Six The Musical is a Hit with our Parents!

The Parents and Staff Community (PSC), Leighton Park’s version of a PTA, organised the first Theatre Group outing since well before the pandemic to ‘Six The Musical’ on Wednesday 9^th February.

The group consisting of parents, students, staff and (loosely!) associated friends and family ventured from Reading station together, enjoying the opportunity to chat and travel to the West End. On arrival in London a short early evening walk through streets of the capital to the Vaudeville Theatre on The Strand gave everyone a chance to stretch their legs before meeting the remainder of the party in the queue.

The show was a fantastic whirlwind of a musical, giving each of Henry VIII’s six wives a chance to tell their own story in a sassy and entertaining way, memorably differentiating their experiences through song and dance. It was an upbeat and exuberant retelling of history, or herstory, with the feminist perspective of women’s place in Sixteenth century England, clearly coming across. Serious issues including abuse, miscarriage, motherhood, the perception of beauty and the Protestant reformation were topically addressed in a light-hearted series of brilliant numbers which gave each wife an individual performance, linked by group interactions, sharing insights into the circumstances of their various marriages over the course of Henry’s reign. The highlights for many included a Germanic House track from Anne of Cleves complete with brilliant green specs and the comic cruelty of Anne Boleyn’s attacks on her predecessor, Catherine of Aragon  Each character’s portrayal was wonderful and the feel-good factor sky high as the end of the spectacular show finished with the wives’ recognition that their husband and their deaths may have given them a place in the his/herstory books but now as a group, they have the power to make people listen and judging from the standing ovation, the story of ‘Six’ was one that people definitely wanted to hear.