Back on March 12, 2020, the irreverent pop musical Six was about to open. That afternoon, Broadway shut down due to the spread of the COVID pandemic. This September, the show’s collective of six ex-wives will get their second chance to tell their stories on a New York stage. The show’s producers announced this morning that Six will start performances at the Brooks Atkinson Theatre on September 17 this fall, with plans for a new opening night on October 3. The announcement follows Governor Cuomo’s declaration at a press conference yesterday that Broadway performances will return at full capacity starting September 14. Six is only the second production so far to release its performance dates. The Phantom of the Opera, the first, will hold off for a bit and return on October 22. It’s expected that a few of the industry’s biggest shows — Wicked, The Lion King, and Hamilton — will be the first back onstage in September, but they haven’t yet put out anything official.
By claiming that September 17 date, the producers of Six are making a bold bet that audiences will be ready to return to theaters, and willing to try out a relatively new production — though the show has already been staged on London’s West End, Chicago, Boston, Edmonton, Sydney, and several cruise ships. The show is also relatively easy to stage. Six actors play each of Henry VIII’s six wives, each singing their own earworm of a pop song about how he wronged them. They are backed by a small all-female band, the “Ladies in Waiting.” The show was written by Toby Marlow and Lucy Moss and directed by Moss and Jamie Armitage. Pre-sale tickets will go on sale today, May 6, and become available to the general public on May 10.
