NEWS: Ordway’s SIX Heading to Broadway

The musical SIX. Photo by Liz Lauren, courtesy of Chicago Shakespeare Theater.

A musical exploration of the wives of Henry VIII is heading straight from the Ordway to Broadway. SIX, a new musical by Toby Marlow and Lucy Moss, will play at the Ordway from November 29 to December 22, 2019. The show will then transfer to New York City’s Brooks Atkinson Theatre, where previews will begin on February 13, 2020 and the show will formally open on March 12, 2020. (It is common for shows transferring to Broadway to take a long period to expand and otherwise adapt show elements to the different-sized space.)

SIX was created by the UK-based writing team of Marlow and Moss, and has enjoyed a successful 3-month run in Chicago at the Chicago Shakespeare Theater, where it closes tomorrow. (The show will also play at the American Repertory Theater in Cambridge, MA, and the Citadel Theater in Edmonton, Alberta before arriving at the Ordway.) The Chicago Tribune‘s Chris Jones praised it as a “dynamic new pop musical” and the writers’ comic talents. Jones compared SIX‘s concert-musical aesthetic to Ariana Grande and Beyoncé, with audiences encouraged to videorecord and take photos mid-concert.

Positioning the Ordway as a launching pad for Broadway-bound shows is part of the vision of the Ordway’s producing artistic director Rod Kaats and President/CEO Jamie Grant. In a 2018 interview, Grant noted, “A guy with Rod’s skill set in new work is going to be very valuable as we try to imagine some of the things that will head to New York, and what role we might play on the front end – a sort of ‘Ordway on the Way to Broadway’ series.

Regarding SIX, Grant noted, “For the first time in the history of our theater, a major production is headed from the Ordway directly to Broadway. SIX is a surefire, sell-out hit and we’re thrilled to provide our audiences with the opportunity to see it in St. Paul before it heads to New York.”

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Amy Donahue

Amy Donahue is a staff reviewer at the Twin Cities Arts Reader. She interned with the magazine during the summer of 2017, served as a guest contributor while studying abroad in Europe that fall, and has moved up to regular old reviewing. She served as interim Editor-in-Chief in 2023.

She admits to being at least 50% terrified of contemporary German opera.