non-costumes blog

Elisabeth, she/her. my main tumblr is @six-costume-refs (that's the costume blog). I miss comments so asks are best.

[six-musical-refs]

have been so mia from this blog that i just realized i didn't even post abt the craziest thing to happen to me in 2026: running into a US-based six actor while in europe

[six-musical-refs]

Six Queens’ Self-Identified Race, Ethnicity, and Nationality

MOST RECENT UPDATE: Jun 2026 with replica casts only

I’ve noticed that there’s been some conflicting info about different queens’ racial, ethnic, or national heritage and identity. I did some research and compiled a list of the queens’ identities as they themselves describe it in one of three places: - on social media - on their resumés - in interviews. If you know of any info I’ve left out and you can link me to a source for it that comes directly from a queen (NOT including the “appearance” category on Spotlight), please feel free to link it to me. Additionally, I’m happy to link to any of my sources that are currently up online for anyone who would like them. I also want to thank @lightleckrereins, who provided additional insight and feedback about Latino vs Hispanic identities and distinctions.

Keep reading

[six-musical-refs]

i know it's not really relevant right now, but i thought about the fact that in the first two Broadway casts, the one-role overlap with each alternate made it so that there are three pairs of roles that aren't played by the same person. for Mallory, Nicole, Courtney, and Keirsten, it was Aragon and Parr, Boleyn and Seymour, and Cleves and Howard. for Ayla, Holli', Kristina, and Aubrey, it was Aragon and Boleyn, Seymour and Cleves, and Howard and Parr. i was wondering if you had any thoughts on if certain pairings would make sense to not be covered by the same person in that system.

I certainly think that system was wise in combating potential coverage issues (two alts never shared two roles). But I don't really have particular thoughts on certain pairings - I'm more inclined towards whatever combo works best for the actor etc, and then making it work logistically. There may be a case to be made that some roles might be more vocally or physically demanding, and so it may make sense for those roles to be more spread out....but which roles are more/less demanding also depends so much on the actor and their individual strengths/weaknesses that I don't think it can be easily prescribed to one system.

[six-musical-refs]

Hi! It was just shared in a Q&A on Shakira's stories that the West End Super Swing's priorities are:

Shakira: Aragon & Cleves

Meg: Boleyn & Parr

Laura: Seymour & Howard

If I understood correctly (hope I interpreted it right), they each have a cover order (1 to 5), with their two priorities being at the top.

What do you think the full order for each Swing is, and do you think their priorities being consistent with the Alts' 1st covers are so they can each effectively be a 1st cover for an Alt in case of vacation, etc.?

Thanks!

So, this was a very fun 24 hours for @lightleckrereins and I because we were literally trying to figure out their priority a week or two ago and came up with exactly these first covers. I do think it's lowkey hilarious that they just kind of have double alt system at this point with the three swalts w 2 first covers each (six, you wanna switch to my six alts system soooo bad). But yes, I think you understood correctly! A few other swalts have alluded to a similar system the last few years, with two main covers and then everything else in a clear order after that. For instance, near the end of the 2022-23 cast the alternates (not swings) all seemed to have switched to a this system. Danielle Rose explained her cover order at that point as Howard/Boleyn, Parr, Aragon, Seymour, Cleves. This is different than the original alternate cover system style of 2 1st covers, 2 2nd, and 2 3rd. It's really hard to know the exact order for each swing. Sofia and I have been trying to understand that for weeks (okay, who am I kidding, really it's been months). We've thrown all sorts of Excel functions and statistical analyses at my performance sheet haha. There are some things that we feel fairly confident on, but the possibility of any certainty is majorly complicated by virtue of vacations, Laura having to learn all the tracks for the first time (unlike Shakira/Meg), and a lot of uneven coverage with some roles having significantly more or less swing coverage dates. But that's where a bunch of math, logic, and some assumptions come in to fill the gaps, but again...no certainty. There are two things we feel most confident on:

First covers: Shakira A/C, Meg B/P, and Laura S/H Obviously, we know these because Shakira and Laura confirmed them yesterday!

Fifth covers Now, this is our first big assumption. Sofia and I feel fairly confident that Aragon is Meg's 5th cover, and that Cleves is Laura's 5th cover. But Shakira's is much harder to guess. We've made the case for a few different possibilities, but Sofia came up with the theory that we feel is most likely: that the swings' 5th covers correlate with the alternates' 3rd covers. So...Leonor covers Aragon, which is Meg's 5th cover; Odelia covers Cleves, which is Laura's 5th cover; and Honey covers Boleyn, which makes it Shakira's 5th cover. This was surprising to me because, at the start of the run, Shakira was A/B/C and Meg was S/H/P while they waited for Laura to debut. But it's apparent that a lot of coverage has moved around since (i.e., Laura now being 1st priority S/H) and Sofia is correct in her assertion that there being a correlation between alternate 3rd covers and swing 5th covers makes a lot of sense, especially with Meg A/Laura C already lining up. So...this is our working theory that helps fill in Shakira's. Now, here's where everything gets muuuuch more complicated. We're assuming that, for the sake of coverage, things loosely follow the old alternate system of 2 1st covers/2 2nd covers/2 3rd covers. That means that each role is included once across 1st covers, 2nd cover OR 3rd cover, and 4th cover OR 5th cover. Since we've assumed that the 5th covers are Boleyn/Aragon/Cleves, then Seymour/Howard/Parr need to be the 4th covers and each of the six tracks will happen exactly once across 2nd and 3rd covers. This is where we really got into all the nitty gritty in terms of every time a swing played something other than one of their first covers and the exact context of it - which other swings were on that performance, and exactly what roles were they playing? which swings were out of the show? which roles had Laura debuted by then? at this point Sofia and I both ran to our own respective spreadsheets to puzzle things out in the ways that made sense to our respective brains (mine of course included some hyper specific Excel functions, and Sofia's included what she refers to as "cover sudoku") From looking at: 1. Confirmed first covers; 2. Assumption of fifth covers (including the correlation with alts' covers); 3. Assumption that tracks happen only once across 1st covers, once across 2nd/3rd covers, and once across 4th/5th covers; and 4. Contextual information from shows where swings did not cover their 1st tracks... Sofia and I came up with two possibilities that we think are most likely:

(The only thing that really changes between the two is just that we swapped Seymour/Howard for Shakira and Meg)

Again, no idea if either of those are accurate and I'd be surprised if either are 100%!! there's just too many limitations on what we know, and to try and even get to a full guess we had to make the above assumptions to fill in those gaps. but I think both of these are pretty reasonable guesses based on what we do know! And now that I've taken wayyyy too long for that explanation...on your last question, I think it's up for debate! The best way to take a good guess at that would be to know exactly when this cover order was solidified, and since we don't know that it's hard to guess what exactly the considerations were. I'm inclined to think it wasn't solidified until a few weeks after opening, and it's also very possible that it's changed over time as Laura has debuted more tracks. It's just hard to know with any certainty! Re: vacation: If they were trying to make sure swings could adequately cover alts during vacation, I'd have expected they'd intentionally have different priority combos than the swings (ie, if Leonor is out and both Seymour and Howard coverage is needed, it would make more sense to have Laura as priority S and Meg as priority H than it does to have Laura as priority for both)

[six-musical-refs]

Hey y'all! Old draft from Sep 8, 2025. Thought it might still be interesting so publishing now, but just be aware of the age.

We've now had about an additional month of shows to look at, and the swings have been BUSY.

Priority orders seems to have really solidified in the last month and a half or so. In shows performed with at least one swing from 1 Aug-8 Sep, this is what the track tally looked like:*

Meg has focused primarily on her two primary covers of Boleyn/Parr. Laura is the only person to have covered every track in this period (superswing!!), but has focused primarily on her priority tracks of Seymour/Howard as well as some Parr . Shakira has swung for 5/6 tracks, with particular focus on A/C/H/P and a few Boleyn shows.

Note the higher number of Boleyn and Parr shows - Amelia Kinu Muus (principal Parr) is injured and has been out of the show. Odelia Dizel-Cubuca (alt B/P) has been serving as a temporary replacement for Parr as well as doing some of her usual Boleyn coverage. Thao Therese Nguyen (principal Boleyn) has also been out of the show for a few days at a time. All of that has led to the swings providing additional coverage for Boleyn and Parr over this period - that's why Meg has almost exclusively gone on for those tracks, and why Laura and Shakira both have some higher B/P coverage than might otherwise be expected.

This is also notable for showing Laura and Shakira's Boleyn and Parr coverage as being fairly even. However, @lightleckrereins and I still feel pretty confident that it's Shakira last priority B - the correlation between alts' 3rd tracks and swings' last priorities just lines up too obviously to ignore. It's also likely that some additional factors are also impacting how often Laura and Shakira cover those tracks, such as some personal preference, their readiness to go on for that track on any given day, or the number of shows they've performed in each track in the past. This really comes down to a priority cover is simply a priority cover, i.e., what is prescribed is not necessarily what happens.

Seymour and Howard coverage also seem to be leaning towards Option 1. We've had a few more shows where the swings have provided coverage for both Seymour and Howard, which have worked out as Laura S/Shakira H OR Meg S/Laura H.

Overall, I do feel that this period makes me feel more confident about our theory! Pretty fun stuff.

*Note that this is from my performance tracking sheet and may differ from the numbers others may have. As always, please do not use these stats without crediting me.

[six-musical-refs]

SO SO happy to see you posting again!! Life is absolutely crazy here in the states due to *waves hands generally at everything*, but your blog posts bring a smile to my face! Hope all is well, or as well as can be!

Thank you!! I went back to school so life has been crazy between school and work and research, but I miss this blog and am hoping to be more active this summer at least. Hope you're doing well!

[six-musical-refs]

IMOGEN SEYMOUR FOR MY FIRST TIME AT SIX LONDON TRULY A GIFT FROM THE GODS

[lightleckrereins]

if six had to get a rid of only the current alternate costumes that are typically used for alts (so pink, teal, and orange but keep silver and pewter for swings), what sixsona costumes would you pick to replace them/work best in the current setting of only being worn for additional covers, both if they only have their "standard" variation and if they had a couple variations such as a skirt and shorts/pants. And because white is the swing leaning costume, it can't be included (by swing leaning, I mean would most likely be for swings unless a WE 23-25 like situation happened)

Yeah white is meant to be swing, its fair to keep it out.

No variations, answer is amber. Like by a very long shot I think it is the most versatile, the least like any principal designs, the least clashing with other costumes color and something that I think would suit a very wide range of skin and hair tones. A tier choices are emerald or maroon but not both because silhouette is almost the same or peach. All fall in the versatile design that wouldn't clash with other costumes but might not work for all roles, all interpretations or all skintones. And then depending on what covers they are intended for either yellow, bronze, mint or lavender. I do think the designs are really good, but could easily feel too close to Aragon, pink, Boleyn and Parr respectively and not really work for some roles.

With variations amber is still my top choice (I honestly swear by that top design). But then it is emerald, maroon, lavender and yellow. Those are the strongest with variations. And depending on role and variation bronze, peach, mint.

With the rest, cream is the problem child and has the same issue as black of being less detailed, bronze is not top choice because someone (this is a not subtle attack on @six-musical-refs ftr) hasnt finished the first round of variations, coral and magenta can come as too close to Howard and blue as too close to parr and color might be an issue with skintones.

[six-musical-refs]

Hi! It was just shared in a Q&A on Shakira's stories that the West End Super Swing's priorities are:

Shakira: Aragon & Cleves

Meg: Boleyn & Parr

Laura: Seymour & Howard

If I understood correctly (hope I interpreted it right), they each have a cover order (1 to 5), with their two priorities being at the top.

What do you think the full order for each Swing is, and do you think their priorities being consistent with the Alts' 1st covers are so they can each effectively be a 1st cover for an Alt in case of vacation, etc.?

Thanks!

So, this was a very fun 24 hours for @lightleckrereins and I because we were literally trying to figure out their priority a week or two ago and came up with exactly these first covers. I do think it's lowkey hilarious that they just kind of have double alt system at this point with the three swalts w 2 first covers each (six, you wanna switch to my six alts system soooo bad). But yes, I think you understood correctly! A few other swalts have alluded to a similar system the last few years, with two main covers and then everything else in a clear order after that. For instance, near the end of the 2022-23 cast the alternates (not swings) all seemed to have switched to a this system. Danielle Rose explained her cover order at that point as Howard/Boleyn, Parr, Aragon, Seymour, Cleves. This is different than the original alternate cover system style of 2 1st covers, 2 2nd, and 2 3rd. It's really hard to know the exact order for each swing. Sofia and I have been trying to understand that for weeks (okay, who am I kidding, really it's been months). We've thrown all sorts of Excel functions and statistical analyses at my performance sheet haha. There are some things that we feel fairly confident on, but the possibility of any certainty is majorly complicated by virtue of vacations, Laura having to learn all the tracks for the first time (unlike Shakira/Meg), and a lot of uneven coverage with some roles having significantly more or less swing coverage dates. But that's where a bunch of math, logic, and some assumptions come in to fill the gaps, but again...no certainty. There are two things we feel most confident on:

First covers: Shakira A/C, Meg B/P, and Laura S/H Obviously, we know these because Shakira and Laura confirmed them yesterday!

Fifth covers Now, this is our first big assumption. Sofia and I feel fairly confident that Aragon is Meg's 5th cover, and that Cleves is Laura's 5th cover. But Shakira's is much harder to guess. We've made the case for a few different possibilities, but Sofia came up with the theory that we feel is most likely: that the swings' 5th covers correlate with the alternates' 3rd covers. So...Leonor covers Aragon, which is Meg's 5th cover; Odelia covers Cleves, which is Laura's 5th cover; and Honey covers Boleyn, which makes it Shakira's 5th cover. This was surprising to me because, at the start of the run, Shakira was A/B/C and Meg was S/H/P while they waited for Laura to debut. But it's apparent that a lot of coverage has moved around since (i.e., Laura now being 1st priority S/H) and Sofia is correct in her assertion that there being a correlation between alternate 3rd covers and swing 5th covers makes a lot of sense, especially with Meg A/Laura C already lining up. So...this is our working theory that helps fill in Shakira's. Now, here's where everything gets muuuuch more complicated. We're assuming that, for the sake of coverage, things loosely follow the old alternate system of 2 1st covers/2 2nd covers/2 3rd covers. That means that each role is included once across 1st covers, 2nd cover OR 3rd cover, and 4th cover OR 5th cover. Since we've assumed that the 5th covers are Boleyn/Aragon/Cleves, then Seymour/Howard/Parr need to be the 4th covers and each of the six tracks will happen exactly once across 2nd and 3rd covers. This is where we really got into all the nitty gritty in terms of every time a swing played something other than one of their first covers and the exact context of it - which other swings were on that performance, and exactly what roles were they playing? which swings were out of the show? which roles had Laura debuted by then? at this point Sofia and I both ran to our own respective spreadsheets to puzzle things out in the ways that made sense to our respective brains (mine of course included some hyper specific Excel functions, and Sofia's included what she refers to as "cover sudoku") From looking at: 1. Confirmed first covers; 2. Assumption of fifth covers (including the correlation with alts' covers); 3. Assumption that tracks happen only once across 1st covers, once across 2nd/3rd covers, and once across 4th/5th covers; and 4. Contextual information from shows where swings did not cover their 1st tracks... Sofia and I came up with two possibilities that we think are most likely:

(The only thing that really changes between the two is just that we swapped Seymour/Howard for Shakira and Meg)

Again, no idea if either of those are accurate and I'd be surprised if either are 100%!! there's just too many limitations on what we know, and to try and even get to a full guess we had to make the above assumptions to fill in those gaps. but I think both of these are pretty reasonable guesses based on what we do know! And now that I've taken wayyyy too long for that explanation...on your last question, I think it's up for debate! The best way to take a good guess at that would be to know exactly when this cover order was solidified, and since we don't know that it's hard to guess what exactly the considerations were. I'm inclined to think it wasn't solidified until a few weeks after opening, and it's also very possible that it's changed over time as Laura has debuted more tracks. It's just hard to know with any certainty! Re: vacation: If they were trying to make sure swings could adequately cover alts during vacation, I'd have expected they'd intentionally have different priority combos than the swings (ie, if Leonor is out and both Seymour and Howard coverage is needed, it would make more sense to have Laura as priority S and Meg as priority H than it does to have Laura as priority for both)

[six-musical-refs]

i'm learning a new computing tool and you better believe I've already plugged six performance stats into it

[six-musical-refs]

sometimes i feel like the epitome of the tumblr user who does very serious work and also has silly tumblr sideblogs. like yes i use my excel expert cert and proficiency in multiple data programs for Very Serious Real Things. but then I also go home and use it to figure out, like, what the most likely west end cover order is.

[six-musical-refs]

i'm learning a new computing tool and you better believe I've already plugged six performance stats into it

[six-musical-refs]

Bit of a tall order but you’d defo be more in the know than I, if you were to make a Six cast out of transfem performers, who’d you pick? :0

honestly, I don't know enough!! but I'll file this ask away to come back to when I have time to look into it more!!

[six-musical-refs]

Hi! Saw a clip of the final 24-25 UK & International Tour company's curtain call, and if I heard correctly, Liberty gives a shoutout to "Esme, Shak, Harriet, Gabbie, Naomi". Did Gabriella Stylianou and Naomi Alade join the tour for a limited time as Alts / Emergency Standbys?

Not as far as I'm aware. Here's the video, and it certainly seems that you've heard correctly. But the temporary standbys/emergency covers I have down are Ellie Jane Grant, Emilia Paige Jurin, Esme Rothero, Harriet Caplan-Dean, and Shakira Simpson. Of course, that's only those who actually performed, so it's quite plausible that Gabby and Naomi were called in on standby at some point but did not wind up going on.

[six-musical-refs]

bway…what is going on over there

[six-musical-refs]

emilia already parr on uk tour a….oh six chaos

[six-musical-refs]

Lauren Mariasoosay once again saying she grew up in Canada finally!!

[six-musical-refs]

Hi! It was just shared in a Q&A on Shakira's stories that the West End Super Swing's priorities are:

Shakira: Aragon & Cleves

Meg: Boleyn & Parr

Laura: Seymour & Howard

If I understood correctly (hope I interpreted it right), they each have a cover order (1 to 5), with their two priorities being at the top.

What do you think the full order for each Swing is, and do you think their priorities being consistent with the Alts' 1st covers are so they can each effectively be a 1st cover for an Alt in case of vacation, etc.?

Thanks!

So, this was a very fun 24 hours for @lightleckrereins and I because we were literally trying to figure out their priority a week or two ago and came up with exactly these first covers. I do think it's lowkey hilarious that they just kind of have double alt system at this point with the three swalts w 2 first covers each (six, you wanna switch to my six alts system soooo bad). But yes, I think you understood correctly! A few other swalts have alluded to a similar system the last few years, with two main covers and then everything else in a clear order after that. For instance, near the end of the 2022-23 cast the alternates (not swings) all seemed to have switched to a this system. Danielle Rose explained her cover order at that point as Howard/Boleyn, Parr, Aragon, Seymour, Cleves. This is different than the original alternate cover system style of 2 1st covers, 2 2nd, and 2 3rd. It's really hard to know the exact order for each swing. Sofia and I have been trying to understand that for weeks (okay, who am I kidding, really it's been months). We've thrown all sorts of Excel functions and statistical analyses at my performance sheet haha. There are some things that we feel fairly confident on, but the possibility of any certainty is majorly complicated by virtue of vacations, Laura having to learn all the tracks for the first time (unlike Shakira/Meg), and a lot of uneven coverage with some roles having significantly more or less swing coverage dates. But that's where a bunch of math, logic, and some assumptions come in to fill the gaps, but again...no certainty. There are two things we feel most confident on:

First covers: Shakira A/C, Meg B/P, and Laura S/H Obviously, we know these because Shakira and Laura confirmed them yesterday!

Fifth covers Now, this is our first big assumption. Sofia and I feel fairly confident that Aragon is Meg's 5th cover, and that Cleves is Laura's 5th cover. But Shakira's is much harder to guess. We've made the case for a few different possibilities, but Sofia came up with the theory that we feel is most likely: that the swings' 5th covers correlate with the alternates' 3rd covers. So...Leonor covers Aragon, which is Meg's 5th cover; Odelia covers Cleves, which is Laura's 5th cover; and Honey covers Boleyn, which makes it Shakira's 5th cover. This was surprising to me because, at the start of the run, Shakira was A/B/C and Meg was S/H/P while they waited for Laura to debut. But it's apparent that a lot of coverage has moved around since (i.e., Laura now being 1st priority S/H) and Sofia is correct in her assertion that there being a correlation between alternate 3rd covers and swing 5th covers makes a lot of sense, especially with Meg A/Laura C already lining up. So...this is our working theory that helps fill in Shakira's. Now, here's where everything gets muuuuch more complicated. We're assuming that, for the sake of coverage, things loosely follow the old alternate system of 2 1st covers/2 2nd covers/2 3rd covers. That means that each role is included once across 1st covers, 2nd cover OR 3rd cover, and 4th cover OR 5th cover. Since we've assumed that the 5th covers are Boleyn/Aragon/Cleves, then Seymour/Howard/Parr need to be the 4th covers and each of the six tracks will happen exactly once across 2nd and 3rd covers. This is where we really got into all the nitty gritty in terms of every time a swing played something other than one of their first covers and the exact context of it - which other swings were on that performance, and exactly what roles were they playing? which swings were out of the show? which roles had Laura debuted by then? at this point Sofia and I both ran to our own respective spreadsheets to puzzle things out in the ways that made sense to our respective brains (mine of course included some hyper specific Excel functions, and Sofia's included what she refers to as "cover sudoku") From looking at: 1. Confirmed first covers; 2. Assumption of fifth covers (including the correlation with alts' covers); 3. Assumption that tracks happen only once across 1st covers, once across 2nd/3rd covers, and once across 4th/5th covers; and 4. Contextual information from shows where swings did not cover their 1st tracks... Sofia and I came up with two possibilities that we think are most likely:

(The only thing that really changes between the two is just that we swapped Seymour/Howard for Shakira and Meg)

Again, no idea if either of those are accurate and I'd be surprised if either are 100%!! there's just too many limitations on what we know, and to try and even get to a full guess we had to make the above assumptions to fill in those gaps. but I think both of these are pretty reasonable guesses based on what we do know! And now that I've taken wayyyy too long for that explanation...on your last question, I think it's up for debate! The best way to take a good guess at that would be to know exactly when this cover order was solidified, and since we don't know that it's hard to guess what exactly the considerations were. I'm inclined to think it wasn't solidified until a few weeks after opening, and it's also very possible that it's changed over time as Laura has debuted more tracks. It's just hard to know with any certainty! Re: vacation: If they were trying to make sure swings could adequately cover alts during vacation, I'd have expected they'd intentionally have different priority combos than the swings (ie, if Leonor is out and both Seymour and Howard coverage is needed, it would make more sense to have Laura as priority S and Meg as priority H than it does to have Laura as priority for both)

[six-musical-refs]

Six Queens’ Self-Identified Race, Ethnicity, and Nationality

MOST RECENT UPDATE: Jan 2025 with West End and Broadway cast changes

I’ve noticed that there’s been some conflicting info about different queens’ racial, ethnic, or national heritage and identity. I did some research and compiled a list of the queens’ identities as they themselves describe it in one of three places: - on social media - on their resumés - in interviews. If you know of any info I’ve left out and you can link me to a source for it that comes directly from a queen (NOT including the “appearance” category on Spotlight), please feel free to link it to me. Additionally, I’m happy to link to any of my sources that are currently up online for anyone who would like them. I also want to thank @lightleckrereins, who provided additional insight and feedback about Latino vs Hispanic identities and distinctions.

Keep reading