Rachael Dickzen's Blog, page 6

13 Things I Learned from Original Six Alternate/Dance Captain Grace Mouat's Workshop/Q&A

All My Six Posts!
I'm Doing 10 Virtual Dance Workshops and Q&As with Different Six Cast Members!
(^This post includes links to workshop/q&a roundups from Grace Mouat, Natalie Pilkington, Sam Pauly, Cherelle Jay, Vicki Manser, Collette Guitart, Jen Caldwell, and Harriet Watson)
Details from Six Costumer Gabriella Slade’s Instagram Takeover
Six the Musical Wives 1-3: Historical and Modern Costume Inspirations
Six the Musical Wives 4-6: Historical and Modern Costume Inspirations
The Early Costumes of Six the Musical: From Edinburgh to Cambridge to London
Updated Six the Musical Costumes for Broadway!
The Alternate Costumes of Six the Musical
The Shoes of Six the Musical
The Ladies in Waiting of Six: Historical Inspirations and Costumes
The Tudor Fashion Elements of the Costumes in Six (with Painting References)
How the Six Alternates Change Their Styling for Each Queen

I did a dance workshop and Q&A with Grace Mouat last Sunday through Theatre Fan Workshops! Grace was the original swing/dance captain for Six the musical! She started on the first UK tour, which opened in July 2018, as the tour’s only swing (covering all six roles and debuting ALL of those roles in July and August 2018). She then moved to the West End and stayed there as a swing until August 2019. She now is an ensemble member and Juliet understudy in &Juliet.

Grace Mouat

Grace was utterly brilliant and taught us a dance from &Juliet that I was really honestly just very bad at, but it was fun! She makes the best faces and thankfully, I got screenshots of a lot of them!

Disclaimer as usual- I was typing as fast as I can and tried to mark which parts are direct quotes, but some of these may be slightly paraphrased.

Grace Mouat

1. What’s the story behind the shoes in &Juliet? (look at the costumes on my &Juliet posts 1 and 2 to see what i mean!)– “We got to choose what shoes we wanted. We got these amazing trainers to rehearse in and were like ‘they’re so new and shiny.’ And then they told us to bring them in to rehearsal because we’re going to ruin them. [New shiny trainers] wouldn’t go with the costumes and the tudor/modern mix up. Can you imagine me walking out in shiny white trainers? It’s totally deliberate. We’re also shakespeare’s players [so it goes with that sort of rough and tumble players look.]”

2. Advice for surviving in quarantine: Grace suggested doing lots of dance workshops, youtube live, barre classes, etc. to prepare. Theatre Fan Workshops host Taylor also chimed in to say that everywhere he auditioned, he had to do ballet and jazz, freestyle and jazz.

3. Hardest queen to sing – “Katherine Howard – she’s ridiculous. She was on all the low harmonies throughout the show – and then she sings all you wanna do and then with your voice –the set up is strange. Then with jane Seymour, it’s like why &Juliet is hard – low low low BELTY BELTY – etc – it’s not even about the range it’s about the up and down.” [She noted that this was the case in the West End version, apparently the harmony assignments for queens varies a lot between casts]

Grace Mouat

Grace Mouat

 4. What was the audition process for &Juliet like? – “There was a massive buzz around it in terms of performance. They didn’t even tell us what it was called before we got the job, it was just ‘the max martin musical.’ I’d worked with [director] Luke Sheppard before. My audition was the DAY after I got back from the Edinburgh fringe with Six. I did ‘hit me baby one more time,’ I did the first scene with Juliet and my own pop song, and the director sat down and talked to me. It was so much more chill than people think – both six and &Juliet have been the most chill audition experiences I’ve had. I found out I got the job when Six was in Manchester, when I was cathy P.”

5. Advice for getting into musical theater: “Do more of these [dance workshops] if you want to enter the industry some day. Training in your own space -I pick up choreo so much quicker when I’m in my lounge than when I’m in my class because there’s no one around to compare you too – so use that.  

I had a big fat notebook on my gap year when I hadn’t got into drama school. I used that as my musical theater dream life book. Every show I’d go to, I’d stick my ticket in the book. I’d put down who directed, who performed, performers that stuck out to me, performers I’d seen in shows before. I’d look for people that caught my eye and learned from that.

Learn from other people, go to as many shows as possible. There are so many shows that have been professionally filmed so you can see it up close. Watch films, watch acting, watch dancing. And connect with other people. Unfortunately the industry is so much about who you know, not to get a job even but to get into an audition. Be nice, be genuine, don’t be fake, because people will know.”

6. Fave choreography from any show I’ve been in – “First thing that came to my head is the ‘No Way’ dance break from Six. And in &Juliet – ‘Kissed a Girl’ is actually REALLY fun, and it’s on a revolve so it’s so hard, and I only come off the revolve once.”

7. What she misses most about being on stage – “Having fun with my friends! I miss those moments when you look across the stage and just [mugs for camera]. I miss reacting with people and being an ensemble, especially with the cast of &Juliet because they’re so much fun. And I really miss playing Juliet, it’s just the most special role.”

 8. Most Memorable celebrity visit to &Juliet – “Katy Perry without a doubt. I was Juliet in front of KP. And she looked at me and I went [happy shocked face]. I was getting dressed after and going like, ‘I can’t believe that just happened, I can’t believe that just happened, I can’t believe that just happened’ and the band could hear me and they were just laughing at me. I met her afterward and she was just lovely."

Press night was the most bizarre night of my life. We didn’t get to meet everyone. I was like [singing and dancing] ‘one less problem without you’ and I looked up and Ed Sheeran was up in the box dancing – and I was like [open mouth].”

Grace Mouat

Grace Mouat

9. Favorite part of &Juliet – “As ensemble - The beautiful moment at the end when she’s like ‘it’s just the first day.’ I’m like YES I love feminism.

As Juliet - I love doing Roar but it’s just so stressful, there’s so much going on. ‘One More Try’ is probably my favorite because Jordan [Luke Gage, who plays Romeo] is one of my best friends. We actually got a note being like – ‘We can tell you’re friends.’ And I had to work to flirt with Jordan, but it wasn’t that hard because he’s one of the most beautiful people in existence.”

10. What was it like after doing Six (with only six cast members and no costume changes) going back to a musical with a large cast and costumes? “Uh SO WEIRD. I was telling everyone like, ‘Girls I can’t do it. I hope you all know how lucky you are’ while talking to the cast in Manchester. The costume changes in &Juliet, like in Roar. Y’all don’t know what’s going on in the wings during ‘Hit Me Baby One Time, it’s MAYHEM, because we’re all changing for ‘Show Me the Meaning.’

All the costume changes in &Juliet – at the beginning it was stressful. But you got used to it, and you usually have the same dresser so they know everything about how you put on the costume and such.”

11. How much did Six change over the time (from summer 2018-August 2019) she was in it? “Six changed a ton! I had a different costume on tour. Alexia [McIntosh, who played Anna of Cleves] had a different costume for some of the tour, she used to be silver, and she used to have longer hair. And jayej [referring to Jarneia Richard-Noel, who played Catherine of Aragon and had much longer hair on tour]. Everything’s different. The choreo’s different, the scenes are different. There were SO many changes until we got to the London.

It was ridiculous as a swing. I was a big journey with Catherine Parr. She used to have a plug she’d pull and the whole thing would go [womp womp sound], and she’d go ‘STOP.’ I’m doing a queendom blog soon and there will be unseen footage there.”

Grace Mouat

Grace Mouat

12. Funniest onstage moments– “[The Six cast] actually had a massive chat about this the other day. Let me see if I screenshot that chat. There were just so many! My number one favorite was early on, when Millie [O’Connell, who played Anne Boleyn] had to say promo code and she couldn’t get it out and she said, ‘make sure to check out the slogan mogan frogan promo code.’ Something like that.

When I went on on as Jane Seymour, I accidentally said ‘Let’s all commiserate the loss of his mother, my son.’ It just was weird.

In ‘All You Wanna Do,’ I was thrown on as Cleves and I was facing the front and all the girls are facing the back. Everyone’s in the back laughing, and I’m directly behind Aimee. I just had to turn it into a sarcastic smile, which is what I would do whenever Millie would make me laugh.

There will be more stories in the [Queendom] blog/vlog – like when Jayej [Jarneia Richard-Noel, who played Catherine of Aragon] threw a shoe and natalie’s knee slide [Natalie Paris, who played Jane Seymour] in Haus of Holbein.”

13. Advice about going into the industry as a director/choreographer? – “I think that is one of those things you really have to work yourself up to. It does help if you have a bit of a performer’s background as well. Look at assisting jobs, if you can assist directors, taking people to work on scenes when they’re free, helping the ensemble find their things if the director’s focusing on the main action, running cover rehearsals, etc. It’s a very hard and fun job that will give you loads of experience with directors and knowledge of how directors work.

And social media is your friend. Start choreographing now and send it to choreographers you admire, like Drew McOnie , Tom Jackson Greaves. Send it to them and ask, ‘can you give me some feedback – what do you think of my style?’ You never know who’s going to come across the video saying ‘choregraphed by your name’ and say, ‘I want to get them on my next project.’”

24 Things I Learned from Six (Bliss) Alternate and Show Captain Nat Pilkington's Workshop/Q&A!

I did a dance workshop and Q&A with Natalie “Nat” Pilkington last Saturday! Nat was show captain and one of the alternates on the Bliss 1.0 production of Six from September 2019 to March 2020.

Nat taught us “Don’t Lose Your Head,” which I had learned already at Vicki Manser’s workshop, but frankly, I was bad enough at it that I was quite happy to learn it again. I feel like I’ve gotten quite a lot better at it! Particularly that weird foot thing in the beginning.

Nat has a wonderful sort of manic energy and brought that to her teaching style. When we were doing warmups, she asked her Alexa to play Dua Lipa’s “Physical” and when Alexa responded “I don’t know that one,” she just yelled “YES YOU DO.” It was hysterical.

During the dance teaching portion, she suggested that we try to act like gossiping flamingos talking about Anne Boleyn. As she said, “I’m sure some of y’all have done that before - Like ‘oh my god look at her skirt’ – like a Mean Girls vibe – but we shouldn’t do that.” She also definitely caught me dancing around with my cat at one point and laughed about it, lol.

At the end of the class, she actually went through and watched /everyone/ do the routine, specifically going from screen to screen and calling out everyone’s names. It was a little intimidating but fun to actually know she was looking at you!

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Natalie “Nat” Pilkington

Natalie “Nat” Pilkington - “I’m literally like Anne Boleyn, it’s chopping my head off”

1.      On working and living on a cruise ship- It’s hard to explain - It’s kind of like being in quarantine only you can move around a little and be social with a few people. You have to be very independent and okay with your own company. You spend a lot of time alone.

2.      Favorite Queen - I love them all but I really like Catherine Parr.

3.      The queens she covered - Alicia went home [Alicia Corrales-Connor, who played Katherine Howard as Bliss 1.0, but she left the show a month early and was the understudy Katherine Howard on the UK Tour] and then Byrony [Duncan, another alternate on the cruise] was Howard while we were waiting for her replacement. Then Lori came in for Howard [Lori McLare, who was originally a rehearsal swing but came in in February as an understudy for Katherine Howard]. I then had the choice to do either Seymour or Howard – I chose Seymour because she’s nice, although I’ve got the hair for howard - I only had a few days to learn Seymour – but I sang more for Seymour than anyone else at the audition.

[Sidenote: Pilkington’s hair is SO GLORIOUS AND SO LONG - Like IN a ponytail it looked like it was still down to her elbows, it was insane]

4.      Favorite part of the show – From a selfish ‘being on stage’ point of view – the remix. When we get out there and do “this is the remix”   and you go up and you’re like “henry this is how it is.” And the megasix, there’s no better feeling than doing the megasix.

5.      Origin of her accent - I am from a place called Chorley In Lancashire - Near Bolton and preston, not far from Blackpool.

6.      Most challenging thing about doing a production on cruise - The audience don’t necessarily come for the shows, which sounds really sad but obviously if you’re on the West End or Broadway, people have paid specifically to come out to watch six, while with the cruises, people come on holiday and the show is just a free bit at the end of the day. Especially with Americans, and it was mainly Americans on the ship, it was us telling people how good it is and getting them to come. And still people were like ‘was this real, did this guy actually have six wives?’ YES [claps hands on either side of face].

Also, the stage on the ship is humongous. We were so tired and out of breath trying to run from one of the place – it’s so much different from on the West End.

Natalie “Nat” Pilkington

Natalie “Nat” Pilkington

7.  Pilkington’s parents were both involved in theater growing up - How did that influence her acting?

Mum’s a dance teacher and father does sets. She teaches tap and modern at like a proper dancing school and they do acro and street dances and all that (she doesn’t teach all of that, she’s a bit old). That’s a big influence because I didn’t really get a choice, I danced since I was 2-2.5, that’s a long time.

My dad built sets and stage managing and such, never professionally as such, but more like amateur dramatics and such. It definitely had an influence on me wanting to do this because we used to spend every weekend at various show rehearsals and things so I was just always surrounded by it honest,

8.      Hardest queen to play physically – Probably jane Seymour actually . Aragon and Boleyn and Cleves are so big and like ‘here I am!’ I play Cleves more like cooler. But Jane and Parr, you had to be a bit more together and  bit more – can’t think what to describe it - the physicality of it. Cleves and Aragon are a bit more like my personality.

9.      Audition process/how she got the part - It’s a tough tough business, let me tell you – but it’s great.

[Pearson Casting, the casting directors for Six] had never heard me sing or dance before, if they thought I was good enough –they could put me to the Six people –but they don’t want to just send you directly to the six auditions in case you can’t sing or dance. So I sang for James and Rosie [Pearson, who run Pearson Casting], than I got called down to London and sang for Lucy [Moss, one of the writers and co-director of the show] and one of the directors Jamie [Armitage]. I literally sang for one song, and they were like “thanks” and I was like “what does that mean?”

Oh there were so many rounds. I was called back to dance. We did ‘Get Down’ with Carrie-Ann Ingrouille [the choreographer] and loads of walking around and being queens. Some people got cut from that, then they gave you the specific queens they thought you’d be suitable for, and all the Aragons went in, then all the Anne Boleyns in. I was seen at first for Seymour and Howard actually, two that I wasn’t meant to cover [later after she’d been cast as an alternate]. Then after that day there was another round. I can’t even tell you how many rounds there were all together, but obviously they have to find the right people. The last week was very much a similar sort of day. We did more singing,some acting, putting different people together to see if they worked well together.

Lots of us were waiting for an awfully long time to see if we got it – That was the west end – I didn’t get that, but got called back for the cruise auditions a couple months later.

We did a dance round, then we sang. I did that whole process, than had to go back again and be like ‘it’s me, that you’ve seen loads’ – and then I sang a pop song, then a full week of singing in front of people, doing dance rounds, doing the ultimate chat of the musical – the whole bit at the beginning after ex-wives. Then I got a call like the next day, because the cruise was starting next month – and they were like, ‘Want to be a swing and a dance captain?’

10.  Advice for getting into Musical Theatre: You need to eat, live, and breathe it or you’re not going to survive. It’s such a cutthroat industry. I queued up once at 9 am and got to the front of the line at 5 pm and they were like’sorry that’s it for the day.’ After queuing up all day in the freezing cold! And afterward I called my agent and was like ‘are they seeing the people that didn’t get seen today because I want to be in this.’ And that’s what you need to succeed.

11.  Favorite Choreo – ‘Get Down.’ That was the first choreo I learned in my audition and I don’t think I’ll forget it til the day I die. And cleves is just so funky.

12.  Costume Variations – I had three, but some of it was wearing the same parts in a different sense.

Aragon – the black alternate costume with the silver and the spiky shoulder pads, and a leotard and the black skirt. I think my skirt was a bit different than now; they’ve made a new version haven’t they? Grace [Mouat, an alternate for the West End who wore a black costume as well] and the Broadway version [they’re not using alternate costumes on Broadway, but i think she’s referring to Mallory Maedke’s alternate costume she wore for the North American tour] have a full skirt. Now they’ve made a cut from it – they keep changing it all the time which is nice.

Cleves – [this costume is] pretty much like a replica of the normal Cleves outfit but in black and silver. The shorts, chains, crop top and the jacket they whip off you.

Parr – same top as Aragon but a different leotard with black sequins. That was really nice and leggings – similar to what Parr wears but in my costume.

I actually had a Howard skirt as well but I never got to wear it. They made Bryony some leggings, and then they made a Howard costume, but measured my leggings off Bryony’s leggings. Bryony is 5’2 and I’m like 5’5’, so my leggings had a very interesting fit. At least they had stirrups so they didn’t reveal my ankles.

Seymour – I basically wore my Parr outfit but I changed my hair –

Natalie “Nat” Pilkington demonstrating the foot move at the beginning of the “Don’t Lose Your Head” chorus.

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Natalie “Nat” Pilkington

13. What’s your go to Holbein move?

The hike fromFortnight or whatever [demonstrates]. I don’t know, I’m not cool like that. Or a crab like this [demonstrates].

14. Favorite place that she went on the cruise – Maybe Aruba in the Caribbean, the beach was amazing and we had lots of nice cocktails. And if anybody has a chance to go to Alaska, it’s beautiful. It’s very different to aruba because it’s freezing. We had those nice walks and trails and waterfalls.

15.   Would she ever teach the Haus of Holbein dance?– It’s not really choreographed is it? A lot of it’s improvised. Plus we’re not allowed to teach Holbein.

16.  What’s it like doing a show without an interval - You don’t really realize it until you’re at the end when you’re absolutely shattered and desperate for a drink and then you come off. But it’s not like a fifteen minute break, like a full hour and a half before you have to go again. I’ve worked for ships before though, so I’m used to performing without an interval.

17.  How long it takes her to get ready for the show – Some girls took like 2 hours. Cleves took me a bit of time to get ready, and I have so much hair so have to deal with that, but still probably just an hour.

18.  Did she audition with anyone else who’s in Six? I remember Maddie [probably Maddison Bulleymetn, UK tour Boleyn] at my West End auditions, she’s so sweet. V [maybe Vicki Manser? I”m really not sure though]- was in my west end and then all my cruise auditions. Bryony [Duncan, fellow Bliss 1.0 alternate] was in my west end and Caitlin [Tipping, Bliss 1.0 Seymour] and Hazel [Karooma-Brooker, Bliss 1.0 Boleyn] actually –and then they were all at the cruise auditions. Candy [probably Candace Furbert, Bliss 1.0 Aragon] I met for the cruise auditions and Sophie [Golden, Bliss 1.0 Cleves].

Sophie and I made friends straight away. And then she made me cry when she did Jane Seymour and then I had to get up after her and i was just bawling my eyes out.  Shaka – I remember Shaka being at one of my auditions [Shekinah McFarlane, who was originally an alternate on the West End and then became Cleves on the second UK tour]. I remember Lauren [Byrne], who is Seymour on the tour – and the other Lauren [Drew] who plays Aragon [also on tour] and Collette [Guitart, swing on the West End]. Literally the whole world was at my auditions. You don’t necessarily speak to all of them, but you see them.

Natalie “Nat” Pilkington

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Natalie “Nat” Pilkington demonstrating one of her go-to Haus of Holbein moves.

19.  What’s the difference between a dance captain vs. show captain? Because I was like the first one to do it on a ship, I think show captain is just covering everything: making people are in the right spaces and making sure they’re not changing the words, etc, and being involved with the wardrobe as well, making sure they’re not changing the way they’re doing their hair or makeup or wearing their flat shoes when thy should be wearing their high heels. Dance captain is more choreograph-y. I never thought about that, I just did it all with Alex, the musical director. She left the dancing with me because she wasn’t a dancer

20.  What’s it like Dancing in the costume? The first time you do it, you’re like, ‘I can’t do  this I’m never going to be able to do this.’ It’s so heavy and restrictive. But after the first few times, you don’t even think about it. You jou have to get used to it.

21. Dance teaching restrictions? – From a choreographer point of view, if you’re part of the show and it’s so successful, it’s a respect sort of thing. As a choreographer, she’d love for everyone to know all the routines but you don’t want to ruin the magic for the regular bits. [someone mentioned Aimee Atkinson teaching all the songs at this point] Aimee does workshops but she makes up her own choreo, not the actual show choreo.

22. What did she think of the Queendom video? – It was fun! I knew what the idea was, but I didn’t know what it was going to be like. I made my boyfriend film me for like a full afternoon sitting on my couch drinking a cup of tea for it. It was a nice surprise when it came out. I had Byrony texting me like “it’s amazing!” “what’s amazing” “the video, have you not seen it” and then I had to go look at it and it was brilliant.

23. What’s it like being a dance captain – It’s nice! Everybody’s so friendly and just wants to get the job done. It’s a small cast and it’s really nice and chill. I felt really honored that I’d been given the trust by the creatives to oversee that. I’m still really proud of myself for that. I had never been a dance captain before. And I was like ‘oo I could change things.’ [wicked smile] I would never do that, but I COULD.

24. Future plans - I’d like to stay on land for a while – I’ve done a few ships and I think I’d prefer to be on land now.

22 Things I Learned from Sam Pauly from Six on Broadway

FYI: I will be attending dance workshops and Q&As with Natalie Pilkington and Grace Mouat this weekend, however, the blog posts covering these workshops will not be up until likely June 2nd or 3rd as I have a big writing application deadline on June 1 that I’ll be working on the majority of the weekend. Thank you for your patience!

On Monday, May 25 (Memorial Day here in the states), I took a virtual dance workshop and Q&A with Sam Pauly, who plays Katherine Howard in Six on Broadway and also played her on the North American Tour, which went to Chicago, Illinois, Cambridge, Massachusetts, Edmonton, Canada, and St Paul, Minnesota. This was the first American and US based workshop I’ve taken, and it took place at 10 AM EST (where I’m based) instead of the 5 am or 7 am EST the other workshops I’ve done before. It was GLORIOUS. I got to sleep y’all!

Sam was really sweet and wonderful and encouraging. Her dog kept wandering in to show off one of his toys (lamb chop from lamb chop’s play-a-long, which was one of my favorite TV shows as a kid) and at one point, her husband also randomly came in and did the entire dance with her perfectly!

While she was teaching the dance, she advised everyone to “Channel your inner whatever you want – you’re the baddest b in the castle. I wish y’all could see our choreographer do it sometime, she’s a hip hop aficionado and she’s insane.” She also suggested that everyone do some little character show: “What queen are you? it doesn’t have to be Cleves – everyday for me it changes.”

Don’t forget, Sam’s been doing a “song a day” challenge on her Instagram throughout all this self-isolation - she’s on day 72 + now!

Sam Pauly

Sam Pauly AND HER SWEET DOG RIGHT THERE IN THE BACKGROUND

On how she keeps her dyed pink hair looking so good - I only wash it once a week or nine days. I have a deep conditioner that I use when I DO wash it, and that deep conditioner has the actual neon hair dye in it.

Audition process for Six in the US - I would venture to guess that [the audition process for Six] is probably the same in the US as it is in the UK, but it was a lot different than auditions in the US nromally are. For final callbacks we wer ein Chicago, there were people from Chicago, New York, and Canada. It was a full 8 hour day.
We danced at the beginning of the day - we did three different dance combinations, including Get Down and Freakum Dress by Beyonce.
They went in queen order - every time they would start a new queen, they would bring everybody in at one point, everybody that was up for Boleyn, etc. We’d go through it and then we all would sit there and watch each other sing. I have Never done that in my life.
Toby and Lucy [Toby Marlow and Lucy Moss, the writers of the show] do that becaus ethe whole show is about queens supporting queens. They wante dto see how people treated each other, who supported each other and who got along with who and who meshed well with each other.

It wa sa very long day - 8 hours. and then after that I went on a plane to New York to audition for Evita.
It was very chill. And [Toby and Lucy] are also very young, and they were very supportive. They were just having the best time watching everyone sing. In Chicago, I missed the first two round and then they went in for final callbacks in Chicago and FINAL final callbacks with everybody. I don’t know how many rounds they did.

Funniest onstage mishap - Happened during our second to last show in Minnesota. It didn’t happen to me, it happened to us collectively. One of Andrea’s buns started to come out of its little stud thing but she didn’t know it; it was kind of flopping around like a dog ear, so all of us were trying not to laugh at her. At one point when Anna was beginning to sing, I tried to silently ask her about - ‘ do you want some bobby pins’ and she handed me a water bottle. By the time we got to “Six,” everybody was quavering “for five more minutes” and everybody was laughing so hard none of us got it. I was still singing out, but I was crying so hard from laughing, just tears streaming down. Nobody was singing because everybody was laughing so hard. That was after we’d been going for so long though that even our stage manager was like [shoulder shrug].

Audition Tips - My two biggest ones are: Always walk into the room thinking that the people on the other side of the table need you far more than you need them. It’s great to have a job and it’s really great to book a show, but those people - the director and the choreographer and the producers - they all want you so badly to be what they’re looking for, because then their job is done. If you can walk in there with that confidence, it makes everything so much easier. Also - Dress for the part you want. It doesn’t mean come in a full costume, but if the character is a little sexy, go ahead and dress that way. If it’s a business type, cater to that. I feel like a lot of people go into an audition and dress in a very neutral way, but i’m like, ‘this is rock of ages, put on some jean shorts and fish nets.’

Dance Training Tips - Find a modern and jazz class. Between that and ballet, that would hit everything that would typically be in a dance class. Take a tap class if you like (I don’t like it), but I’d do like a beginner level of like anything you can find. You can get the core and the basics from a ballet class but Musical Theater is changing. There’s a lot of hip hop, a lot more modern stuff- there’s a lot more stff that never used to be in MT. Start with the basics in a ballet and a jazz class and then do a lot of other stuff that yo u might not try normally.

Best memory with the Six cast - Probably the first day we got to the Broadway theater. We have a lot of great memories, as we’ve done a lot of great things together. But that first day of being in the theater and being in our dressing rooms - that’s the first time we all collectively got to like cry and be totally mind blown that we’re there.

The Queen she initially aimed for in auditions: I honestly thought I had the best chance at Seymour because it’s kind of a park and bark where you can just stand and sing, but the more I started to work on the K Howard material, I realized - this is it, this is the one – so once I figured that out, I went for K Howard at callbacks.

Favorite moment in the show - Ex wives at the very top, when it starts ‘tonight we are’ – and we start singing and the lights come up. To see the look on everyone’s faces when that happens is usually a collective [MOUTH OPEN]. For me, that is what always motivates me, because my favorite thing is and always will, be the fans. I love meeting people at the stage door, having people send fan emails. If I’m not feeling well, those are the things I think about. Somebody has waited months or a year to see this show tonight, so I’m going to go out there and give them what they’re waiting for.

Healthy Voice recommendations - I don’t have any fancy tricks – some people swear by teas or lozenges or whatever. I am a classic ‘as much sleep as you can get and as much water as you can possibly drink.’ And even if you think you’e had enough water, you probably haven’t had enough water. That’s my two biggest tips – when I don’t get enough sleep, I can always tell. And you have to say no to a lot of things – parties, get togethers – because you have to get as much sleep - but it’s worth it.

Sam Pauly

Sam Pauly and OMG THERE’S THE DOG AGAIN

Sam Pauly’s imitation of the audience’s faces when the music starts and the lights come up at the beginning of the show.

11. On people criticizing Six for having the actors perform in their natural accents - My thought is the same as the though as toby and lucy – whether or not you have an accent, it does not affect how the story is told. If we were really being true to each character, cleves would be speaking and singing with a german accent, aragon with Spanish accent. It always is interesting to me when people get mad about not speaking with British accents. For me, I don’t really care – I get what people  say when they’re like – they sound so cool with the accents -  a year ago when we were preparing we were all like ‘do we think they’re going to maeke us do the british accents?’ …but honestly I think we would ha.ve butchered them so I think it’s honestly best that we don’t do them anyway.

12. Biggest Takeaway from being involved in Six - Just surprising myself with what I can do. We all sing in every song, no one has a break and still being able to do all that dancing – that’s probably been my biggest takeaway so far.

13. Broadway vs. West End (she performed on the West End with Evita)- Broadway might be a little bit more of an excitement to it just because that’s always been my dream. Last year if you had asked me, ‘Do you think you’d ever do anything on the west end'?’ – I would have been like – ‘no why would I, why would I ever go there, who would hire me to go to London?’ To say I’ve done both is wonderful!

14. How she almost performed last minute in the West End - I was in London for rehearsals for Evita. I had already gone to sleep – and Kenny [show producer Kenny Wax] texted me this big long thing, ‘We have a lot of injuries and illnesses right now – I’l talk to director at regents park – can you come in and do the 4 or 7 pm show tomorrow?’ I talked to my agent and the company manager – because I was hired to go over there to do Evita and nothing else and Jamie Lloyd our director was like, ‘as long as you can do rehearsal on Monday, sure.’ It was a lot of back and forth with Kenny and my agent. I had packed up all my things – they said ‘we’re going to find some costume for you to wear,’ I had literally walked up to the train station and about to get on train there, when I got the call and was told to go home. Because I was on there on a government visa – if I had gone to work somewhere else and made money doing it – I could have gotten in a lot of trouble and regents park and theatre arts [where six was ] could as well. So they said don’t come. They ended up cancelling one of those shows for the day. I was SO CLOSE and I was so excited. Now after seeing it there, I ‘m glad I didn’t go on, because the stage is a lot smaller than what we have, so I would have been flailing it all around. I would have stuck out like a sore thumb for sure.

15. How she found out Six was going to Broadway - I remember it, but it’s kind of like my wedding day. I remember it happening, but I don’t really remember a lot about it. We were at intermission of one of our previews , and I had had a text and a missed call from my agent, saying ‘give me a call when you can.’ He kept it very casual – and that’s what kind of took me by surprise. He’s like ‘I know you’re busy. Do you want to go to Broadway with six?” – and I was like – ‘whatttttt?’ My response was “they picked me??” and he was like “yeah, yeah, they picked you.’ My roommate figured out what was going on and they filmed it – my husband was there and I got to share that with him that night – it was so special.

16. How she found out about Broadway closing on the day Six was supposed to officially open- I had just had brunch with my family and my in-laws and some friends that I had scheduled. I was in a lyft on my way back to my apartment, I dropped my sister off at the mac store so she could get her makeup done, and the playbill article [announcing that broadway was closing] came out, but that said by 5 pm on the 13th and I though okay – we’ll have the party and one performance and then close. Our producers were still in a meeting with the league and that’s why it took us so long to figure out what happened. My agent called me before that; two of them had flown in to see it and he called me and told me they said the show was cancelled and wouldn’t let him pick up his tickets.

17. On Doing Evita - Working with Jamie Lloyd –don’t tell anyone but he might be my favorite director I’ve ever worked with. He is so capable of getting me to do things I didn’t think I could do. He is able to pull that out of you – and this particular production was different than any that had ever been done. It was very dirty and messy. I got the opportunity to be ugly and scream and cry – and with a lot of those things, I was able to come back to six and use that.

Sam Pauly and her husband, who after initially saying he didn’t want everyone to know who he was, agreeably popped out and did the entire Get Down dance with Sam perfectly.

Sam Pauly demonstrating some moves

Sam Pauly demonstrating some moves

18. Favorite song to perform in the show - ex wives for sure – it’s just the most exciting – the adrenaline rush we need to get into the rest of the show

19. how she heard about six – a friend from London called me and told me it was coming to Chicago

20. can people in the US audition for the west end and vice versa? - There’s a rule between the actors association in the US. At any time, an equal number of people have to be working in the opposite places. If there’s five people from the US working on the west end, there have to be five people from the UK on Broadway. It can’t be an uneven worker count. So when we went to UK for Evita – they were able to hire three people from London for Broadway – that solely depends in the unions

21. Favorite costume in the show - Aragon, it’s the heaviest, and I know it’s the hardest to put on, it takes like two people to put it on her, but it’s my favorite

22. Have you ever dropped a mic on stage? - I  have not – knock on wood. In the year I have been with the show – I have only seen it happen in performance one time – maybe it happened other times and i just missed it – but I only saw it once.

22. Thoughts on the rules banning of the megasix on Broadway - we all fought for it. It’s not up to the producer or the director or anybody, it’s up to the actor’s union. We were able to do it everywhere else, and we all wish it was allowed. It’s one of my favorite parts of six and we were all really disappointed when we got the no, but it was because there was some stuff going on with Moulin Rouge. They were in the middle of issues with people filming the end of their show, so Actor’s Equity was like, ‘We can’t say yes to you guys and then say no to another show.’ So I don’t know if anything will change, when we come back – but people still film it – because everybody is on their feet and it’s a lot harder for the ushers to run around to see who is even filming – so technically you’re not supposed to, people still do – I really wish it was allowed.

11 Things I Learned from Six Alternate Cherelle Jay's Workshop and Q&A

All My Six Posts!
Over-Analyzing All the Historical References in Six- “Ex Wives,” “No Way”
I'm Doing 10 Virtual Dance Workshops and Q&As with Different Six Cast Members!
(^This post includes links to workshop/q&a roundups from Lauren Byrne, Grace Mouat, Natalie Pilkington, Sam Pauly, Cherelle Jay, Vicki Manser, Collette Guitart, Jen Caldwell, and Harriet Watson)
Details from Six Costumer Gabriella Slade’s Instagram Takeover
Six the Musical Wives 1-3: Historical and Modern Costume Inspirations
Six the Musical Wives 4-6: Historical and Modern Costume Inspirations
The Early Costumes of Six the Musical: From Edinburgh to Cambridge to London
Updated Six the Musical Costumes for Broadway!
The Alternate Costumes of Six the Musical
The Shoes of Six the Musical
The Ladies in Waiting of Six: Historical Inspirations and Costumes
The Tudor Fashion Elements of the Costumes in Six (with Painting References)
How the Six Alternates Change Their Styling for Each Queen

On Sunday morning, I attended a virtual workshop and q&a with Six alternate Cherelle Jay (often known as CJ), where she taught a really cool dance from “Everybody’s Talking About Jamie” through Theatre Fan Workshops. I didn’t end up actually dancing myself, as I was exhausted and having a lot of chronic pain issues, plus CJ is just like REALLY GOOD, y’all and it was a super hip-hop-y dance that I knew wasn’t even close to something I could handle. It was A BLAST watching her teach everyone and demonstrate different moves. She clearly loves teaching dance and was super encouraging and helpful, giving individual comments to people in the class and such about how to better embody a move or a character.

I actually didn’t know anything about “Everybody’s Talking About Jamie” until I signed up for this workshop. Apparently it’s a musical about a teenager who overcomes high school bullying and prejudice to become a drag queen. The synopsis I read online sounds really amazing and the music and dance section Cherelle taught was really funny. It looks like it’s gone around the UK and Australia but hasn’t gotten to America yet; I’m definitely looking up a lot of videos of it now to learn everything I can about it.

Usual disclaimer, I typed as fast as I could but a lot of this may be paraphrased rather than direct quotations. I’ve tried to make that clear in the text but if you have any questions, let me know!

Cherelle Jay

Cherelle Jay

Jamie audition vs. Six audition -
Everybody’s talking about Jamie - She had the dance auditions for it and made sure to sing songs they liked. She had a good relationship with the casting people before, which didn’t necessarily HELP but made her feel more comfortable.

Six was totally different. “I’ve worked with Carrie [Ann Ingrouille, the choreographer for Six] for years… I didn’t get this job TWICE. I think it’s important to realize that the industry doesn’t just hand you a job. It really isn’t personal though. You’re just not right for THAT cast; it could come down to your height or energy or whatever.
The two times I did audition I didn’t get it - and then the last time i went in, this was bizarre, I’d never been seen for Boleyn (just Cleves and Parr), and the last time I went in and got it, they asked me to do Boleyn. That’s my quirky and silly side and really got to play with that. I didn’t really understand Cleves until I was performing. “

Dance class suggestions [She had some specific teacher and class suggestions but my cats decided to use this exact time to break out in a massive fight that i had to go break up so i missed the exact names, sorry. She did mention Pineapple, which i think is referring to Pineapple Dance Studios!] “You’ve really got to do your research about what you’re going to gain from that person. it’s just not going to a person’s class because they may have credits. try them all and have fun and have a good time.”

Favorite queen in Six: Cleves is probably my favorite. [she had some other commentary but cat fight club broke out again and I missed it, gah.]

Did you audition for anyone specifically? “I really wanted to be Catherine Parr at first. I just really loved her song. When you just strip it back and it was just about the tracks, I just loved ‘I don’t need your love.’ And then I saw it and i saw the joy and fun in a lot of the other tracks more. I loved the quirkiness in Boleyn and i loved how teasing and playful she was.“

Cherelle Jay

Note: I brightened up the dance photos a bit so you can see her movements better.

Cherelle Jay

5. How she got to musical theatre: “When I went to college, I didn’t like musical theater- I’ve always been open about it. But my teacher told me, ‘you can sing.’ I didn’t believe I could sing. I then moved from a dance course to a musical theatre course and got really into the techniques of acting, like, looking into where that characters’ come from before the song.“

6. Advice for people with more of a dancing/acting background rather than a singing background: “You just have to keep training the same you apply yourself to dance. I was like ‘CJ, you’ve been dancing your whole entire life - 13-14 years- and you might sing in the shower once a month because you’re too scared to use your voice. As scary and nerve-racking as it is, you have to bite the bullet every time [and train].’ I might sound terrible right now but we’re going to work on it. I’m learning to lvoe my voice and celebrate my voice. It takes a lot of courage and as an actor…there are so many people who say what they want without thinking, and that’s such a hard blow. We ARE humans, and you can only take so much, so it’s lovely to have that support from musical theater fans.
I’d say - believe in yourself. Every time I make myself more comfortable in myself. I got the job, I’m getting paid every week, why am I still going on stage second-guessing myself. So i have to constantly drill into my head - ‘I am good, and if it’ not right now, I’ll train and get better.’ I constantly ask myself ‘am i actually putting in that work, am i actually training?’”

7. On Learning to Love her Voice more: [she was specifically responding here to a comment about her instagram video of her singing Heart of Stone] Even if I did get any nasty negativity on that - when you’re in that really uncomfortable stage [of becoming more comfortable with your skills], that can be really hard, like when I was in the industry and got some stick about my weight. If you’re already uncomfortable about that, that’s going to be a real blow. You have to take ownership of that, and I wasn’t necessarily big or whatever the industry wanted of me - I had to be like, ‘okay, that’s your opinion, but equally, i can become more comfortable with my skills.’ There’s a beauty in really loving what you’ve got and me really loving my voice.

Cherelle Jay

Cherelle Jay

8. Getting the most out of a dance class: When you go into a class ask, ‘what do i want from this? Is this the confidence? Is it the industry advice?’ Ask - what am i Learning? If you approach life trying to soak everything in and in general, it’s hard - i think it’s really clever to take specific things away. Understand - ‘if i go to drama school, what do i want as the outcome? Why am I doing this? Yes I like this and it’s my hobby, but if it’s to go into MT [musical theatre], what do i need? who do i need?’ You need to be really specific about your goals to get the most out of them.”

9. How she works as a swing: “I’ve never had a swing bible in my life. I just don’t learn that way. For me it’s a visual thing, so with six, and i’ve got to go on for someone - i really quickly pull up a folder in my phone and as i put on my makeup, i go through the track.
Don’t try to swing the whole show, see it as a track. I’m following a track. Then you see how A gets to B and B gets to C, etc….. If you see it as a continuation, then you know your journey throughout the show, so even if in the middle of the show, you have to pick up at F - you’re ready. Just be very precise about the journey you take from the beginnign of the show to the end. That’s probably my best way to swing.
Also - having something in your body like a character to differentiate your people. Cleves and Boleyn, they’re both playful, but for Cleves - it’s the jacket, she’s got the swagger. Boleyn’s got a more upright [demonstrates flirty shoulder move].

10. Advice/tips for getting into a more commercial dance career from more classical ballet background: For me, commercial as a word is a style now, but if you take that back, it comes from jazz, funk, it comes from hip hop. Jamie, for example, is a lot of like, house grooves. You need to study those kinds of styles, and you don’t have to be a master, you just have to have enough knowledge that you can use it when you’re in an audition room. That’s generally how I’ve booked those jobs. I knew, if we’re going for Jamie and Six, and this is a hip hop choreographer, vs the hundreds of girls that have a MT background, I stand out. And that goes both ways - if it’s something more legit [i think she was referring to more traditional dancing styles like tap or jazz], I’m way down here [motions with her hands low to her waist].
For auditions, play to your strengths….Versatility is great, try to be open, but also try to play to your strengths, and show off the things that you’ve trained in to stand out. Knowing how to bring your qualities and other strengths…show your panel what else you can bring to the table, why you might be different from the next person.

11. Funniest Show mishap: For Jamie, I was going on for the role of Levi [she went on for both men and women in this show]. I can’t say all his lines, obviously, but at the end, I had one line that was like “I tweeted his picture, and got 12 likes, I got a giffo.” I was SO BAD at picking up a Sheffield accent. I’ve got the most cockney, London accent. I would sit on the stairs before a show and run all my lines, because i was playing so many characters, I was afraid that I’d say the accent wrong. Because I hadn’t done six months of practicing Levi’s lines, I didn’t think through what his pronunciation would be. It was the MOST TEXAS ACCENT EVER. I couldn’t adjust that in my throat at the time and everyone was looking at me like ‘get off now.’ I’ve never laughed so much.
In Jamie, because we were kids, we just about got away with how much time we were in absolute hysterics, because kids are really like that show gave me anxiety because how many things I’ve done wrong but it also gave me so much joy.

Cherelle Jay

Cherelle Jay

11 Things I learned from Six Alternate Cherelle Jay's Workshop and Q&A

On Sunday morning, I attended a virtual workshop and q&a with Six alternate Cherelle Jay (often known as CJ), where she taught a really cool dance from “Everybody’s Talking About Jamie.” I didn’t end up actually dancing myself, as I was exhausted and having a lot of chronic pain issues, plus CJ is just like REALLY GOOD, y’all and it was a super hip-hop-y dance that I knew wasn’t even close to something I could handle. It was A BLAST watching her teach everyone and demonstrate different moves. She clearly loves teaching dance and was super encouraging and helpful, giving individual comments to people in the class and such about how to better embody a move or a character.

I actually didn’t know anything about “Everybody’s Talking About Jamie” until I signed up for this workshop. Apparently it’s a musical about a teenager who overcomes high school bullying and prejudice to become a drag queen. The synopsis I read online sounds really amazing and the music and dance section Cherelle taught was really funny. It looks like it’s gone around the UK and Australia but hasn’t gotten to America yet; I’m definitely looking up a lot of videos of it now to learn everything I can about it.

Usual disclaimer, I typed as fast as I could but a lot of this may be paraphrased rather than direct quotations. I’ve tried to make that clear in the text but if you have any questions, let me know!

Cherelle Jay

Cherelle Jay

Jamie audition vs. Six audition -
Everybody’s talking about Jamie - She had the dance auditions for it and made sure to sing songs they liked. She had a good relationship with the casting people before, which didn’t necessarily HELP but made her feel more comfortable.

Six was totally different. “I’ve worked with Carrie [Ann Ingrouille, the choreographer for Six] for years… I didn’t get this job TWICE. I think it’s important to realize that the industry doesn’t just hand you a job. It really isn’t personal though. You’re just not right for THAT cast; it could come down to your height or energy or whatever.
The two times I did audition I didn’t get it - and then the last time i went in, this was bizarre, I’d never been seen for Boleyn (just Cleves and Parr), and the last time I went in and got it, they asked me to do Boleyn. That’s my quirky and silly side and really got to play with that. I didn’t really understand Cleves until I was performing. “

Dance class suggestions [She had some specific teacher and class suggestions but my cats decided to use this exact time to break out in a massive fight that i had to go break up so i missed the exact names, sorry. She did mention Pineapple, which i think is referring to Pineapple Dance Studios!] “You’ve really got to do your research about what you’re going to gain from that person. it’s just not going to a person’s class because they may have credits. try them all and have fun and have a good time.”

Favorite queen in Six: Cleves is probably my favorite. [she had some other commentary but cat fight club broke out again and I missed it, gah.]

Did you audition for anyone specifically? “I really wanted to be Catherine Parr at first. I just really loved her song. When you just strip it back and it was just about the tracks, I just loved ‘I don’t need your love.’ And then I saw it and i saw the joy and fun in a lot of the other tracks more. I loved the quirkiness in Boleyn and i loved how teasing and playful she was.“

Cherelle Jay

Note: I brightened up the dance photos a bit so you can see her movements better.

Cherelle Jay

5. How she got to musical theatre: “When I went to college, I didn’t like musical theater- I’ve always been open about it. But my teacher told me, ‘you can sing.’ I didn’t believe I could sing. I then moved from a dance course to a musical theatre course and got really into the techniques of acting, like, looking into where that characters’ come from before the song.“

6. Advice for people with more of a dancing/acting background rather than a singing background: “You just have to keep training the same you apply yourself to dance. I was like ‘CJ, you’ve been dancing your whole entire life - 13-14 years- and you might sing in the shower once a month because you’re too scared to use your voice. As scary and nerve-racking as it is, you have to bite the bullet every time [and train].’ I might sound terrible right now but we’re going to work on it. I’m learning to lvoe my voice and celebrate my voice. It takes a lot of courage and as an actor…there are so many people who say what they want without thinking, and that’s such a hard blow. We ARE humans, and you can only take so much, so it’s lovely to have that support from musical theater fans.
I’d say - believe in yourself. Every time I make myself more comfortable in myself. I got the job, I’m getting paid every week, why am I still going on stage second-guessing myself. So i have to constantly drill into my head - ‘I am good, and if it’ not right now, I’ll train and get better.’ I constantly ask myself ‘am i actually putting in that work, am i actually training?’”

7. On Learning to Love her Voice more: [she was specifically responding here to a comment about her instagram video of her singing Heart of Stone] Even if I did get any nasty negativity on that - when you’re in that really uncomfortable stage [of becoming more comfortable with your skills], that can be really hard, like when I was in the industry and got some stick about my weight. If you’re already uncomfortable about that, that’s going to be a real blow. You have to take ownership of that, and I wasn’t necessarily big or whatever the industry wanted of me - I had to be like, ‘okay, that’s your opinion, but equally, i can become more comfortable with my skills.’ There’s a beauty in really loving what you’ve got and me really loving my voice.

Cherelle Jay

Cherelle Jay

8. Getting the most out of a dance class: When you go into a class ask, ‘what do i want from this? Is this the confidence? Is it the industry advice?’ Ask - what am i Learning? If you approach life trying to soak everything in and in general, it’s hard - i think it’s really clever to take specific things away. Understand - ‘if i go to drama school, what do i want as the outcome? Why am I doing this? Yes I like this and it’s my hobby, but if it’s to go into MT [musical theatre], what do i need? who do i need?’ You need to be really specific about your goals to get the most out of them.”

9. How she works as a swing: “I’ve never had a swing bible in my life. I just don’t learn that way. For me it’s a visual thing, so with six, and i’ve got to go on for someone - i really quickly pull up a folder in my phone and as i put on my makeup, i go through the track.
Don’t try to swing the whole show, see it as a track. I’m following a track. Then you see how A gets to B and B gets to C, etc….. If you see it as a continuation, then you know your journey throughout the show, so even if in the middle of the show, you have to pick up at F - you’re ready. Just be very precise about the journey you take from the beginnign of the show to the end. That’s probably my best way to swing.
Also - having something in your body like a character to differentiate your people. Cleves and Boleyn, they’re both playful, but for Cleves - it’s the jacket, she’s got the swagger. Boleyn’s got a more upright [demonstrates flirty shoulder move].

10. Advice/tips for getting into a more commercial dance career from more classical ballet background: For me, commercial as a word is a style now, but if you take that back, it comes from jazz, funk, it comes from hip hop. Jamie, for example, is a lot of like, house grooves. You need to study those kinds of styles, and you don’t have to be a master, you just have to have enough knowledge that you can use it when you’re in an audition room. That’s generally how I’ve booked those jobs. I knew, if we’re going for Jamie and Six, and this is a hip hop choreographer, vs the hundreds of girls that have a MT background, I stand out. And that goes both ways - if it’s something more legit [i think she was referring to more traditional dancing styles like tap or jazz], I’m way down here [motions with her hands low to her waist].
For auditions, play to your strengths….Versatility is great, try to be open, but also try to play to your strengths, and show off the things that you’ve trained in to stand out. Knowing how to bring your qualities and other strengths…show your panel what else you can bring to the table, why you might be different from the next person.

11. Funniest Show mishap: For Jamie, I was going on for the role of Levi [she went on for both men and women in this show]. I can’t say all his lines, obviously, but at the end, I had one line that was like “I tweeted his picture, and got 12 likes, I got a giffo.” I was SO BAD at picking up a Sheffield accent. I’ve got the most cockney, London accent. I would sit on the stairs before a show and run all my lines, because i was playing so many characters, I was afraid that I’d say the accent wrong. Because I hadn’t done six months of practicing Levi’s lines, I didn’t think through what his pronunciation would be. It was the MOST TEXAS ACCENT EVER. I couldn’t adjust that in my throat at the time and everyone was looking at me like ‘get off now.’ I’ve never laughed so much.
In Jamie, because we were kids, we just about got away with how much time we were in absolute hysterics, because kids are really like that show gave me anxiety because how many things I’ve done wrong but it also gave me so much joy.

Cherelle Jay

Cherelle Jay

12 Things I Learned From Six UK Tour Alternate Jen Caldwell's Workshop and Q&A

All My Six Posts!

I'm Doing 8 Virtual Dance Workshops and Q&As with Different Six Cast Members!
18 Things I Learned from Six Alternate Vicki Manser's Dance Workshop/Q&A
15 Things I Learned from Six UK Tour Alternate/Dance Captain Harriet Watson’s Workshop/Q&A
14 Things I Learned from Six Alternate/Dance Captain Collette Guitart’s Workshop/Q&A
12 Things I Learned from Six UK Tour Alternate Jen Caldwell’s Workshop/Q&A
Details from Six Costumer Gabriella Slade’s Instagram Takeover
Six the Musical Wives 1-3: Historical and Modern Costume Inspirations
Six the Musical Wives 4-6: Historical and Modern Costume Inspirations
The Early Costumes of Six the Musical: From Edinburgh to Cambridge to London
Updated Six the Musical Costumes for Broadway!
The Alternate Costumes of Six the Musical
The Shoes of Six the Musical
The Ladies in Waiting of Six: Historical Inspirations and Costumes
The Tudor Fashion Elements of the Costumes in Six (with Painting References)
How the Six Alternates Change Their Styling for Each Queen

I did another workshop this morning, this time with Six UK Tour alternate Jen Caldwell! It was only at 7 AM EST, where I live, so I got to sleep…slightly later than I have the last few weekends? Lol. Jen’s a swing on the 2019-2020 UK tour of Six the Musical and also serves as their social media captain. She temporarily served as a swing in the West End production after performing as Anna of Cleves for several shows as an emergency cover.

Jen taught us some of the moves to the “I Don’t Need Your Love (remix),” which was pretty difficult and fast. I’d put it at perhaps #2 in difficulty in the Six dances I’ve done so far? At least for me personally. I was able to get only some of the moves but I wasn’t as laughably terrible as I was during “No Way.”

5.   Six (taught by Harriet Watson)
4.   Sorry not sorry (taught by Vicki Manser)
3.   Get Down (taught by Harriet Watson)
2. I Don’t Need Your Love (Remix) (taught by Jen Caldwell)
1.    No Way (taught by Collette Guitart)

Jen has this wonderful sense of humor that kept coming out as she was teaching the class. I copied down so many wonderful one-liners from her. She also was super cool and recognized a number of people on the call, specifically noting who she’s met at various performances and such.

Joking about what’ll happen to anyone who’s late and misses the warm-up: “THEY WON’T BE WARM.”

Later: “Everyone get on your goddamn feet!” “You’re all getting it, I’m not seeing anyone who’s upsetting me.” "

On teaching via Zoom: “It’s a goddamn nightmare!”

“Guys, I belieeevvveeeeee in youuuu” /sings/

Discussing one specific section of the dance: “Do whatever you want to do - /feel your oats/” [american accent]

referring to her wooden spoon: “I’m talking into this like a microphone and i need to stop.”

“Holyyy molyyyyy” [sings]

“and then we all imagine that we have friends. singgg with allll your imaginary friendssss”

 “sing into the camera like I’m henry and you HATE ME”

She joked about how people can post clips of the class but “not the whole bit. We got an email about it.”

Standard disclaimer that I did the best I could to transcribe Jen’s answers all accurately but of course I might have gotten a few words wrong here or there.

Training: She did a one year course at LSMT (London School of Musical Theatre) and did a degree “Somewhere in Carlisle.” She joked: “don’t go there guys – I learned nothing.”

Audition Tips: “Just be yourself. They really want someone that they want to work with. Someone who’s moldable and malleable, someone’s who pleasant. You can have someone who’s the most talented person in the world, but if they’re a douchebag, you’d be like /ugh/ - it’d be amazing if everyone was talented and lovely – but mm, there are some REALLY talented douchebags. You must bring /yourself/ and show off what you can bring to a company and what you can bring to a course or a role. That’s what I would say - Be you!”

On her Costume: “I remember my first costume fitting, where they said you’re getting the teal, and i was like, ‘well that’s really turquoise,’ and ‘you’ve got a skirt! ‘Oh great, that’s cute!’ [makes face] And they showed the mockup of the skirt….And I was like ‘mmmm, that’s really short,” and there’s a big panel like, ‘hiiii everyone, have a look at my inner thighs, everyone look at the part of my body i hate the most.’ But now I love it. As soon as you’re on stage you forget about the bits of yourself that are showing.”

3. Favorite Queen to play: “My favorite changes all the time. I DO love Cleves. I also love Howard because she’s funny and a little bit bitchy.”

4. Least favorite Queen to play: “Toss up between Parr and Aragon. Aragon is a lot of pressure. You have to lead [the show] and she’s ALWAYS talking….and you have to sing and belt and riff and it’s very hard and not me. Parr - I’m not her. She’s very calm and I’m not particularly calm. I like singing the song but I find Parr a bit of a stretch for me. She’s hard.”

5. Funniest mistake she’s seen on stage: Apparently at one point Lauren Byrne (who plays Aragon in the tour) forgot her lines and was just “saying words” and looking around desperately at the other girls for help. “And Shaka’s [I think Shekinah McFarlane, who plays Cleves] got no peripheral vision, so she’s just looking around having a good time – and laruen’s looking at her like ‘HELP ME.’ Jodie came in and was like [spits out very fast patter in a great imitation of Jodie]”

6. Favorite part of her job: “Making some wonderful friends! God I love them so much. Not just the girls, everyone on that job is just insane. Being able to work with people that are that talented every day is insane.”

7. Advice during a gap year: “If you have the money, go to as many classes as you can - dancing and singing.” She also suggested doing amateur theater - “I always learn by doing…you learn how shows come together. You’re never too good to learn from other people.”

8. Dream role: “Miss Honey [from Matilda]. I’ve got like three that go with my age. Right now I think I’m like Miss Honey age. In 10 years, I want to go be Donna in Mamma Mia. I say 10 years, maybe 5 years [squints at wrinkles on her face, which are NON-EXISTENT by the way]. 10 years after that, I want to be Norma Desmond in Sunset Boulevard.”

9. Harriet mentioned in her workshop a few weeks ago that Jen really helped her learn how to be a swing with her swing bible; I asked Jen how she put that together and how she learned how to be a swing. “Everyone does things differently. Cassie [Cassandra Lee, another alternate on the UK tour] tried to do a swing bible and that didn’t work for her – she learns from videos and mirrors and stuff. My first experience as swing on American Idiot; me and the dance captain made it together. I have a stage map and everyone’s got color coded dots and arrows when they move and where they move… Harriet tried to do it and was like ‘I can’t, it doesn’t work for me, can I just use yours?’ And I was like, ‘yes, yes, that’s fine.’ For me, once I’ve drawn the swing map, it like cements it in my brain. Once I draw the swing bible, I don’t need it. so I just gave it to Harriet.”

10. Differences between performing on tour and in the West End: “The house in London is smaller than the houses we play on tour. It’s a very different kind of energy. In town you can afford to do a lot less but the result is still the same amount of energy. If you’re projecting as much as you do if you’re playing the Edinburgh festival,which is like 1800 seats, if you give that much in a theater that only seats 350, you’re going to look ridiculous and people are gonna be like ‘calm down.’ Also every show that you do is different because of all the swings stepping in, which I love.”

11. Favorite show you’ve ever done: “I love all of them and I can’t say a favorite. I will not. [laughs]”

12. Did you get time to rehearse on the London stage before you went on? “About an hour? I did some rehearsals with Franny [associate director Franny Anne Rafferty]. THat was when Sophie Isaacs [who plays Howard] was rehearsing as well, so I had like an hour. She was running some Howard, so I was just running some Cleves stuff with her, which helped.”

5 Zatoichi Samurai Film Reviews! AKA The Zatoichi Fan Post

Other Samurai Posts
Short Reviews of MANY Samurai Films! AKA The Toshiro Mifune Fan Post

The Samurai movie marathon continues!

I’ve written a few more super quick Samurai film reviews, which are sort of haphazardly arranged to include lots of fun facts I’ve learned while obsessing over Samurai films. Really though, everything we’ve watched lately is Zatoichi, so just assume everything in here is going to be about him. We’ll be watching him for a while, as he was featured in 26 films from 1962-1989 and a 100 episode TV series in the 70s. John only has the first four films in it though, so we need to figure out how to access all the others here soon.

By the way, the main character’s name is simply Ichi. “Zato” refers to the lowest ranking in the Todoza, which was a guild for blind men (there actually was a different guild for blind women). Edo society was HIGHLY socially stratified with little to no opportunities to change your career or life really, so Zatoichi’s title reflects that. This social stratification is a recurring theme throughout the films. Ichi is basically one of the lowest ranking members of the society, partly as a result of and in addition to his blindness, which is a big reason why his skill with the sword always surprises everyone. In addition, during the Edo period, technically only men in the samurai class were allowed to carry swords, but this wasn’t enforced very well. As a result though, Ichi always uses a cane sword, which he keeps hidden within the cane until he really needs it.

The first two Zatoichi films are in black and white, and MANY of the characters wear very similar outfits and have very similar hairstyles, so frankly, both John and I really struggled to tell some of them apart. It got much easier in the third film and later when the color in the outfits, skin, and hair helped distinguish characters more.

One of the most common haircuts you see in Zatoichi is the chonmage, which features a shaved top of the head and long sides that are tied into a topknot at the back of the head. Like every other yakuza character in the films I’ve seen so far seems to have this haircut. The nice thing is that you can always tell the major protagonist/non-yakuza antagonist characters apart, as they usually seem to have a full head of hair, like Ichi.

Oh! So “yakuza” as its used in the films means “gangster.” Apparently the term actually originates from a traditional card game called Oicho-Kabu. I briefly tried to understand the rules of this game so I could explain it in more depth but quickly gave up – basically, tl;dr – “Ya-ku-za” is made up of the three numbers which create the worst possible hand that can be drawn in the game.

On to the actual little film reviews! *** Indicates my favorites!

1. The Tale of Zatoichi (directed by Kenji Misumi, April 1962)

The Tale of Zatoichi

Since we already watched “Zatoichi meets Yojimbo” and I seriously loved Zatoichi in it, we went back to try to watch all the other ones. This is the first one!

Blind masseur Ichi is hired by the leader of a gang, as he thinks that he’s about to have to go to war with his rival. Rival gang leader hires a ronin (unemployed samurai) named Miki Hirate. Hirate and Ichi meet unexpectedly while fishing and form a very sweet friendship; they later do everything they can to NOT actually fight in the gang war so they can avoid hurting each other, but circumstances turn against them and they do end up wrapped up in it. In the process, Ichi meets the beautiful Otane, who desperately wants to get away from her current gangster partner.

I do love the many ways Ichi fools people into thinking he’s easy pickings and then outsmarts them all. I’ve now watched five of his movies and so far, they all start with a variation on “people underestimating Ichi and getting shown up hilariously.”

Zatoichi is amazing and his samurai friend Hirate are also wonderful, but the underlying story is pretty basic gangster fighting for most of it. I’ve seen a few films with the “brilliant swordsman/samurai outsmarts one or more gangs” setup before (yojimbo and zatoichi meets yojimbo come to mind) and I really thought this was going to go the same way, but I was saddened to see it end tragically instead, as both Ichi and hitare are instead caught up in the gang violence unwillingly, just in their efforts to save each other, and end up having a tragic ending. Ichi survives but is horribly sad at the end of it all.

This film also introduces the recurring Zatoichi character Tane, who will appear three times total. I love that she’s this strong woman who chides her brother for his bad behavior, refuses to go back to her gangster partner, and tells Ichi that she loves him and will follow him anywhere. /swoon/ Of course this film is from 1962 Japan so we don’t get a kiss or anything, but at least Ichi has an OPTION of a fantastic romance. 

Stylistically: every once in a while they do these very quick camera zoom-ins that are...very odd. And over dramatic. They have occasional discordant chords in the musical soundtrack that have a similar effect. 

2. The Tale of Zatoichi Continues (Directed by Kazuo Mori, October 1962)

The Tale of Zatoichi Continues

One year after the events of the first Zatoichi film, Ichi travels back to pay respects at the grave of Hirate. He accidentally discovers a powerful lord’s unstable mental condition while giving him a massage; his retainers decide to kill him to keep him quiet about their lord’s insanity. After their attack fails, they hire gangsters to hunt Ichi down. Ichi defeats everyone per usual and gets back to Hirate’s grave, where gangsters find him and attack him en masse. Otane, who is now about to be married to a local carpenter, learns that Ichi is in town and runs to warn him. A mysterious warrior who’s appeared throughout the film ends up revealing himself as Ichi’s brother, who ran off with the woman Ichi loved. Further complications ensue and everyone cries at the end.

I was surprised at how short this one was – only 72 minutes. This one was good but had some pretty big visual and plot comprehension problems for me and John? Like, we only caught two big key points of the film by reading the Wikipedia article about it afterward (that one of the character only had one arm and that the noble lord was supposed to be insane). It’s a little annoying to watch a film closely and then just…not even slightly understand WHY everyone’s trying to kill Ichi or WHY this other character keeps referring to himself as “crippled.”

There is also some SUPER soap opera-y music at times in here that’s just really distracting.

I was delighted to learn that Zatoichi character Shintaro Katsu’s actual brother Tomisaburo Wakyama played Ichi’s brother in this film. He would go on to play Ogami Itto, a different warrior character, in the six Lone Wolf and Cub samurai films (which is apparently all about a samurai wandering around fighting people while pushing his baby son around in a pram all around the countryside – and I DESPERATELY need to see this now).

This is another one with an unexpectedly sad ending that breaks your heart a little.

Also Ichi actually got laid in this film and I actually cheered because Y’ALL, the hero NEVER gets any proper happy romance in a samurai movie and it drives me NUTS.

 

3. The New Tale of Zatoichi (Directed by Tokuzo Tanaka, March 1963)***

The New Tale of Zatoichi

Ichi travels back to his old village and reunites with his former sensei, Banno, and Banno’s younger sister Yayoi. It becomes apparent that Banno is involved with a group of bandits and is committing crimes around the village. Yayoi confesses her love for Ichi and asks him to marry her. Ichi is completely amazed by this and agrees to turn around his life for her, but alas, Banno is utterly furious at Ichi, a mere zato in caste, even considering the idea of marrying a samurai’s daughter. Chaos ensues.

Oh this one broke my heart so beautifully. This is the most compelling story so far, with Ichi reuniting with numerous people he’s known for many years. His usual Ichi shenanigans at the beginning actually result in him helping a good many people after they got robbed, which is nice.

This is the first one in color and it is CINEMATIC AS FUCK, y’all. Just so pretty. Also the music in this one is MUCH IMPROVED from the weird soap opera-y music of the first two films.

The romantic scene between Ichi and Yayoi is so gloriously acted, y’all. His unbelieving and rapturous expression at her declaration of love is so beautiful, which is why it makes it even more sad when her brother immediately throws him out of the house.

There’s also a really great scene where a man trying to avenge his brother’s death challenges Ichi to a fight right after he agrees to change his ways, and Ichi and Yayoi beg for the man’s mercy, as Ichi does not want to fight any more. He ends up actually being very merciful to Ichi. It’s beautifully compelling and reminds me a lot of the scene in Kill Bill where Beatrix begs an assassin to leave right after she discovered she’s pregnant, which makes her want to change her life (which I’m sure is very deliberate, as Tarantino based a SHIT ton of Kill Bill off of samurai cinema).

4. Zatoichi The Fugitive (Directed by Tokuzo Tanaka, August 1963)***

Zatoichi the Fugitive

This is another shorter Zatoichi film – only 86 minutes. However it actually has a more complex plot than many of the other films, as all the different little bits and characters are woven together more tightly than the previous three.

Ichi kills a young yakuza man he has never met when he attacks him, in order to get the monetary reward for his mother. He then journeys to meet the man’s mother Maki, offering her an apology and some money, which he claims was from her son. Though Maki accepts Ichi as honorable, her son’s comrades decide to avenge his death by killing Ichi (they’re also pissed because Ichi defeated several people in a sumo match). While staying at an inn in town, Ichi comes across Otane, the woman he loves from the first two Zatoichi films. She is now with a quick-tempered ronin named Tanakura, and refuses to be around Ichi, as she feels too ashamed at the depths to which she has fallen.

The innkeeper’s daughter Nobu is in love with the young man set to inherit the local yakuza’s banking position, but her father does not approve, seeing the young man as weak. The yakuza tell the young man he must kill Ichi or he will lose his position. He sets a trap for Ichi by claiming that Otane was taken hostage, but this only results in LOTS of people that are not Ichi dying, including Tane.

There are a few really beautiful relationships in this film that I haven’t seen as often in other samurai films. Ichi develops a very mother-son relationship with Maki, despite actually being the killer of her son, and a really sweet brotherly relationship with Nobu. He’s also very understanding of Nobu’s lover trying to kill him and basically tells him to get his shit together at the end.

This film has an underlying theme of people striving for a past which is lost forever: the innkeeper and his daughter Nobu yearn for their previous wealth, Otane yearns for who she was when she was younger, before she got caught up in crime, and the young lover yearns to live up to his family’s position in the Yakuza, even though it’s not what he really wants for himself. It’s really well done.

There’s a scene at the beginning in a festival area that’s just really gorgeous, lots of color and rainbow and festivities. It’s paralleled at the end when a heartbroken Ichi dances somewhat maniacally down a path to some music in the background, a single festival decoration rolling near his feet.

I’m literally never going to be okay with Tane’s end. :(

5. Zatoichi meets Yojimbo (Directed by Kikachi Okamoto, 1970)***

Zatoichi Meets Yojimbo

[This was in my original post but I’m putting this in here too so all the Zatoichi reviews are together!]

This film is utterly ridiculous but hilarious. Zatoichi is a blind master swordsman/masseuse (because that’s a thing in Japan apparently) and this is the TWENTIETH film starring him. He’s a very mild mannered character who’s basically Japanese Daredevil, with insane fighting skills and heightened sense that he uses to bring justice to the world. Mifune plays a “yojimbo” (bodyguard) who is similar to his grumpy samurai character with hidden heart of gold in Yojimbo/Sanjuro, but distinctly different. Basically, Zatoichi goes back to his hometown and found that LOTS has changed, as the townspeople are all afraid of a local gang. The plot is a bit complicated, and features a money skimming scheme from the government mint, but basically Zatoichi and Yojimbo constantly are trying to kill each other, drink together, or outsmart the gang together. Hilarity ensues in many many ways. (starring the glorious Toshiro Mifuno)

More Samurai Film Reviews! AKA The Zatoichi Fan Post

Other Samurai Posts

Short Reviews of MANY Samurai Films! AKA The Toshiro Mifune Fan Post

The Samurai movie marathon continues!

I’ve written a few more super quick Samurai film reviews, which are sort of haphazardly arranged to include lots of fun facts I’ve learned while obsessing over Samurai films. Really though, everything we’ve watched lately is Zatoichi, so just assume everything in here is going to be about him. We’ll be watching him for a while, as he was featured in 26 films from 1962-1989 and a 100 episode TV series in the 70s. John only has the first four films in it though, so we need to figure out how to access all the others here soon.

By the way, the main character’s name is simply Ichi. “Zato” refers to the lowest ranking in the Todoza, which was a guild for blind men (there actually was a different guild for blind women). Edo society was HIGHLY socially stratified with little to no opportunities to change your career or life really, so Zatoichi’s title reflects that. This social stratification is a recurring theme throughout the films. Ichi is basically one of the lowest ranking members of the society, partly as a result of and in addition to his blindness, which is a big reason why his skill with the sword always surprises everyone. In addition, during the Edo period, technically only men in the samurai class were allowed to carry swords, but this wasn’t enforced very well. As a result though, Ichi always uses a cane sword, which he keeps hidden within the cane until he really needs it.

The first two Zatoichi films are in black and white, and MANY of the characters wear very similar outfits and have very similar hairstyles, so frankly, both John and I really struggled to tell some of them apart. It got much easier in the third film and later when the color in the outfits, skin, and hair helped distinguish characters more.

One of the most common haircuts you see in Zatoichi is the chonmage, which features a shaved top of the head and long sides that are tied into a topknot at the back of the head. Like every other yakuza character in the films I’ve seen so far seems to have this haircut. The nice thing is that you can always tell the major protagonist/non-yakuza antagonist characters apart, as they usually seem to have a full head of hair, like Ichi.

Oh! So “yakuza” as its used in the films means “gangster.” Apparently the term actually originates from a traditional card game called Oicho-Kabu. I briefly tried to understand the rules of this game so I could explain it in more depth but quickly gave up – basically, tl;dr – “Ya-ku-za” is made up of the three numbers which create the worst possible hand that can be drawn in the game.

On to the actual little film reviews! *** Indicates my favorites!

The Tale of Zatoichi (directed by Kenji Misumi, April 1962)

The Tale of Zatoichi

Since we already watched “Zatoichi meets Yojimbo” and I seriously loved Zatoichi in it, we went back to try to watch all the other ones. This is the first one!

Blind masseur Ichi is hired by the leader of a gang, as he thinks that he’s about to have to go to war with his rival. Rival gang leader hires a ronin (unemployed samurai) named Miki Hirate. Hirate and Ichi meet unexpectedly while fishing and form a very sweet friendship; they later do everything they can to NOT actually fight in the gang war so they can avoid hurting each other, but circumstances turn against them and they do end up wrapped up in it. In the process, Ichi meets the beautiful Otane, who desperately wants to get away from her current gangster partner.

I do love the many ways Ichi fools people into thinking he’s easy pickings and then outsmarts them all. I’ve now watched five of his movies and so far, they all start with a variation on “people underestimating Ichi and getting shown up hilariously.”

Zatoichi is amazing and his samurai friend Hirate are also wonderful, but the underlying story is pretty basic gangster fighting for most of it. I’ve seen a few films with the “brilliant swordsman/samurai outsmarts one or more gangs” setup before (yojimbo and zatoichi meets yojimbo come to mind) and I really thought this was going to go the same way, but I was saddened to see it end tragically instead, as both Ichi and hitare are instead caught up in the gang violence unwillingly, just in their efforts to save each other, and end up having a tragic ending. Ichi survives but is horribly sad at the end of it all.

This film also introduces the recurring Zatoichi character Tane, who will appear three times total. I love that she’s this strong woman who chides her brother for his bad behavior, refuses to go back to her gangster partner, and tells Ichi that she loves him and will follow him anywhere. /swoon/ Of course this film is from 1962 Japan so we don’t get a kiss or anything, but at least Ichi has an OPTION of a fantastic romance. 

Stylistically: every once in a while they do these very quick camera zoom-ins that are...very odd. And over dramatic. They have occasional discordant chords in the musical soundtrack that have a similar effect. 

The Tale of Zatoichi Continues (Directed by Kazuo Mori, October 1962)

The Tale of Zatoichi Continues

One year after the events of the first Zatoichi film, Ichi travels back to pay respects at the grave of Hirate. He accidentally discovers a powerful lord’s unstable mental condition while giving him a massage; his retainers decide to kill him to keep him quiet about their lord’s insanity. After their attack fails, they hire gangsters to hunt Ichi down. Ichi defeats everyone per usual and gets back to Hirate’s grave, where gangsters find him and attack him en masse. Otane, who is now about to be married to a local carpenter, learns that Ichi is in town and runs to warn him. A mysterious warrior who’s appeared throughout the film ends up revealing himself as Ichi’s brother, who ran off with the woman Ichi loved. Further complications ensue and everyone cries at the end.

I was surprised at how short this one was – only 72 minutes. This one was good but had some pretty big visual and plot comprehension problems for me and John? Like, we only caught two big key points of the film by reading the Wikipedia article about it afterward (that one of the character only had one arm and that the noble lord was supposed to be insane). It’s a little annoying to watch a film closely and then just…not even slightly understand WHY everyone’s trying to kill Ichi or WHY this other character keeps referring to himself as “crippled.”

There is also some SUPER soap opera-y music at times in here that’s just really distracting.

I was delighted to learn that Zatoichi character Shintaro Katsu’s actual brother Tomisaburo Wakyama played Ichi’s brother in this film. He would go on to play Ogami Itto, a different warrior character, in the six Lone Wolf and Cub samurai films (which is apparently all about a samurai wandering around fighting people while pushing his baby son around in a pram all around the countryside – and I DESPERATELY need to see this now).

This is another one with an unexpectedly sad ending that breaks your heart a little.

Also Ichi actually got laid in this film and I actually cheered because Y’ALL, the hero NEVER gets any proper happy romance in a samurai movie and it drives me NUTS.

 

The New Tale of Zatoichi (Directed by Tokuzo Tanaka, March 1963)***

The New Tale of Zatoichi

Ichi travels back to his old village and reunites with his former sensei, Banno, and Banno’s younger sister Yayoi. It becomes apparent that Banno is involved with a group of bandits and is committing crimes around the village. Yayoi confesses her love for Ichi and asks him to marry her. Ichi is completely amazed by this and agrees to turn around his life for her, but alas, Banno is utterly furious at Ichi, a mere zato in caste, even considering the idea of marrying a samurai’s daughter. Chaos ensues.

Oh this one broke my heart so beautifully. This is the most compelling story so far, with Ichi reuniting with numerous people he’s known for many years. His usual Ichi shenanigans at the beginning actually result in him helping a good many people after they got robbed, which is nice.

This is the first one in color and it is CINEMATIC AS FUCK, y’all. Just so pretty. Also the music in this one is MUCH IMPROVED from the weird soap opera-y music of the first two films.

The romantic scene between Ichi and Yayoi is so gloriously acted, y’all. His unbelieving and rapturous expression at her declaration of love is so beautiful, which is why it makes it even more sad when her brother immediately throws him out of the house.

There’s also a really great scene where a man trying to avenge his brother’s death challenges Ichi to a fight right after he agrees to change his ways, and Ichi and Yayoi beg for the man’s mercy, as Ichi does not want to fight any more. He ends up actually being very merciful to Ichi. It’s beautifully compelling and reminds me a lot of the scene in Kill Bill where Beatrix begs an assassin to leave right after she discovered she’s pregnant, which makes her want to change her life (which I’m sure is very deliberate, as Tarantino based a SHIT ton of Kill Bill off of samurai cinema).

Zatoichi The Fugitive (Directed by Tokuzo Tanaka, August 1963)***

Zatoichi the Fugitive

This is another shorter Zatoichi film – only 86 minutes. However it actually has a more complex plot than many of the other films, as all the different little bits and characters are woven together more tightly than the previous three.

Ichi kills a young yakuza man he has never met when he attacks him, in order to get the monetary reward for his mother. He then journeys to meet the man’s mother Maki, offering her an apology and some money, which he claims was from her son. Though Maki accepts Ichi as honorable, her son’s comrades decide to avenge his death by killing Ichi (they’re also pissed because Ichi defeated several people in a sumo match). While staying at an inn in town, Ichi comes across Otane, the woman he loves from the first two Zatoichi films. She is now with a quick-tempered ronin named Tanakura, and refuses to be around Ichi, as she feels too ashamed at the depths to which she has fallen.

The innkeeper’s daughter Nobu is in love with the young man set to inherit the local yakuza’s banking position, but her father does not approve, seeing the young man as weak. The yakuza tell the young man he must kill Ichi or he will lose his position. He sets a trap for Ichi by claiming that Otane was taken hostage, but this only results in LOTS of people that are not Ichi dying, including Tane.

There are a few really beautiful relationships in this film that I haven’t seen as often in other samurai films. Ichi develops a very mother-son relationship with Maki, despite actually being the killer of her son, and a really sweet brotherly relationship with Nobu. He’s also very understanding of Nobu’s lover trying to kill him and basically tells him to get his shit together at the end.

This film has an underlying theme of people striving for a past which is lost forever: the innkeeper and his daughter Nobu yearn for their previous wealth, Otane yearns for who she was when she was younger, before she got caught up in crime, and the young lover yearns to live up to his family’s position in the Yakuza, even though it’s not what he really wants for himself. It’s really well done.

There’s a scene at the beginning in a festival area that’s just really gorgeous, lots of color and rainbow and festivities. It’s paralleled at the end when a heartbroken Ichi dances somewhat maniacally down a path to some music in the background, a single festival decoration rolling near his feet.

I’m literally never going to be okay with Tane’s end. :(

-Zatoichi meets Yojimbo (Directed by Kikachi Okamoto, 1970)***

Zatoichi Meets Yojimbo

[This was in my original post but I’m putting this in here too so all the Zatoichi reviews are together!]

This film is utterly ridiculous but hilarious. Zatoichi is a blind master swordsman/masseuse (because that’s a thing in Japan apparently) and this is the TWENTIETH film starring him. He’s a very mild mannered character who’s basically Japanese Daredevil, with insane fighting skills and heightened sense that he uses to bring justice to the world. Mifune plays a “yojimbo” (bodyguard) who is similar to his grumpy samurai character with hidden heart of gold in Yojimbo/Sanjuro, but distinctly different. Basically, Zatoichi goes back to his hometown and found that LOTS has changed, as the townspeople are all afraid of a local gang. The plot is a bit complicated, and features a money skimming scheme from the government mint, but basically Zatoichi and Yojimbo constantly are trying to kill each other, drink together, or outsmart the gang together. Hilarity ensues in many many ways. (starring the glorious Toshiro Mifuno)

10 Mini Samurai Film Reviews, AKA The Toshiro Mifune Fan Post

Other Samurai Posts

More Samurai Film Reviews! AKA The Zatoichi Fan Post

Husband John has recently started showing me his large samurai/kurosawa film collection. It’s been a lot of fun and I’ve been really enjoying it so far. Here are my brief reviews of what we’ve watched so far, in case anyone else is interested in getting into this genre. John’s collection is all on DVD, but I know a lot of these films are available on streaming through the Criterion Channel and for rental on Amazon Prime.

I’ll keep adding more of these as we watch them because John has a ton of them and like, what else are we going to do right now during all this self-isolation?

(** = favorites)

1. Throne of Blood (Spider Web Castle) (directed by Akira Kurosawa, 1957)- very good and beautifully done, but since it's based off of Macbeth, it's obviously pretty dark. I'm sad that there's only one "witch" vs. the original three and the lack of Macduff removes a lot of the personal cost of Macbeth's choices, but as friend Jeff pointed out, it makes Macbeth's ultimate fall and death more obviously the consequences of his own choices. (starring the glorious Toshiro Mifuno)

Throne of Blood

Yojimbo

Sanjuro

Rashoman

2. Rashomon (Directed by Akira Kurosawa, 1950)- This film shows the same crime from the viewpoints of five different people, who tell the story in incredibly different ways. This film is considered one of the greatest ever made and spawned an entire type of story-telling commonly seen in TV shows called “The Rashomon Effect.”
It’s all beautiful and interesting and gorgeously shot, but I’ll admit that my favorite portions were honestly the ones with just the three dudes talking at the gate, trying to figure out this story. I would have loved it if the one female character wasn't so obviously deceitful and kinda evil though - like - can we understand WHY she wanted to leave her husband and go with the bandit? Was it an arranged marriage? Does she long for adventure? Come on. The shots directly at the sun were gorgeous and I loved the subtle differentiations from the versions of the story, like when the bandit tells the story, the sword fight is glorious and amazing, but when the random bystander tells the story, the sword fight is clumsy and awkward. (starring the glorious Toshiro Mifuno)

3. Yojimbo (the Bodyguard) (Directed by Akira Kurosawa, 1961)**- My FAVORITE so far. The main character is a grumpy nameless unemployed samurai (ronin) who plays two sides of a gang war off each other to make money but ultimately does the right thing to save the lives of some of the innocents around town. The film is heavily inspired by Westerns and you can tell. From that summary, it doesn't sound hilarious, but it IS, I promise you. (starring the glorious Toshiro Mifuno)

4. Sanjuro (Directed by Akira Kurosawa, 1962)**- The grumpy samurai with a hidden heart of gold from Yojimbo (who often uses the name Sanjuro, but it's heavily implied that this is a fake name, as he makes up his names by looking at random plants and taking their names as his own) returns in this film, where he ends up helping out a gang of well-intentioned fools who were trying to root out corruption in their clan and almost get themselves and their family members killed in the process. Sanjuro helps them out but does it in his own style, calling them idiots much of the movie. There's also an ultra hilarious bit with a captured bandit occasionally emerging from the closet in which he's been stashed to make commentary/celebrate with the heroes, and then quickly returning to the closet when he's noticed. (starring the glorious Toshiro Mifuno)

The Hidden Fortress

5. The Hidden Fortress (Directed by Akira Kurosawa, 1958)- The samurai movie that greatly inspired George Lucas while he was making Star Wars! A princess and a general, some of the last survivors of their clan after a devastating war, attempt to travel with their clan's remaining gold. across enemy territory to get to safety with an ally. The story is told from the viewpoint of two greedy peasants who bicker constantly, who heavily inspired the introduction of Star Wars with R2-D2 and C3PO. Some of this movie is hilarious and some of it is beautiful (a scene in which a huge group of captured peasants stages a breakout and tries to escape down a long flight of stairs is particularly well shot), but the pacing is really odd and slow at times and I occasionally found myself bored even during dramatic sword fights. There’s also a scene where the two greedy peasants openly plot to rape the princess and it is SO FUCKED UP (don’t worry, they don’t succeed). But at least most of the men wear Very Tiny Shorts that show off their Very Toned Legs, which provides just so much entertainment. (featuring the glorious Toshiro Mifuno)

6. Samurai I: Miyamoto Musashi (Directed by Hiroshi Inagaki, 1954)- The first of a trilogy about legendary samurai Miyamoto Musashi. The story itself is well told and beautifully shot, but has some weird plot holes and details that it never bothers to explain, like why the hero is initially considered "wild" and why everyone is trying to capture him. But all the characters are really wonderful and are introduced in a really interesting way. The opening scene with Tensuke and Matahachi talking about their dreams in a tree is beautiful. Akemi and Oko are introduced in a way that makes them seem all really nice; their inner villainy is only gradually revealed. I also really love Otsu and how she goes after the man she wants in a time when like…that’s not a thing women were suppose to do. (starring the glorious Toshiro Mifuno)

[SPOILERY: Also, the conclusion has a monk capture the hero and lock him in a tower with books for three years until he emerges as a better, wiser man, which I have some SERIOUS problems with. It’s very WTF.]

Samurai I

Samurai II

Samurai III

7. Samurai II: Duel at Ichijoji Temple (Directed by Hiroshi Inagaki, 1955)- This is probably my favorite of the three films, as Musashi's growth in this film actually makes sense and some of the subplots in the background are really entertaining. Why is this one school of sword fighters utterly determined to gang up on Musashi and treat him poorly even when their own founder wants to fight him honorably? Why is Akemi's mother a horrible person who pimps her out and later abandons her? Why does Musashi's former friend Matahachi want to kill him when all this friend's misfortune is the result of his own poor decisions? Why is Akemi so mean and why is she so obsessed with Musashi now? Why does everyone want to kill poor Otsu? We don't know. But it's fun to watch it happen. Other historical samurai Saski Kojiro is introduced in this film and he's very handsome, honorable, and funny in his own way.(starring the glorious Toshiro Mifuno)

[SPOILERY: The romance between Musashi and Otsu is also really beautiful, although I'm irritated behind reason at the end of the film when Musashi (the man she's waited for and searched for for like, 4+ years) tries to kiss her and she's immediately like /no, cries/ and he leaves because he's...confused? I don't know. It's all stupid and neither of their actions make sense given everything we know about their great love for each other]

8. Samurai III: Duel at Ganryu Island (Directed by Hiroshi Inagaki, 1956) - This film gives a satisfying conclusion to Musashi’s story but weirdly abandons some of the minor characters from the previous two films. Matahachi? Gone without a trace and zero explanation for where he went. Akemi’s villainous mother Oko is never seen, and her absence is explained only very briefly. But the plotting in this movie probably makes the most sense of all the films in this trilogy?
Musashi himself has grown into a Mature And Wise Samurai who makes Smart Decisions and doesn’t just kill people willy nilly. He decides to peace out with his kid mentee from the previous film and his new mentee (a random guy who threatened to kill him until he saw him catch a fly with chopsticks out of thin air and turned into the surprised Pikachu meme) and go run a farm for a year. Otsu and Akemi both follow him and confess their love, Akemi predictably causes trouble, etc. etc. Eventually Musashi fights Sasaki in the duel in the title. (starring the glorious Toshiro Mifuno)

Sword of Doom

Zatoichi meets Yojimbo

9. Sword of Doom (directed by Kihachi Okamoto, 1966)- This is a very interesting film that actually has an amoral and villainous samurai as its protagonist. He basically kills a lot of people without feeling badly about it and ultimately gets his comeuppance, but the plot is actually a lot more complicated and interesting than that, but hard to summarize just in a paragraph or two. I actually quite like it, but it’s definitely the strangest film we’ve watched so far. Mifuno plays a relatively minor role as the head of a sword fighting school who shows up later in the film. (featuring the glorious Toshiro Mifuno)

10. Zatoichi meets Yojimbo (Directed by Kikachi Okamoto, 1970)** - This film is utterly ridiculous but hilarious. Zatoichi is a blind master swordsman/masseuse (because that’s a thing in Japan apparently) and this is the TWENTIETH film starring him. He’s a very mild mannered character who’s basically Japanese Daredevil, with insane fighting skills and heightened sense that he uses to bring justice to the world. Mifune plays a “yojimbo” (bodyguard) who is similar to his grumpy samurai character with hidden heart of gold in Yojimbo/Sanjuro, but distinctly different. Basically, Zatoichi goes back to his hometown and found that LOTS has changed, as the townspeople are all afraid of a local gang. The plot is a bit complicated, and features a money skimming scheme from the government mint, but basically Zatoichi and Yojimbo constantly are trying to kill each other, drink together, or outsmart the gang together. Hilarity ensues in many many ways. (starring the glorious Toshiro Mifuno)

Ran

Ikiru

I’ve also previously watched these Kurosawa films with John back in August 2019 or earlier, so I want to re-watch them again now with the Samurai knowledge I have now. :)

- Seven Samurai (1954)

- Ran (1985)

- Ikiru (1952) (not a samurai film, but an important kurosawa work)

Short Reviews of MANY Samurai Films, AKA The Toshiro Mifune Fan Post

Other Samurai Posts

More Samurai Film Reviews! AKA The Zatoichi Fan Post

Husband John has recently started showing me his large samurai/kurosawa film collection. It’s been a lot of fun and I’ve been really enjoying it so far. Here are my brief reviews of what we’ve watched so far, in case anyone else is interested in getting into this genre. John’s collection is all on DVD, but I know a lot of these films are available on streaming through the Criterion Channel and for rental on Amazon Prime.

I’ll keep adding more of these as we watch them because John has a ton of them and like, what else are we going to do right now during all this self-isolation?

(** = favorites)

- Throne of Blood (Spider Web Castle) (directed by Akira Kurosawa, 1957)- very good and beautifully done, but since it's based off of Macbeth, it's obviously pretty dark. I'm sad that there's only one "witch" vs. the original three and the lack of Macduff removes a lot of the personal cost of Macbeth's choices, but as friend Jeff pointed out, it makes Macbeth's ultimate fall and death more obviously the consequences of his own choices. (starring the glorious Toshiro Mifuno)

Throne of Blood

Yojimbo

Rashoman

- Rashomon (Directed by Akira Kurosawa, 1950)- This film shows the same crime from the viewpoints of five different people, who tell the story in incredibly different ways. This film is considered one of the greatest ever made and spawned an entire type of story-telling commonly seen in TV shows called “The Rashomon Effect.”
It’s all beautiful and interesting and gorgeously shot, but I’ll admit that my favorite portions were honestly the ones with just the three dudes talking at the gate, trying to figure out this story. I would have loved it if the one female character wasn't so obviously deceitful and kinda evil though - like - can we understand WHY she wanted to leave her husband and go with the bandit? Was it an arranged marriage? Does she long for adventure? Come on. The shots directly at the sun were gorgeous and I loved the subtle differentiations from the versions of the story, like when the bandit tells the story, the sword fight is glorious and amazing, but when the random bystander tells the story, the sword fight is clumsy and awkward. (starring the glorious Toshiro Mifuno)

- Yojimbo (the Bodyguard) (Directed by Akira Kurosawa, 1961)**- My FAVORITE so far. The main character is a grumpy nameless unemployed samurai (ronin) who plays two sides of a gang war off each other to make money but ultimately does the right thing to save the lives of some of the innocents around town. The film is heavily inspired by Westerns and you can tell. From that summary, it doesn't sound hilarious, but it IS, I promise you. (starring the glorious Toshiro Mifuno)

Sanjuro

- Sanjuro (Directed by Akira Kurosawa, 1962)**- The grumpy samurai with a hidden heart of gold from Yojimbo (who often uses the name Sanjuro, but it's heavily implied that this is a fake name, as he makes up his names by looking at random plants and taking their names as his own) returns in this film, where he ends up helping out a gang of well-intentioned fools who were trying to root out corruption in their clan and almost get themselves and their family members killed in the process. Sanjuro helps them out but does it in his own style, calling them idiots much of the movie. There's also an ultra hilarious bit with a captured bandit occasionally emerging from the closet in which he's been stashed to make commentary/celebrate with the heroes, and then quickly returning to the closet when he's noticed. (starring the glorious Toshiro Mifuno)

The Hidden Fortress

- The Hidden Fortress (Directed by Akira Kurosawa, 1958)- The samurai movie that greatly inspired George Lucas while he was making Star Wars! A princess and a general, some of the last survivors of their clan after a devastating war, attempt to travel with their clan's remaining gold. across enemy territory to get to safety with an ally. The story is told from the viewpoint of two greedy peasants who bicker constantly, who heavily inspired the introduction of Star Wars with R2-D2 and C3PO. Some of this movie is hilarious and some of it is beautiful (a scene in which a huge group of captured peasants stages a breakout and tries to escape down a long flight of stairs is particularly well shot), but the pacing is really odd and slow at times and I occasionally found myself bored even during dramatic sword fights. There’s also a scene where the two greedy peasants openly plot to rape the princess and it is SO FUCKED UP (don’t worry, they don’t succeed). But at least most of the men wear Very Tiny Shorts that show off their Very Toned Legs, which provides just so much entertainment. (featuring the glorious Toshiro Mifuno)

Samurai I

- Samurai I: Miyamoto Musashi (Directed by Hiroshi Inagaki, 1954)- The first of a trilogy about legendary samurai Miyamoto Musashi. The story itself is well told and beautifully shot, but has some weird plot holes and details that it never bothers to explain, like why the hero is initially considered "wild" and why everyone is trying to capture him. But all the characters are really wonderful and are introduced in a really interesting way. The opening scene with Tensuke and Matahachi talking about their dreams in a tree is beautiful. Akemi and Oko are introduced in a way that makes them seem all really nice; their inner villainy is only gradually revealed. I also really love Otsu and how she goes after the man she wants in a time when like…that’s not a thing women were suppose to do. (starring the glorious Toshiro Mifuno)

[SPOILERY: Also, the conclusion has a monk capture the hero and lock him in a tower with books for three years until he emerges as a better, wiser man, which I have some SERIOUS problems with. It’s very WTF.]

Samurai II

- Samurai II: Duel at Ichijoji Temple (Directed by Hiroshi Inagaki, 1955)- This is probably my favorite of the three films, as Musashi's growth in this film actually makes sense and some of the subplots in the background are really entertaining. Why is this one school of sword fighters utterly determined to gang up on Musashi and treat him poorly even when their own founder wants to fight him honorably? Why is Akemi's mother a horrible person who pimps her out and later abandons her? Why does Musashi's former friend Matahachi want to kill him when all this friend's misfortune is the result of his own poor decisions? Why is Akemi so mean and why is she so obsessed with Musashi now? Why does everyone want to kill poor Otsu? We don't know. But it's fun to watch it happen. Other historical samurai Saski Kojiro is introduced in this film and he's very handsome, honorable, and funny in his own way.(starring the glorious Toshiro Mifuno)

[SPOILERY: The romance between Musashi and Otsu is also really beautiful, although I'm irritated behind reason at the end of the film when Musashi (the man she's waited for and searched for for like, 4+ years) tries to kiss her and she's immediately like /no, cries/ and he leaves because he's...confused? I don't know. It's all stupid and neither of their actions make sense given everything we know about their great love for each other]

Samurai III

- Samurai III: Duel at Ganryu Island (Directed by Hiroshi Inagaki, 1956) - This film gives a satisfying conclusion to Musashi’s story but weirdly abandons some of the minor characters from the previous two films. Matahachi? Gone without a trace and zero explanation for where he went. Akemi’s villainous mother Oko is never seen, and her absence is explained only very briefly. But the plotting in this movie probably makes the most sense of all the films in this trilogy?
Musashi himself has grown into a Mature And Wise Samurai who makes Smart Decisions and doesn’t just kill people willy nilly. He decides to peace out with his kid mentee from the previous film and his new mentee (a random guy who threatened to kill him until he saw him catch a fly with chopsticks out of thin air and turned into the surprised Pikachu meme) and go run a farm for a year. Otsu and Akemi both follow him and confess their love, Akemi predictably causes trouble, etc. etc. Eventually Musashi fights Sasaki in the duel in the title. (starring the glorious Toshiro Mifuno)

Sword of Doom

- Sword of Doom (directed by Kihachi Okamoto, 1966)- This is a very interesting film that actually has an amoral and villainous samurai as its protagonist. He basically kills a lot of people without feeling badly about it and ultimately gets his comeuppance, but the plot is actually a lot more complicated and interesting than that, but hard to summarize just in a paragraph or two. I actually quite like it, but it’s definitely the strangest film we’ve watched so far. Mifuno plays a relatively minor role as the head of a sword fighting school who shows up later in the film. (featuring the glorious Toshiro Mifuno)

-Zatoichi meets Yojimbo (Directed by Kikachi Okamoto, 1970)** - This film is utterly ridiculous but hilarious. Zatoichi is a blind master swordsman/masseuse (because that’s a thing in Japan apparently) and this is the TWENTIETH film starring him. He’s a very mild mannered character who’s basically Japanese Daredevil, with insane fighting skills and heightened sense that he uses to bring justice to the world. Mifune plays a “yojimbo” (bodyguard) who is similar to his grumpy samurai character with hidden heart of gold in Yojimbo/Sanjuro, but distinctly different. Basically, Zatoichi goes back to his hometown and found that LOTS has changed, as the townspeople are all afraid of a local gang. The plot is a bit complicated, and features a money skimming scheme from the government mint, but basically Zatoichi and Yojimbo constantly are trying to kill each other, drink together, or outsmart the gang together. Hilarity ensues in many many ways. (starring the glorious Toshiro Mifuno)

I’ve also previously watched these Kurosawa films with John back in August 2019 or earlier, so I want to re-watch them again now with the Samurai knowledge I have now. :)

- Seven Samurai (1954)

- Ran (1985)

- Ikiru (1952) (not a samurai film, but an important kurosawa work)