectacularly entertaining history (*cough* herstory *cough*) lesson, and in a short 90 minutes, you will learn more than you probably did in watching four seasons of The Tudors. And you'll be dancing in your seat as you do so. The music and lyrics by Lucy Moss and Toby Marlow are hysterically toe-tapping and whether it's a soaring ballad by Jane Seymour or some German techno and rap delivered by Anna of Cleves, you are bound to find some song that you will get obsessed with for the next year. Six is such a clever, and inventive, and innovative idea for a musical, and it is also short, sweet, and so damn catchy. So head on over to the theater and get down with the Queens - you'll have a royally good time.
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