Toby Marlow, in his final year at Cambridge, was in a poetry class when inspiration struck. Why not write a musical which imagines the six wives of Henry VIII as a girl band?
“I was trying to concentrate while he was droning on about Wordsworth, imagining the songs, the costumes — I couldn’t wait to get out of there and tell Lucy about it.”
Lucy Moss — his friend, fellow student and collaborator — was initially worried (“It could have been really naff”) but Marlow talked her round. They’d had the idea of a musical about Henry’s wives some time ago, but hadn’t come up with a structure. The girl band — competing with eachother as to who had the worst time with the brutal Tudor monarch — proved the perfect way to dispel almost all thoughts of Greensleeves.
They wrote the show while simultaneously studying for their finals (“I don’t really know how I managed to get a degree,” says Marlow) and took it to the Edinburgh Fringe a year ago, with a cast made up of fellow students. The show, now called Six, had the sort of response that Fringe performers dream of, great reviews and immediate interest from producers.
A year later, backed by three West End producers, including Kenny Wax who made The Play That Goes Wrong into a huge hit, they were back at the Fringe, selling out every night. They’ve transferred to the Arts Theatre in the West End, for a run that’s already been extended to mid-October. Then the show goes on tour, to Kingston, Southampton, Manchester and Glasgow.
Book now is my advice. Having seen the show in Edinburgh, I was blown away by its sassy, clever book and the high energy score —songs which could come straight from the charts, telling the stories of women from hundreds of years ago. Whether it’s a power ballad from Jane Seymour (“I’m the only one he really loved” she says, “Rude!” retort the others) or Anne of Cleves’ techno number, about the very modern problem of being judged by her real appearance against her portrait, the tunes are memorable. This “her-story” retelling also critiques the way that women’s history is so often ignored or told from a male point of view. This aspect, says Marlow is down to “Lucy’s genius”.
While the show was on in Edinburgh, Marlow was also performing in a two-man show with Zak Ghazi-Torbati, directed by Moss, Hot Gay Time Machine , which is more autobiographical, “it tells the story of our lives as gay men.” It’s musical, funny and very rude, which didn’t put off his Jewish grandparents, Simone and Gerard Lakmaker, one little bit, although he was a bit concerned when his grandpa asked him for the show’s script.
His Jewishness comes from his mother’ side, and wasn’t part of his home life, growing up in Oxfordshire, so it all comes from his grandparents — “Pesach and honey cake and doughnuts .” He’s been staying with them while developing the shows, they’ve been “so supportive” .
“I can’t thank them enough,” he says. “And the JC is the best place to do that!”
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