by The biggest night of Broadway in New York is over. This is the story of the ‘Tony Awards,’ considered the highest honor in the American theater and musical field.
On the night of the 12th (local time) on Sunday, at the 75th Tony Awards, which returned to the Radio City Music Hall in Manhattan, New York, after about three years, the final celebration stage was decorated by ‘Musical SIX.’ The six queens, ex-wives (Ex-Wives) of Henry VIII of England, each held a microphone and reclaimed their identity, not ‘one of someone’s wives, in a pop concert format. It was a work of art.
In Musical Six, there are no flashy stage sets that change from scene to scene, nor a vast orchestra. The six queens stand on stage with a small band and tell their stories to the audience.
Divorced, beheaded, died, divorced, beheaded, and surviving. In a word, it is a kind of battle with the theme of who is the queen who suffered the most because of Henry VIII, ‘I have the most bizarre life.’ In the case of each character and number, the motifs were taken from famous pop singers, so Catherine of Aragon, who suffered a so-called ‘transfer divorce,’ shows Beyonce, and Catherine Howard, who boasts her charm, shows Ariana Grande.
It may be a natural decision that the musical Six, which feels like coming to a concert, marked the end of the celebration stage. The work was nominated for eight categories, including Best Musical. That night, the honor Best Musical Award went to ‘Strange Loop,’ but it won two awards: Best Original Score (composition) and Best Costume Award.
Two Cambridge University students wrote six scripts and composed songs in their spare time during the final semester before graduation and final exams. Even after their success in London’s West End, they weren’t confident they’d make their way to Broadway. “I was worried that [the American audience] would understand,” said Lucy Moss in an interview with the British daily newspaper.
However, they said they put their hopes on the fact that the musical Six is a ‘pop concert’ enjoyed by everyone worldwide. The power of music transcends borders, races, and cultural differences. The musical Six’s concert hall, which I visited about a week before the Tony Awards, was filled with audiences of all ages, from children who had not yet learned British history, to middle and high school students, to the elderly. There is also an ardent fandom of the musical Six, the so-called ‘Queendom.’
Watching the musical Six, which reconstructed British history, so loved on Broadway in the United States, raises cautious expectations. On Broadway in New York in the second half of the year, the musical ‘K-Pop,’ a musical about K-pop and the entertainment industry behind it, will open for the first time.
Second-generation Korean playwright Jason Kim wrote the script, and the lyrics were co-composed by Helen Park and Max Vernon of Korean descent. It is also the Broadway debut of Luna, a musical actress from the girl group f(x). Previously, it was a work that went through verification as it swept significant awards in 2017 on Off-Broadway, called the test bed for Broadway entry.
