Six women rock on the stages of the Royal Alexandra Theater these days in Toronto, in Six The Musical, a production that has toured the world, from London to New York via Sydney. Montrealer Maggie Lacasse is part of the Canadian cast of this pop, exploded and no less feminist rereading of the tragic fate of the six wives of Henry VIII. And she is very proud of it. Interview.
Its name probably doesn’t mean anything to you. Aged 34 and a graduate of Toronto’s Randolph College for the Performing Arts, Maggie Lacasse has worked for over a decade in the entertainment industry on cruises, traveling the world (she’s also the daughter of the ex- traffic columnist Pierre Lacasse).
Singing, dancing, playing on stage, in her country, is living a “dream”, she reacts straight away.
Reached by telephone between two performances of Six The Musical (the 80-minute, intermission-free, physically and vocally “demanding” show is presented six days a week, and twice a day on Saturdays, since the end of September), Maggie Lacasse welcomes participating in a “hybrid between a musical and a pop concert” where diversity is in the spotlight. “There are girls from all over the cast,” she argues. There should be more shows like this. It’s important that people realize that there is talent everywhere, and you have to see it on stage! »
What is it about ? Basically, this parody of the Tudors, written by Toby Marlow and Lucy Moss in 2017 for the Edinburgh Fringe festival, features the six ex-wives of the famous King Henry VIII, transformed here into rock stars, with voices sometimes inspired by Beyoncé, sometimes Rihanna or Britney Spears. They take the microphone to tell their story, and 500 years of historical heartbreak along the way. Objective: to demonstrate which had the worst fate of all (between Catherine of Aragon, Anne Boleyn, Jeanne Seymour, Anne of Cleves, Catherine Howard and Catherine Parr), facing this insatiable sovereign, ready to do anything, as we know, to have an heir.
Henry VIII is said to have inspired the tale of Bluebeard, and here’s why: one here sings of his beheading, the other of his betrayal. The third, Jeanne Seymour, played by Maggie Lacasse (who notably performs a Céline Dion-style ballad, “I never thought of going there!”), completely lost her life, a few days after having finally given her descendants to its king.
The chorus, to give you an idea of the tone: “Divorced, beheaded, died. Divorced, beheaded, survived! » (free translation: divorced, beheaded, dead. Divorced, beheaded, survived).
“It’s really about these six women,” says Maggie Lacasse. And it is not too early, she adds, signaling in doing so the obviously feminist stance of the show, crying out to be topical. “The story has always been told by men, it’s important to give women’s voices back. […] We must not be afraid to tell our story. Our facts. »
If the starting point is obviously historical, she reminds us that “it is not a historical piece. It’s a very contemporary pop concert. […] It’s very funny, very empowering…”
We guess that the final is even more so.
Could we imagine seeing Six arrive in Quebec? Difficult, believes Maggie Lacasse. Not just because of the language issue. “I love everything that is done in Quebec, but we don’t have that culture when it comes to musicals. We don’t have several big shows going on at once, like in Toronto. We have other things! »
After being a hit at its creation, Six toured the United Kingdom, before being exported to Australia, then landing on Broadway, where it won around twenty awards (including the Tony for best score original) in one season (2021-2022). It is celebrated almost everywhere by critics: the London Telegraph saw it as a “gloriously coherent and inventive” spectacle, the Guardian noted that in addition to a certain “lightness”, Six put its finger on “several important points regarding victimization and survival of women”. At home, the Globe