I saw the Six pro shot last night and oh my goodness, I forgot how much more impactful seeing musicals can be than just listening to the recordings (though I do love those too!).
All of the women were fabulous, but I think Katherine Howard’s song hit the hardest. Her body language and the choreography contributed so much to her story in a way that was incredibly tragic.
For those who aren’t familiar with Tudor history, Katherine Howard was the fifth wife of Henry VIII who was beheaded for having a romantic entanglement with one of the men of the court as well as for having had other rather scandalous attachments prior to her marriage.
When she was about 13, she had her first romantic attachment with her music teacher, who was in his late thirties. Her second was with the secretary of the Dowager Duchess of Norfolk, of whom she was a ward, when she was about 15. She then married Henry VIII when she was 17 and he 49. She was then executed at 19.
In her song, she talks about each of these men through their characters and courtship. The chorus repeats the same lines about how every one promised to be the one who understood her and loved her, but while the first verse is sung in a hopeful and happy tone with the other dancers gently caressing her shoulders, by the last verse she is desperately holding herself together and pushing the hands away as they grab her body. The tragedy of her life is that she had been groomed from such a young age to think she needed the attentions of older men and never got the chance to learn the truth of love and life due to her marriage to the king.
The other queens had wonderful stories as well, but this one was so powerful and had me super emotional by the end.
