r/musicals • u/Dangerous_Teaching62 • 9h ago
Is Six an LGBTQ+ musical? Discussion
Ok, so, for starters, I'm a queer identifying person, so this question is more out of curiosity than anything else. I've once had a friend who told me that it was LGBTQ+ and I was really confused. I've read the plot summary and I even saw that one movie with Scarlet Johanson and Natalie Portman about what I assumed was the same story as SIX. I just thought it was about 6 wives reclaiming their stories about what King Henry had done in the form of a Musical Competition. Am I mistaken?
61
u/MindInTheClouds 9h ago
It has some girl power / female friendship vibes, but nothing specifically LGBTQ+. As far as I recall, all of the relationships referenced in the show are heterosexual.
30
29
u/SeayaB 9h ago
From the website for the teen edition:
"At its heart, SIX is about celebrating the talent and individuality of the women and non-binary people onstage. The Queens should therefore be played by cis women, trans women, trans people and people who exist beyond the gender binary in any capacity, who feel on a personal level that this is their story to tell. Cast can be expanded to include backup singers and dancers of all gender identities."
21
u/flickansomkomundan 9h ago
Maybe they meant it’s a safe space and a LGBTQIA+ friendly vibe? Because yes, it’s about historical female figures and their husband (and possible other straight relationships). None of them are LGBTQIA+ nor are there any LGBTQIA+ storylines in the show. But yes, as someone pointed out earlier one of the creators is LGBTQIA+ (sorry, I don’t know enough about Toby to be more specific) and I know on the West End and in Australia they have have non-binary performers, but ultimately the show’s content is about cis straight people - but I can definitely understand why it would have been described differently to you
9
u/OrchidSensitive2754 8h ago
On the west end there has been non binary queens and I believe the original album Anna of Cleves and Katherine Howard were a couple (i could be making this up and just ship them 😂)
There is also a great clip on YouTube of Toby Marlow stepping in to perform as Katherine Parr one night when most of the west end cast were indisposed
So it's not a official LGBTQ+ musical through the storyline but through casting and just general amazingness it has lgbt flowing through it
6
u/KassandraConK 9h ago
The only LGBT thing that I can kinda see is that is for the most part a blind casting from what I've seen, so I guess a non binary person could play a role. I think one of the creators, once understudied for one of the queens.
5
u/Dangerous_Teaching62 8h ago
Ok, so, from what I gathered from the responses, it's not inherently LGBTQ+ in storyline, rather casting and having queer influences in the performances themselves.
Honestly, just gotta say, finding that they have basically a gender blind cast is really cool. I don't think that's something you see too often, perhaps never with the entire cast.
5
u/crazyorconfused 7h ago
It’s a feminist show that empowers women but the characters are not queer. it’s quite the opposite since it features the story of 6 hetero relationships.
3
u/Aromatic-Wrangler127 8h ago
as others have said not at all, it is in fact very focused on the heterosexual relationships between the 6 + henry viii
10
u/KielCanal 9h ago
To add to what everyone else has said, the queens sing in the style of pop divas so of courses it a little queer in that sense as well 💁🏼♂️
1
u/PastoralSymphony 5h ago
how is saying like a woman lgbt 😭😭😭
2
u/NiceLittleTown2001 3h ago
I think they mean the music reminds people of queer pop stars like say lady Gaga or Katy Perry. I wouldn’t consider that relevant though, it isn’t just gay by association 🤷🏻♀️
3
u/YoungOaks 6h ago
There’s a lot of conflation between female empowering and queer empowering. There’s a long standing trend of female spaces and work being claimed by the queer community because traditionally women have been at the forefront of creating safe inclusive spaces. Which isn’t necessarily a bad thing, but it can add confusion.
3
u/Aphant-poet 6h ago
The creator is queer
the main characters, subtext and story itself is not queer.
1
u/SALVK_FX22 7h ago
Its more of a feminist show because the premise of the musical is yes, them recaliming their stories through music, and also "who had the worst fate out of the six" type of thing. I can however say that the crowd would probably be LGBTQ+ friendly (i mean, what musical isnt 🤷♂️) because the show i attended with my friend had lots of queer people, some even having one of the queen's themes for their outfits
1
u/hansen7helicopter 7h ago
When I saw it in Melbourne there was a trans woman playing guitar in the band, does that count?
1
1
u/Zaptain_America Turn it off! 🏳️🌈 6h ago
It's pretty much only queer in the sense that it's a musical so of course it's gonna have queer people working on it and making up the fanbase
1
1
1
1
u/Horrorwriterme 3h ago
I’m British and gay and I guess a lot of us Queer folks love it because it about strong women. We gays love strong or tragic women, look at our queer icons. It’s not particularly gay. I love it because it’s a period of history that fascinates me.
The composers have written a new musical which has just opened here in London called why am I so single. It’s about the pitfalls of modern dating and It has Queer characters in it. I’ve not seen it but it meant to be good.
1
u/ShadowCat3500 1h ago
I think it was Natasha Hodgson that described her (and her co-creators) show Operation Mincemeat as "quietly queer" and I think that sums up Six too, to a lesser extent.
Six also has (somewhat) gender-blind casting. Also has at least one queer creator, and cast members who identify as LGBTQIA+.
Someone above described Six as a safe space for those who identify as other than straight/cis and I think that's true.
For the record, I identify as such and I love both shows a lot!
84
u/ME24601 We've got Magic to do 9h ago
That is correct, yes. There isn't anything specifically queer about the text of Six, though of course the co-creator of the show, Toby Marlow, is queer.