YMMV / Six: The Musical

• Actor Shipping: During the 2019-20 Breakaway cruise production, Kelly Sweeney (who played Anne Boleyn) and Amy Bridges (who played Jane Seymour) were noted for being very physical with each other during megasixes, including grabbing holdof the other's hand, staring into each others' eyes, putting one's knee over the other and performing waltz spins. This prompted fans to briefly ship the two, though it quickly fizzled out as the gestures were obviously them being goofy.
• Alternative Character Interpretation:
  • Does Katherine Howard put up a front of being a strategic seductress to suppress the trauma of a lifetime of sexual abuse?
    • The entire situation with Thomas Culpeper described by Howard can be interpreted in several ways. For how she describes him compared to Mannox and Frances ("so sincere", "so sweet"), does Katherine only consider him to be a close friend, or did she have feelings for him? Is the line "just mates, no chemistry" a Suspiciously Specific Denial—and if so, is she saying it because she's married to a king who already killed one of his wives for cheating, or because she doesn't know how to handle actually being in love? Is "we hang out loads when the king's away" meant to be taken as innocent time between two friends, or an affair? And what, exactly, did Thomas do that was Katherine's Despair Event Horizon? Did he rape her, or did she realize he was only using her, either for sex or political intrigue?
  • For that matter, does Anne Boleyn put up a front of being a carefree ditz to suppress trauma from her own abuse? Note that in live performances she actually cuts off the song to legitimately panic about her impending beheading, before quickly back-pedalling with a joke.
    Anne Boleyn: OH MY GOD, GUYS, SERIOUSLY, HE ACTUALLY WANTS TO CHOP MY HEAD OFF! (Beat) I mean, I guess he must've really liked my head. He-he. (briefly mimes fellatio) 5-6-7-8! Sorry not sorry 'bout what I said...
  • How much of Jane Seymour's steadfastness is genuine love for Henry, and how much of it is the "fawn" response of a trauma victim? She admits that she isn't "full of fire" like Aragon and Boleyn and couldn't stand up to Henry. Saying that she wouldn't leave him no matter his flaws or tempers (not that she had any other option) smacks of coping with Domestic Abuse.
  • What does Jane Seymour mean with the phrase "You had it bad, but that was not the most heartbreaking song we've heard today/this evening" in response to Katherine Howard's number? Is she stubbornly trying to say that Katherine shouldn't get a big head to avoid the fact her story of trauma knocked hers out of the water? Or is she trying to say while she feels bad for Katherine, that she shouldn't get overconfident because it wouldn't be fair to rest of them? Some actresses interpret this as the first scenario, where she yells at Katherine about losing her son and that "no one cared when she died". Other interpretations, on the other hand, instead say it slowly as if to let Katherine down gently. With the reveal that the competition was a fluke, you could even argue that Jane didn't actually mean any of what she said.
  • When Anne Boleyn states that she went through "actual trauma and humiliation", did Catherine of Aragon's outburst in response to Anne stem from the trauma she herself went through? Or is she appalled that Anne would say that to a victim of sexual abuse? The London version seems imply this, with Aragon pointing out while Katherine had a good chunk of her life being exploited, Anne only had the last five minutes of her marriage in contrast.
  • While many assume Anne's line of "flirting with a guy or three" just to make Henry jealous was Artistic License – History, others have theorized she was simply joking about that and was genuinely unaware the rumor would actually result in her death. Similarly, is Anne bringing up her sixth finger this as well, or was she simply just joking?
• Anvilicious: Six's moral comes hard and fast near the end where they outright tell the audience that you shouldn't compare or pit women against each other — complete with a fourth-wall breaking glance.
  Anne Boleyn: Grouping us is an inherently comparative act and as such unnecessarily elevates a historical approach engraved in patriarchal structures.
• Award Snub:
  • During the 2019 Olivier Awards, the original West End cast was collectively nominated for "Best Supporting Actress". In any other year they would've had really good chances, but this year they were up against Broadway legend Patti LuPone. Yeeeaaah.
  • Some fans expressed their discontent during the 2022 Tonys due to the fact that none of the six principal actresses of the Broadway cast were nominated for best leading actress.
• Awesome Ego: Showboats Anne Boleyn, Katherine Howard, and Anna of Cleves are all well-loved by the audience.
• Big-Lipped Alligator Moment: The entirety of "Haus of Holbein". It's not centred around a particular Queen, rather it's a description of the process of Henry finding Anna of Cleves. It's also filled with Gratuitous German. While it's referenced again in the musical, its only real purpose seems to be to highlight the double standards for women's appearances, remind us a few of other women Henry nearly married, and serve as a break in an otherwise intermission-free 80-minute show.
• Broken Base:
  • Many people are divided on whether or not understudies/standbys should wear principal or alternate costumes.
  • "Heart of Stone" has its fans for being soulful and a nice change of pace from the poppier numbers that surround it, but it's commonly bashed for being too boring and slow.
  • The Six pro-shot announcement received a mixed reception; some believe that either the current West End cast or a cast of different actresses from different productions should've been used instead, while others are keen on defending the OG cast.
    • There seems to be a growing negative sentiment towards the original cast in general, owing to a few past controversies surrounding cultural insensitivity and appropriation.
  • Peplums^note short hanging pieces attached the waist of a costume are a very divisive costume piece in the queendom. Some like them, some are neutral, and some are very vocal about their hatred of them.
  • There have been online fights about whether or not Francis Dereham deserves as much hatred as Howard's other rapists. Some point out that he was the closest one out of all of them to care for her and that they would've gotten married if not for Henry, while others say that it isn't an excuse and still find their relationship disgusting.
• Comedy Ghetto: Some fans believe that Six focuses too much on comedy and quips to the detriment of the actual story.
• Crosses the Line Twice:
  • The Misery Poker nature of the musical runs on it, coming to a head when they begin competing over who had the most miscarriages. Downplayed by the twist ending that the competition was staged.
  • Anne Boleyn follows up her justified panic about being beheaded with a blowjob joke about how much Henry must like her "head".
• Death of the Author: When questioned about Jane Seymour's line in Six: "Since my first son, our family's grown", Lucy Moss confirmed that Jane was talking about staying with Henry. In spite of this, fans consistently ignore this and insist otherwise.
• Demographically Inappropriate Humour: Despite the show being listed as being for those aged 12+, there are many jokes littered throughout the show that are sexual in nature — most notably during "All You Wanna Do", which has several lines directly referencing sex.
• Do Not Do This Cool Thing: The main message of the musical is that the queens should not have been defined only by their relationship to the king. But spent most of the run-time doing just that. It's even lampshaded at the end.
  Jane Seymour: We've literally been doing that for the last hour, so...
• Don't Shoot the Message: It's not uncommon for fans to have many, many criticisms on how Six handles its characters and delivers its themes, yet love the show anyway.
• Fandom Heresy:
  • Comparing the queens and actresses is very frowned upon by the queendom, largely in part because it goes against the show's moral lesson.
  • Many fans will jump down your neck if you even so as much lightly criticise the original Broadway cast or any of its individual cast members — particularly fan favourite Samantha Pauly.
• Fandom-Specific Plot: Any historical figure has the potential to be "Sixified"; given a costume, styling, and/or song in line with Six: The Musical's format. Common targets for this treatment include the queens' children, other English royals, and even foreign monarchs.
• Fanfic Fuel: As it's never explained in the musical how the queens are alive to perform in a pop concert, many fanfics delve into the idea of reincarnation and the potential angst that comes with it.
• Fan Nickname:
  • Cast members (and also fans on occasion) are called "queens".
  • "Sixcago", for Six's 2019 US debut in Chicago.
  • "Alternate massive", for when three or more alternates (or "swings", since they're all trained to cover all six roles, rather than understudying one or two) are on simultaneously during a show.
    • The Australian queendom has their own term: "Swing ginormous", but it is not a Fan Nickname as it was coined by the production's swings themselves.
    • If a show is performed entirely by swings, alternates, and emergency covers, its called an "Allternate massive".
  • "Swingo", referring to whenever a swing or alternate has gotten to perform all six roles onstage. As of September 2023, seventeen different performers^note Grace Mouat, Vicki Manser, Courtney Stapleton, Jennifer Caldwell, Natalie Pilkington, Karis Oka, Shannen Alyce-Quan, Esme Rothero, Rachel Rawlinson, Chiara Assetta, Harriet Watson, Harriet Caplan-Dean, Danielle Rose, Leesa Tulley, Leah Vassell, Monique Ashe-Palmer and Shakira Simpson have hit swingo.
    • For a standby/alternate performer, "to hit swingo" may also mean to complete your covers, even if it isn't all six. For an audience member, "to hit swingo" means to have seen a performer in all the roles they cover.
  • Nicknames such as "Chane"^note Chiara Assetta as Jane Seymour, "Showard"^note Shannen Alyce-Quan as Katherine Howard, and "Karr"^note Karis Oka as Catherine Parr — portmanteaus of Six actresses' names and a role they play — are popular within the Australian queendom. The UK and US queendoms also do this, though not as much.
  • In order to distinguish the three C/Katherines, fans on Tumblr occasionally refer to Catherine of Aragon as "Lina" (short for Catalina, her original Spanish name), Katherine Howard as "Kitty" or "Kat", and Catherine Parr as "Cathy".
  • People tend to call Anne Boleyn "Bobo".
  • "The (K) Howard Roast", referring to the monologue that leads up to "All You Wanna Do".
  • "Sixtralia" for Six's Australian productions.
  • "Sixgo" (not to be confused with "Sixcago" and "Swingo" above); a portmanteau of "Six" and "Bingo". Owing to Six's propensity for emergency covers and other chaotic occurences, fans have created Six-themed bingo cards that try to predict◊ future events that may arise.
• Fanon:
  • In animatics, Anne is either a clever, tactical chessmaster with a hatred for Aragon, or a childish if well-meaning girl who really was just trying to have fun and didn't mean to hurt anyone. The second interpretation is typically seen apologizing to Aragon in song or at least feeling sorry for hurting her.
  • Jane is either the nicest and caring out of the queens, or is simply the most maternal or mature out the six of them (with the title of nicest going to Parr).
  • Aragon is typically appalled by her daughter Mary's actions, but ultimately forgives her after seeing that she had been negatively affected by Henry.
  • Due to Elizabeth's maturity as compared to her mother, Anne is typically portrayed as an Amazingly Embarrassing Parent, but they otherwise have a good relationship.
  • Considering he takes a good chunk of Jane's character, many people depict Edward and Jane as having a strong loving relationship.
  • While she was very young when it happened, many animatics have the death of Anne push Elizabeth into becoming a queen.
  • Animatics detailing the relationship of Mary and Elizabeth will depict their dynamic as something akin to Anna and Elsa.
  • Similarly, Mary Queen of Scots and Elizabeth are at best, Vitriolic Best Buds, and at worst, mortal enemies.
• Friendly Fandoms:
  • With & Juliet, Heathers, Be More Chill and Legally Blonde, due to the fact their West End productions share a few actresses (and in Legally Blonde's case, director) with Six.
  • To a lesser extent, the Queendom are also friendly with other 2000/10s musical fandoms like those of Wicked, Hamilton, Beetlejuice, Dear Evan Hansen, Moulin Rouge!, and Mean Girls.
  • There's enough overlap between Six: The Musical and Dream SMP fans to spawn an bizarre, inexplicably popular joke crossover AU between the two media.
  • Six: The Musical is frequently brought into crossovers with Miraculous Ladybug, Sanders Sides, Steven Universe, My Hero Academia and Haikyuu!!.
  • The Australian queendom has overlap with fans of the Australian musical Fangirls, because two of Six's swings have played characters in that show.
  • With Horrible Histories due to that series' equally iconic song on Henry VIII and his wives. In fact, some fans in the overlap say that if Henry were to appear in Six, it would be exactly the same one from Horrible Histories.
• Foe Yay Shipping: Catherine of Aragon and Anne Boleyn's rivalry is frequently spun as a romance by fans.
• Gateway Series: Due to its contemporary pop concert format, Six has drawn in quite a few new theatre fans.
• Genius Bonus:
  • In "Six", the line "A pair doesn't beat a royal flush" is a reference to poker hands. In poker, a "pair" (the song presumably referencing a one pair) is characterised by having only two cards of the same rank in a hand. Given that it's used to refer to Henry, it may be a reference to his genitals — something that is frequently made fun of by the queens throughout the show. Meanwhile, the six queens are represented by "a royal flush", which is a hand with all cards of the same suit in descending order from Ace (A, K, Q, J, 10), and is the highest possible hand you could have in an ace-high game. Something to note is that you can only have five cards in one hand and you can only have four queens in a standard deck... unless you're cheating.
  • In "No Way", Catherine of Aragon gets down on her knees and challenges Henry to name one thing she had done to cause him pain. She really did do this in real life, during the Legantine Court that was discussing Henry's request for an annulment — and just like the show, the real Henry couldn't answer her.
  • Katherine Howard mentions Thomas Cromwell — he was the chief minister responsible for engineering the annulment of Catherine of Aragon and Henry VIII's marriage, and was beheaded because his attempt to make a Queen out of Anna of Cleves didn't go so well. Katherine was the next queen after Anne.
  • In "Haus of Holbein", one of Henry's potential matches is Christina of Denmark, who (depending on the actor playing her in that performance) can be quite disappointed when she's rejected. The real Christina was indeed one of Henry's marriage candidates, but she was definitely not keen on marrying him due to his reputation at the time, since Catherine of Aragon was her great-aunt and Anne Boleyn's execution had shocked Europe; she even supposedly said "If I had two heads, one should be at the King of England's disposal." Also, Christina's Holbein portrait depicts her wearing her black mourning garments years after the death of her first husband, the Duke of Milan. Henry pursued Christina's hand in marriage for a very long time, but she and her relatives made it clear that it was never going to happen.
  • In "Get Down", Anna of Cleves brings up the old story that Henry claimed he had been tricked and she looked nothing like the picture that Holbein had painted. She snarkily says she doesn't agree, and indeed contemporary Tudor sources (admittedly written after Henry's death) claimed she was actually quite attractive.
  • Anna also says that she's going to hang up her portrait for everyone to see. Hans Holbein's portrait of her is currently hanging in the Louvre museum in Paris.
  • The queens that announce each lady-in-waiting are the queens that were historically linked to them.
    Anne Boleyn: Make some noise for Maggie!
    Anna of Cleves: Big up Bessie!
    Jane Seymour: Show some love for Joan!
    Catherine of Aragon: And señorita Maria!
  • In the mockumentary "Chillin' With the Tudors", Anne Boleyn rhetorically asks why she's "the most happy" during a group morning workout. "The Most Happy" was historically Anne Boleyn's motto.
• Germans Love David Hasselhoff: Six the Musical is arguably more popular in America than in the UK. Also, the show won zero Olivier Awards but two Tony Awards.
• Harsher in Hindsight:
  • Anna's "guys, I have the plague" joke has unfortunately become a lot less funny (or perhaps more funny to some people) with the show's original Broadway opening date of March 12 becoming the start date of Broadway's COVID-19 shutdown.
  • Word of God lists Britney Spears as one of the inspirations for Howard. Since 2019, with the increased scrutiny of Spears's treatment by her father, the paparazzi, and others throughout her career, particularly with her conservatorship, the parallels between Howard and her inspiration go even further than originally written.
• Hilarious in Hindsight:
  • Catherine of Aragon talks about moving to a nunnery, how she wouldn't look good in a wimple, and her happy ending in "Six" was joining a convent and their gospel choir. Adrianne Hicks, her actress in the Chicago production, understudied Delores for the German-language production of Sister Act.
  • In "Six", Anne Boleyn mentions writing lyrics for Shakespeare. Collette Guitart, a swing who briefly became a temporary principal performer for Boleyn, later went on to become a swing in & Juliet. In that production, her first cover was yet another Anne — Anne Hathaway — who ends up writing lyrics for Shakespeare.
• Hollywood Homely: In the grand tradition of Tudor-focused media, the actresses playing the allegedly-ugly Anna of Cleves have all looked lovely. The show makes no effort to pretend otherwise, and a couple lines in "Get Down" are devoted to snarking at this. (Of course, Henry was probably looking for an excuse to divorce her and a couple of his contemporaries have said that Anne was actually quite pretty, so it might be justified.) The line "You said that I tricked you / 'cause I, I didn't look like my profile picture / Too, too bad I don't agree" might be imply that the portrait was more accurate than Henry claimed and that Anna of Cleves is aware of and proving that.
  • There are serious reasons to believe the portrait was actually accurate. Hans Holbein was known for his precision when it came to his portraits, since he didn't flatter his subjects in them^note Close your eyes and picture the historical Henry VIII — chances are you're thinking of the very realistic portrait(s) Holbein painted of him. The picture on the Henry VIII page is a crop of a Holbein portrait. Some of Holbein's portraiture looks almost photographically realistic, which makes Henry's claims that he was tricked by the portrait very flimsy — especially that there is absolutely no record that Henry blamed Holbein for giving an inaccurate portrait, and knowing Henry, one would think something would have happened to Holbein if it was the case...
• I Knew It!: Due to Six's chaotic production history, quite a few fan theories on management, costuming and casting decisions have turned out to be true. These theories occasionally come within a bingo format (see "Sixgo" above).
  • Any time a production ends or cast change happens, fans always predict that someone from that cast would return within a month, emergency or otherwise. This ends up almost always happening.
  • During the 2021-22 West End cast announcement, fans raised their eyebrows at the choice to cast two super swings instead of one, totalling the amount of standbys to 5. At the time, there had been only 4 alternate costume colours, so people quickly started speculating on what the fifth would be. A popular choice was silver — when Gabriella Slade unveiled the new costume, it was, indeed, silver.
  • Back in 2022, a "huge announcement" was to be unveiled by Six. Some theorised there would be an original West End cast reunion, while others theorised that there would be a filmed stage recording. Both groups ended up being correct.
  • Fans speculated that TikToker and actress Hannah Lowther (of Heathers fame) was going to be in the 2023-25 West End cast. She previously auditioned for the show in 2021 and reached finals, but had to drop out due to already being involved in the filming of the Heathers live stage recording. When the casting dropped, many were not surprised.
    • A fewer amount of fans also correctly guessed that fellow Heathers alumni Inez Budd and Kayleigh Mc Knight would be in the same cast.
• Les Yay: Anna of Cleves has these moments in "Get Down". During the song, she refers to the queens as her "bitches", has the opportunity to call a same-sex audience member "gorgeous/handsome/pretty", and as well as make another audience member get up and dance for her.
  • This was explicit in the original Student cast version, where Anna of Cleves outright states (paraphrased), "Sorry, boys, but all the women and enbies in the audience are looking hella good tonight."
• LGBT Fanbase: When you have a musical with an all-female (and non-binary) cast involving literal queens wearing Campy outfits and singing songs inspired by pop divas, you're bound to attract a large queer following. This is heightened by the fact that the show is very inclusive, with multiple cast members and creatives (including writer Toby Marlow) being LGTBQIA+, and various official social media posts expressing their support for the community.
  • Six: the Musical is quite popular within the British and American drag communities. Actual drag queen Tia Kofi even hosted Six's vinyl launch reunion livestream.
• Memetic Badass: Everyone agrees that Anna of Cleves is very awesome, since of the six wives, she definitely came out on top; she died wealthy, happy, and with no one to boss her around. Not bad for someone whose historical reputation is "the ugly one".
• Memetic Hair: Katherine Howard's ponytail is possibly the most iconic hairstyle in Six — yes, more iconic than Boleyn's space buns — partly because of the Howardcopter dance move.
• Memetic Mutation: See here.
• Memetic Personality Change: Fan perception of Boleyn has devolved into "gremlin", thanks in part to Andrea Macasaet, the original Broadway Boleyn. Aragon and Seymour have both also been skewed into two different flavours of "the mom friend".
• Misaimed Fandom:
  • Many people on TikTok use the song "All You Wanna Do" as background music for videos where they show off their boyfriends or girlfriends, not realizing it's a song about a teenager being sexually abused. In particular, the verse introducing Henry VIII is used to brag about how much of an improvement their new beau is compared to their ex, with the long pause after "Supreme Head of the Church of England" being taken as an emphasis on how impressive it is — in the actual context of the song, though, that pause and mention of his status is actually because unlike her other lovers/abusers, Katherine can't think of a physical compliment for Henry.
  • Even though the moral of the musical is that comparing women's trauma is counterproductive and working together will help the healing process much more, there are still fans who argue over which queen is best or who had the worst life (usually settling on Katherine Howard).
• Mistaken Ethnicity:
  • Many fans thought that Courtney Bowman (West End Boleyn) was of Asian descent — Bowman is, in fact, Black.
  • Due to Original Cast Precedent, many initially assumed that Kiana Daniele (Australian Cleves) and Amy Di Bartolomeo (2021-22 West End Aragon) were people of colour. Nope, they're both just Italian.
  • Due to confusion surrounding the terms "Hispanic" and "Latino"^note Hispanic means "of a Spanish-speaking culture", while Latino specifically means "of Latin America". Not all Latinos are Hispanic, and not all Hispanic people are Latino., pretty much all Hispanic queens have had this treatment. Notable confusions include Collette Guitart (West End swing; is of white Spanish descent), Samantha Pauly (Broadway Howard; is mixed with Puerto Rican heritage), Alicia Corrales (Bliss 1.0 Howard; is of white Spanish descent), Brianna Mooney (Bliss 3.0 Howard; is a Latina), Aline Mayagotia (US Boleyn Tour Howard; is mixed with Mexican heritage) and Didi Romero (US Aragon Tour/Broadway Howard; is mixed with Puerto Rican heritage).
  • Fans unfamiliar with Tudor history believe that Anne Boleyn is French, due to the "Grew up in a French court" line in "Don't Lose Ur Head". In actuality, she was English, but studied in France during her childhood/teenage years.^note Age varies depending on the year of her birth.
• Money-Making Shot: The iconic picture spread of the queens in the midst of belting that can be seen on any Six playbill and trailer occurs in "Ex-Wives" roughly one minute in.
• Narm Charm: "Don't Lose UR Head" is full of silly lyrics like "sorry not sorry", "lol", "XO baby". Still, it is one catchy song, and it works to emphasize Boleyn's childish nature.
• Nightmare Fuel: The entirety of "All You Wanna Do" is this.
  • It starts out innocently enough, with Katherine proudly bragging about her looks ("I think we can all agree I'm a 10 amongst these 3's" "And ever since I was a child, I'd make the boys go wild!" When do things take a left turn? "He [Henry Mannox, the first of her abusers] was 23 and I was 13 going on 30!" That's when the song takes a dark turn and you realize that this young girl has been sexually abused and groomed from the time she was out of her preteens (keep in mind she was between the ages of 17-19 when she was executed). Listen closely during the choruses (beginning after the stanza about Henry VIII) and you begin hearing what sounds like a siren going off.
  • Towards the end of the song, it's implied that Thomas Culpepper sexually assaults Katherine Howard; during the last repeat of the chorus she flinches and cringes when the other queens touch her as part of the choreography and screams "When will enough be enough, see?!" She starts crying as the other queens sing "playtime's over" and as the song finishes, the kiss and gasp she makes is clearly the last moment of her life before she's beheaded — and she's left in the dark, staring upwards, sobbing.
    Katherine Howard: I thought this time was different. Why did I think it'd be different?! But it's never EVER different!
• No Yay: Many fans are turned off from shipping Anne Boleyn with Katherine Howard (her first cousin) or Jane Seymour (her second cousin). Some fans take this further, and are turned off by the idea of shipping any of the six queens given that they're all distantly related (all are descendants of Edward I).
• Portmanteau Couple Name: Popular Six ships include Aralyn (Aragon and Boleyn), Saragon/Aramour (Jane/Aragon), Parrlyn (Parr and Boleyn), and Cloward/Katanna (Cleves and Howard).
• Questionable Casting:
  • Six has been criticised for typecasting dark-skinned actresses as Catherine of Aragon, Anna of Cleves and/or Catherine Parr and light-skinned actresses as Anne Boleyn, Jane Seymour, and/or Katherine Howard, accusing the show of playing into racial stereotypes.^note Part of this may have to do with trying to model the queens after their musical inspirations, i.e. Beyoncé for Catherine of Aragon, and Ariana Grande for Katherine Howard. Six has been getting better at more diverse casting, though, with roles historically played by light-skinned actresses gaining much more actresses of colour, and recent casts having a higher number of actresses of colour in general.
    • The cruise productions seem to be lagging behind, though, all of which have been majority white and most of which fall into the same typecasting trends.
  • The cruise productions in particular have come under fire for not casting enough people of colour as swings. As of October 2023, only 3/22 onboard swings and 10/28 rehearsal swings^note Swings that only help out with rehearsals and don't actually go onto the cruise ship to perform with the cast unless emergencies happen have been people of colour. The third Bliss and Breakaway productions were noted as being especially egregious because despite being the only two casts with non-white swings at the time, none of the non-white-passing performers were casted as onboard swings.
    • This same problem popped up again during the Bliss 5.0 cast announcement, where once again all three non-white swings were relegated to rehearsal swing status.
  • Cassie Silva, an alternate on the US Aragon Tour, covered three queens — one of which was Anna of Cleves. Initial skepticism turned into derision when she debuted the queen, with many fans complaining that the role did not suit her very well.
  • Madeline Fansler (previously a swing during the Breakaway 3.0 production) received a cold reception from some of the Australian Queendom when she was casted as a temporary swing for the 2022 Sydney run due to the fact that she was a white woman in an already majority-white cast. It was not long until the production had its first all-white show, prompting further criticism.^note All though it might be worth to note that one of the swings performing that night was of Italian descent and the other of Japanese.
  • There was a small bit of controversy surrounding the 2022 Broadway cast change where all but two actresses (both of whom are alternates who had joined the cast most recently) were replaced. This struck many as weird, since three of the actresses (Bre Jackson, Keri Rene Fuller, and Brennyn Lark) had only been with the show for a few months as opposed to their castmates, who had been around since 2019. This prompted some fans to accuse Six's producers of denying its actresses contract renewals.
  • Natalie Pilkington (originally an alternate for the first Bliss production in 2019 but has reappeared in multiple UK productions since) started receiving accusations in 2022 for cultural appropriation and transphobia. When the actress returned yet another time as a universal super swing for the 2023-25 West End production, some people were annoyed to say the least.
• Recurring Fanon Character: While not technically "original characters", many related historical figures of the time period frequently appear in fanworks, including Six-ified versions of the queens' children^note Queen Mary I, Queen Elizabeth I, King Edward VI, and Lady Jane Grey, Henry Fitzroy (the illegitimate son Henry had with Bessie Blount), Mary, Queen of Scots, and sometimes, Mary Parr (Catherine Parr's daughter).
• Replacement Scrappy: Millie O'Connell has historically been a fan-favourite within the queendom. Once she left the show during the West End cast change, the role of Anne Boleyn was taken over by Courtney Bowman. This resulted in heaps of backlash from certain fans, which unfortunately included comments about the actress' weight. Nowadays, Bowman is a fan-favourite herself.
  • This event was so notable that every time the role of Anne Boleyn is replaced in any production, fans pre-emptively warn everyone to not hate on the new actress. This also extends to any cast change in general.
• Ship Mates: Catherine of Aragon/Jane Seymour, Katherine Howard/Anna of Cleves and Anne Boleyn/Catherine Parr are a common trifecta seen in fanworks.
• Stunned Silence: The Darker and Edgier "All You Wanna Do" tends to get this audience reaction, especially with audiences who weren't familiar with the musical to begin with.
• Squick:
  • This musical alleges that Katherine Howard was only thirteen when she lost her virginity to the twenty-three-year-old Henry Mannox.
  • The methods of beauty described in the song "Haus of Holbein". Special mention of using urine to bleach hair.
• They Wasted a Perfectly Good Character: During her introduction on "Ex-Wives", Jane informs the audience that she's more than meets the eye. However, neither in her song nor the rest of the musical does Jane present an image of her that the audience hasn't already known, except from stating that "she's stronger than she seems".
• They Wasted a Perfectly Good Plot: Quite a few fans dislike the musical's fake competition plot, and instead wish the show would spend more time on character development and being more historically accurate - especially since the show itself turns around at the eleventh hour and insults the audience for doing the same thing it's done its entire runtime. A major example is actually discussed in the show's playbill: the story of Anne of Cleaves being molested by Henry VIII dressed as a peasant, not fully understanding English or the tradition of courtship Henry was invoking and coldly shooting him down, and Henry projecting his own insecurities about becoming a hideous old man rather than the handsome stud he was in his youth and insisting that she was actually the ugly one. This would fit very, very well with both the themes of Anne's particular story and of the show as a whole.
• Unconventional Learning Experience: Many people in the UK found themselves having learnt more about the six wives through the musical than in their own education. Multiple actresses of the Bliss and Breakaway cruise productions (which usually sail around the Americas) have mentioned that audience members have come up to them to legitimately question if the show is based on real people.
• Unpopular Popular Character: Anne Boleyn was historically one the most divisive of the six queens, but now she is currently one of Six's most popular characters — second only to Katherine Howard, who in the show is labelled as "the least relevant Katherine".
• What Do You Mean, It's Not for Kids?: Due to its subject matter about Henry VIII and his six wives, it's easy for parents to assume that the musical may initially seem like a fun and educational experience for younger audiences similar to Horrible Histories. However, the musical is aimed at a more mature audience discussing subjects as gender, power dynamics, and sexual assault.
• What the Hell, Costuming Department?:
  • While the costumes for each of the queens are intentionally stylized, some parts of the fandom consider them to be a bit unflattering, thinking that the hairstyles are great but anything below the neck looks too sexualized. While that opinion isn't universal, there's plenty of fanwork which dresses the Six in more sensible, stylized versions of their historical garments while keeping the hairstyles intact.
  • Some fans were not happy about additional peplums being added to the costumes of the Broadway production.
    • A lot of these same fans are not happy about peplums in general, bemoaning its presence in the orange◊, silver◊, and now teal◊ alternate costumes.
  • Even more fans were more unhappy that the unique alternate costumes for the understudies were, alternatively, not going to be a part of the Broadway production.
    • The same sentiment has carried over to the West End (for first covers only), UK Tour (for first covers only), US Tour, and cruise productions.
  • The newer silver alternate costume has received various criticisms surrounding its awkward sleeves, the shape of its skirt◊, and the way the tabs are placed on its Cleves variation◊.
  • Many fans voiced their criticisms on the size of Catherine of Aragon's skirt◊ and the shape of Catherine Parr's peplum◊ during the 2021-22 Bliss and Breakaway productions.
    • When Jade Marvin made her return to Six during the 2022-23 Breakaway production, so did her comically-oversized skirt. Cue even more memes about it.
  • Unlike other productions, the Anne Boleyn costume that Jennifer Caldwell initially wore in the 2022-23 UK Tour has a stretch panel located on the back rather than the sides of the costume◊. This decision was heavily criticised due to how it makes the costume look broken. The stretch panel had since been re-located to Caldwell's side.
  • In the current West End production, the black alternate Seymour skirt now has tabs◊. Fans did not like this.
  • Recent iterations of the Seymour costume garnered criticism from fans due to the boxy, unflattering fit of the corset.
• The Woobie: While all of the wives apply to some extent for various reasons (barring maybe Anna of Cleves), Katherine Howard stands out for having been used by (much) older men for sex since she was thirteen. When she sings about finally finding a friend who doesn't expect sex from her in Thomas Culpeper, only to have those hopes dashed away with the realization that he also only sees her as a sex object rather than a person (and possibly even being raped by him), you just wanna give her a hug.

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