‘We’re holding up two fingers to Henry VIII’: Can the rowdy Japanese six outshine the original Tudor queen? | Musicals

A Mari Sugaya, a singer and dancer in Japan, first heard about a musical featuring the wives of King Henry VIII through a friend at a cultural exchange in London. “I talked about Team Six so much that I thought if it came to Japan, I would love to be a part of it. But it was a far-fetched idea, just a dream.”

Likewise, Eri Suzuki, an actor and “pop icon” known throughout Japan, traveled to Britain to see the show last year, purely as a gambler. Neither Sugaya nor Suzuki imagined they would take to the same stage to perform a Tudor-era concert and rock show themselves. But they are part of an all-Japanese cast of queens who take over a week-long vaudeville stage, which producers believe is the first of its kind: a West End show, translated into Japanese and shown in Tokyo, Osaka and Nagoya as part of a sold-out tour, and now brought back to the West End with a cast singing in Japanese (with English captions).

It’s the latest development in the career of this esteemed musical ‘queen’, originally from the Edinburgh fringes in 2017, who has now become a global phenomenon. The UK production was released in Japan at the beginning of this year and was followed by its Japanese iteration.

When co-producers Kenny Wax and Andy Barnes saw the latter, along with co-creators Toby Marlowe and Lucy Moss, they felt it had an irrepressible energy worth experiencing in London. “We thought it would be great for the Queen to do something different,” says Wax. “Sixes like to be different, and we often do crazy things.”

Sugaya plays Anne of Cleves, the fourth wife of King Henry VIII whose marriage ended in annulment (at least she escaped with her head intact) while Suzuki plays Katherine Howard, the wife who replaced Anne of Cleves in Henry’s affections but was beheaded less than two years after their marriage, aged only 18 or 19.

Both actors sit in a rehearsal room in London, wearing branded T-shirts, and talk about how they are “so excited to be here.”

““Six of them last 80 minutes, and it’s 80 minutes in which these queens jump out of their canvases to talk about their own truths, their histories, their own personalities,” Suzuki says. “Katherine Howard’s message hasn’t really changed in all these centuries: As human beings, we all have our own worth.”

The first piece of music I associated with from the show was actually, “Whatever You Want To Do,” which was her character’s solo song, which became her entry point. Sujaya, who is also a vocal coach and sailor who was working on a boat a few weeks before she took part in the show, feels a natural affinity with Cleaves: “She was also someone who did what she wanted to do. She felt the same kind of freedom.” [as Sugaya].

“There is great value in presenting a presentation in a language other than its original language,” she adds. “It seems like a good opportunity to prove that we do this with the same passion.”

Their personalities are a mixture of history and personality. “I’m 50% Katherine Howard, 50% myself,” says Suzuki, and Sugaya agrees: “It’s 50% Katherine Howard and 50% myself.” Not only is the offer different from each country, it is also different from each team due to this equal 50-50 mix.

While Tudor history is not known everywhere in Japan, many are familiar with this musical and well-versed in the fate of these queens, says Hiroko Murata, director of Umeda Arts Theater and producer of the musical Six Japan. “We have two different types of audience in Japan – the six-pack fans who don’t know the history but love the music and those who know the history. Theater-goers in Japan really like stories about the throne and the royal family. They are familiar with Shakespeare as well.” This means they know about British royal history.

Wax says the main theme is giving historical women a voice, as well as empowering girls and women today. “We talk about it a lot because the show is ‘her story’ rather than ‘his story.’ These women were given the opportunity to tell their life story with Henry and, dare I say it, almost stick two fingers on it.”

For Saqiya, this message is clear. “It is clear that history is written around men and women [so often] They become mere accessories. There are a lot of layers behind the history. The important thing here is that everyone has their own individual history, so there is the importance of making your own history, of making yourself royal in some way.

Is this message clear to the Japanese public, and does the feminist movement resonate today, especially in light of the recent election of the first female prime minister, Sanae Takaishi? The Japan Six “doesn’t scream about empowerment or feminism as a show — audiences can take in that kind of message and ignite that feeling of feminism themselves in their hearts,” Murata says. But at the same time, she talks about empowerment and extends an open invitation to Takaishi to see the musical herself.

Aside from appealing to die-hard Six fans, the run is likely to attract a large international audience in the West End as well as Japanese tourists, says Wax. He adds that the international scope of the musical overall was exceptional. Currently 15 Countries are licensed to perform this with more unlicensed and asymmetric offerings further afield. It has been shown far and wide, from Korea and China to Singapore and the Philippines. “A lot of people already know the music. Its soundtrack has been streamed 1.1 billion times — second only to Hamilton in musical theater airplay.”

For Sugaya, it is incredibly emotional to be performing in the West End, not least because the friend she first told her about will be in the audience. “She is coming back to London to watch it with me on stage this time. It is very emotional,” says Sujaya. That distant idea or dream comes true.