I’d seen things about this show in passing, and heard good things about it, but it wasn’t until a couple of its numbers popped up on Spotify that I knew that I had to see it.
The concept of this show is simple - pop/rock songs re-tell the stories of Henry VIII’s wives from their perspective - and the music is amazing. You can hear the various influences in it but you forgive that because the numbers are just so bouncy and catchy, and the singers are so talented. Some of the numbers are real ear-worms and go round round in your head for days! So, to the theatre I had to go to hear the music for real.
The show is basically the band and singers on stage with costumes and some lighting effects, and it was great. But, being completely honest, the vocals on the album are better than the live vocals. Natalie Paris (Jane Seymour) and Aimie Atkinson (Catherine Howard) are the only two from the album in the live show, but the difference is probably because the album is a studio recording and so the vocals don’t have the competing demands of acting, dancing and audience interaction.
In terms of the acting, some of it was completely over the top, to the point that it was distracting and almost pantomime-esque (mostly Millie O’Connell as Anne Boleyn) and the ‘filler’ story that links all the songs together it pretty infantile and painful to watch. It’s almost as though the show can’t make up its mind as to its audience - the music, which is fantastic and would allow the show to stand on its own without anything more, appeals to such a wide range of people; but then the acting and the linking story seems to be aimed at primary school children because, unlike its music counterpart, it isn’t funny or clever. I think that the show could strip most of that out and simply have the music, and it would be truly sensational.
The album will continue to feature highly on my Spotify listening, but I probably wouldn’t see the show again unless it was stripped back to mainly the music. If you haven’t seen or heard this show though, I would encourage you to listen to the album and/or see it when it’s back in London in January 2019 because the music really is great.