By Kristen Nevarez Schweizer
December 17, 2025
Where Hamilton: An American Musical reframed the Founding Fathers around rap battles, SIX: The Musical recasts England’s most famous wives as pop icons. The hot new show reimagines the six wives of Henry VIII as divas who refuse to die quietly. The North American touring production isn’t a history class — it’s a concert, a correction, and a coronation all rolled into one and landing at San Diego Civic Theatre December 30, 2025, through January 4, 2026.
The six wives of Henry VIII are reintroduced asa pop group competing to prove who had it worst, until they collectively realize the contest itself is the problem. Patriarchy eliminated in under 90 minutes – no intermission, no mercy. The result is a high-octane story that earned the Tony Award for Best Original Score in 2022.
The musical has become a global phenomenon since its 2017 debut at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe. Conceived by Toby Marlow and Lucy Moss while they were still students, the musical retains the hysterical irreverence of a new work. It opened on London’s West End in 2019 and ruled for more than six years with no sign of abdicating its reign. While COVID-19 halted its Broadway opening, the show resumed in 2021, and has continued to run — helping signal Broadway’s post-pandemic comeback and reminding audiences why live theatre matters. (Though Universal Pictures brings a one-night-only cinema event in Australia on January 8.)
What makes Six endure (besides epic costumes and concert-style staging) is the intelligence of its lyrics. These songs are funny in a way that makes you feel smarter for laughing. Anne Boleyn’s “Don’t Lose Ur Head” turns historical beheading into manic satire. Katherine Howard’s bubblegum bop surreptitiously devastates. Catherine of Aragon’s opener, “No Way,” is less divorce lament and more courtroom mic drop.
But there’s a point to the punchlines. Where showtunes have too often leaned on familiar formulas or safe sentiment, Six could headline a festival, using pop structure as a Trojan horse for feminist critique. The wordplay turns hummable hooks into contemporary commentary. The show is Britain’s gleefully defiant “feminist response” to the American history musical that preceded it — and paves the way for more.
Whether you’re picking up tickets as a Christmas gift surprise or ringing in the New Year with the girls, Six promises a theatrical experience that’s as witty as it is empowering. Long live the queens.
P.S. Broadway SD just announced The Phantom of the Opera returns to San Diego. Andrew Lloyd Webber’s legendary musical will play a limited two-week engagement at the San Diego Civic Theatre from September 2–13, 2026.
