Broadway tour of "SIX" at the Ordway Center

Last week the Ordway hosted the Broadway tour of the recent revival of the 2005 Tony-winner Spamalot, and a good time was had by all. This week they welcomed back the queens of SIX, the smash hit musical that began at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe, then went to the West End, then toured the US (including at the Ordway in 2019) before making its pandemic-delayed Broadway debut in 2021. The next spring it won Tonys for best score and costume design, and is still playing on Broadway and touring around the country. This two-week run is the 4th time that the queens have visited the Ordway, for a total of 60-some performances in St. Paul. At this point, SIX is a well-oiled machine, a finely honed music-theater gem that is exactly what it wants and needs to be, nothing less and nothing more. Not veering far from its Fringe origins, it has a runtime of 75-ish minutes, and is practically perfect in its construction, telling the story of Henry VIII's six wives from their perspective as modern-day pop stars. This musical couldn't have come at a better time, when we're (still) hungry for women's stories, for women to tell their own stories instead of being defined by men, as history has defined these six women by their marriage to a king. This was my sixth time seeing SIX (all four touring productions at the Ordway, plus Broadway and Toronto), and I love it more each time. If you've never seen it before, you owe it to yourself to experience this truly unique and original piece of music-theater HERstory. And if you have seen it before, rest assured that it's as fantastically fun as ever, with a touring cast that is brilliantly talented. They're in town for two weeks; get your tickets only at the Ordway's official site here.

Broadway Tour of "SIX" at the Ordway Center for the Performing Arts

The smash hit musical SIX returns to the Ordway Center for the third time. It actually played here in 2019 before it even went to Broadway, where it was nominated for eight Tony Awards and won two. It's still playing on Broadway and has since become a worldwide phenomenon (I saw it in Toronto earlier this year). I've seen it five times now, and will never pass up a chance to see it. Why? It truly is a practically perfect 70ish minutes of music-theater, telling the story of the six wives of King Henry VIII as a pop concert, with an all female cast and band. It's a delightful mash-up of history and pop culture and music and theater. You can read my full review of the 2019 production here (which is largely unchanged, except for the cast), and read on for six reasons to see SIX (again) before these queens leave town on July 28.