Chicago Tribune - Highly Recommended
"...When I first reviewed "Six," pre-pandemic, I saw the show's cleverness but thought it would need more substance added for Broadway. Wrong. It turns out 85 minutes suits everyone fine and the premise never has time to become worn out. The show just rocks along and, by now, audience members clearly have developed responses to many of the lines: most of the people around me Tuesday night were not hearing this score for the first time. Oh, no."
Chicago Sun Times - Highly Recommended
"...The corrective feminist take on Henry's 16th century reign had a spectacular U.S. premiere at Chicago Shakespeare Theater in 2019. It moved on to Broadway in March 2020, only to see its opening (and run) postponed for almost two years by COVID. Now "Six" is back with a new cast and a high-energy national tour that takes the fire of the original and puts it on a larger, glitzier stage that allows the show to dial up its Greensleeves-meets-Beyonce aesthetic to 11. When Olivia Donalson's Anne of Cleves commands "Ok ladies, let's get in (Re)formation" during the defiant "Get Down," you'll want to follow wherever she leads."
Daily Herald - Highly Recommended
"...The sensation that is "Six" -- the pop, rock and hip-hop musical about King Henry VIII's wives -- received a rapturous response from the opening-night crowd as its pandemic-delayed national tour commenced Tuesday at Chicago's CIBC Theatre."
Chicago Reader - Highly Recommended
"...Six is a blast, mostly because the creators know exactly what they're going for and commit to it with gleeful showmanship and glam-rock swagger. But they also blend in just enough poignancy to remind us that, even though these women lived and died (at least two in a horrible way-see again that rhyme) nearly 500 years ago, they were real people, making the best of what they could in a system where being a queen, let alone minor nobility before marriage, didn't mean a lot. Particularly when you're married to a capricious petulant man-child with absolute power over you, which is never any fun."
TheatreMania - Highly Recommended
"...Although the queens' individual songs are interspersed with three flashy ensemble numbers, the 80-minute show flies by and leaves the audience wanting more. It's the perfect pop concert for people who aren't into pop music. It's the perfect musical for people who aren't into musicals. While its target demographic may be the young women who show up to the theater in elaborate cosplay, the catchy tunes, clever lyrics, thrilling choreography, and positive themes surely make it hard for just about anyone to resist dancing in their seat."
Chicago On the Aisle - Highly Recommended
"...A half-dozen descriptors leap to mind as I attempt to describe the musical "Six." Supercharged, smart, funny, provocative, keen-edged, scintillating, seriously insightful. Oh, wait, that's more than six. But then "Six" is more than the six characters - the wives of England's 16th-century King Henry VIII - who give the show its title. It's greater than the sum of its parts: an infectious show with a youthful vibe that even I, some decades beyond its target audience, would readily go back to enjoy again."
Stage and Cinema - Highly Recommended
"...The second hottest fire to burn through Chicago since 1871 was last night, center stage at the CIBC Theatre, and is now playing there for the next four months before heading on tour to other realms. The powerful queens of Six are back, celebrating their collective coronation national tour royal debut. Electrifying, energetic, enigmatic, sexy, sassy and cheeky, this show is 90 minutes of celebration through song. No boring or dry history lesson, these bold performers - six powerful vocalists who educate and empower - are here to slay. From the first moment these women take to the stage, a ravenous audience was ready to devour. "Divorced, beheaded, died. Divorced, beheaded, survived." Let the thunderous applause began."
Let's Play Theatrical Reviews - Highly Recommended
"...This was the fate of the six wives of Henry VIII as they reclaimed their identities that started well over five hundred years ago with a history of heartbreaks. Finally, the 'Tudor Queens' are here to set the record straight! The energetic celebration of twenty-first-century female empowerment, shining the spotlight on the queens of the night, Aragon, Boleyn, Seymour, Cleves, Howard, and Parr, is a blast from the past you don't want to miss. Who would have ever thought that the history of someone's demise could be so much fun and entertaining to watch? So when the "Tudor Queens" turned pop princesses take the stage for an electrifying pop concert, you better believe the night will be spectacular!"
Around The Town Chicago - Highly Recommended
"...Before it went to Broadway, Chicago had an opportunity to witness "Six the Musical" at Chicago Shakespeare Theatre at Navy Pier. This stunning 85 minutes of entertainment, written by Toby Marlow and Lucy Moss tells us the story of the six wives of Henry the Eighth. It is sparkling with energy as this cast of six amazing women and a band composed of all females, as well take us on a different trip into history. From Tudor Queens to Pop Princesses, this is a musical re-mix that reveals the history of the women that were "Divorced, beheaded, died, divorced, beheaded and survived, all in a contest where we , the audience, is asked to decide which is the better story."
Chicago Theatre Review - Highly Recommended
"...With nothing but praise and standing ovations to recommend it, "Six" is back in Chicago, where it began its U.S. reign several years ago. Although it tried, and it's still lurking in the shadows, the pandemic didn't succeed in killing this show. The musical is short, but both sweet and spicy-everything audiences want nowadays that theaters have finally been reopened. This colorful concert of catchy, contagious songs, featuring great performances by six talented actresses backed by their musically accomplished Ladies in Waiting, may even spark a renewed interest in British history. Just be prepared when you attend this wonderful production, because Her-Story is about to be over-throne."
Third Coast Review - Highly Recommended
"...Make no mistake; while most of the real-life wives of Henry VIII ended their days in misery (or worse), their 21st century counterparts are wiser, wittier and full of attitude. They also make great music together. That’s the message of Six, which opened on Tuesday at the CIBC Theatre with enough offstage fanfare to resemble a royal coronation."
Chicago On Stage - Highly Recommended
"...I spent four decades as an English teacher. Each year, before the Shakespeare unit, I spent a day telling the story of Henry VIII; it wasn't directly related but it was a part of the history that made the Elizabethan Age possible, and besides: it was fun. I mean, what could be more fun than the story of a king who was so desperate to leave an heir to the throne that he contrived to marry six different women in order to do so? What more poignant than the fact that he only loved one of them, and she died in childbirth? What more ironic than the fact that this king, so obsessed with his progeny, is the only monarch in British history to have three of his children succeed him, all of whom were childless?"
PicksInSix - Highly Recommended
"...“SIX” deserves credit not only for the great songs but also its approach to storytelling. The show does a pretty good job of bringing levity to these tragic tales and quite literally provides a stage for the Queens to share and in turn validate their experiences. For that, the show has and will continue to draw crowds and resonate with them."
Splash Magazine - Highly Recommended
"...The women never missed a beat- catching the hard bass-line laid down by Goines on their hips, knees, shoulders and heads. Eyes flashed, smiles simpered, arms waved and voices soared as the ladies chanted out the nuances of their marital woes with the blood-thirsty tyrant. The audience loved it all."
BroadwayWorld - Highly Recommended
"...All hail! The pop queens of SIX are back in Chicago for an epic royal homecoming in their national tour debut. With direction from Lucy Moss and Jamie Armitage and the same creative team behind the show's 2019 American debut at Chicago Shakespeare Theater and the Broadway production, the SIX tour is exhilarating and entertaining. Toby Marlow and Moss's pop musical about the six wives of King Henry VIII remains a master class in original and concise musical theater storytelling."
NewCity Chicago - Highly Recommended
"..."SIX the Musical" could more accurately be called "SIX the Concert" as with its single set of nine songs and no overall narrative, it feels more like an epic, though spectacular "Saturday Night Live" skit. Or a really thrilling, extended theme-park attraction. But what a ride."