The Alternate Costumes of Six the Musical, Compared to the Main Queens' Costumes
This is the third post in a series on Six the Musical Costumes: I’ve analyzed the historical and modern inspirations in the main queen costumes previously, for Wives 1-3 and Wives 4-6 .
Because of its small cast and rabid fanbase, Six has the ability to get away with things that I’m not sure would fly in any other musical. Specifically, each alternate has their own costumes that are separate from the main Queen costumes. In other musicals and plays, it’s standard practice for alternates and understudies to wear the same costume/style of costume as the main actors, with the idea that they should blend in as much as possible. But Six encourages their alternates to stand out and online, the alternates have almost as much of a rabid fanbase as the main actresses!
An Alternate is a performer who occasionally goes on in a role to give the main performer a break. Their performances are usually scheduled. From what I can see online, it seems like each production of Six generally has 2-3 alternates that sub in regularly, primarily for two specific queens. London also has an understudy, who will only go on stage if someone is unexpectedly out, like if an actress is ill. Seems like the formal alternates also jump in as understudies if need be.
It seems like the costume designer and creators have a lot of fun with the alternate costumes, using colors and styles that don’t show up in the main queens’ outfits. None of the costumes are exact copies of any of the queens’ outfits, but they do take a lot of inspiration from them.
I’ll point out a few of the different hairstyles here, but for the most part, I plan to just talk about the different elements of the alternate costumes - which queens they came from, etc.
A TON of people on Tumblr have done more in-depth coverage and include more pictures:
Grace Mouat’s Costume- https://divorcedbeheaded.tumblr.com/post/184743930784/so-as-you-know-the-understudies-cover-all-six
A review of the black and blue alternate costumes: https://lightleckrereins.tumblr.com/tagged/six-alternates
A great overview of all the costumes: https://six-costume-refs.tumblr.com/
Various Instagram Sources: sladegabriella, camden costumes, dxntloseurhead
Let’s start with a look at the black alternate costumes. The alternates change up their hair and makeup to match each queen’s style, and it does seem that certain styles of alternate costumes are worn only with certain queens.
Mallory Maedke is currently the alternate for Boleyn, Seymour, and Howard for Six the Musical: US. As you can see in the left and middle photos, she’s clearly wearing the same or very similar costumes, but her hair is done differently. On the left, she’s going on as Jane Seymour, with the long flowing hair pulled back away from the face, without any studded accessories. I don’t know for certain who she’s playing in the picture on the right, but based on the hair and the wristbands, I’m guessing Anne Boleyn.
These alternate costumes are so interesting, because they have enough elements in common with the usual queen costumes to blend in with the style of the show, but they tend to have a few unusual touches all their own. The grommets and stripes are the most obvious common elements with the other costumes. This dress also has a skirt similar to that seen on Aragon’s, but with more panels, and it goes all the way around. The mesh is similar to that in Boleyn’s outfit and the long sleeves are similar to Seymour’s. The top of the sleeves however is a totally unique feature you don’t see in any of the main queens’ looks. They have a very strong profile and almost look like ribbon on a Christmas present.
Left: Natalie Pilkington-Bliss costume (cruise alternate) as Catherine Parr. I’m guessing she’s in character as Catherine Parr in this picture, as she’s got on those distinctive pants. She also has similar sleeves as can be seen in the previous black dress. I wish I could get a better look at the rest of the costume - I struggled to find pictures of this one, but I really enjoyed her pose in it, so I wanted to include it.
Middle: Grace Mouat (West End, London), probably going on as Catherine of Aragon, based on the hair. Mouat HAS understudied for all the queens before but her primary roles were as Aragon and Howard. This costume basically has Aragon’s skirt and Seymour’s neckline and sleeves. I believe this is one of the earlier alternate costumes, intended to be used for all the queens, before they started making variations specific to certain characters.
Right: Mouat and Colette Guitart (understudy, West End) - You can see the details of Mouat’s costume a lot better here - it’s very similar to Maedke’s dress, but appears to have little epaulettes, which seems evocative of castle crenelations or modern military dress. Guitart’s dress has a similar neckline and sleeves, but the top has fewer vertical stripes and more criss-crossing straps. The see through panels in the skirt are very similar to Howard’s skirt.
Next - the teal/blue costumes!
Left - Vicki Manser (West End) - Anne of Cleves variation - Here’s where you can see they really started having fun with the costumes. Vicki’s shorts are kind of similar to Cleves, but higher waisted and cut differently - they’re much more classically sci-fi in their looks, particularly with that color! The jacket and top underneath are pretty much straight Cleves, complete with the fur, although the arm warmers are different than Cleves’. The criss cross straps at the type emulate those seen on Cleves and Howard.
Second to Left: Cherelle Jay (West End) - This looks to be a similar top as Manser is wearing on the left, only without the jacket. However, the bottom horizontal strip appears to be a lighter blue.
Second to Right: Vicki Manser - All queens except Cleves - The shorts seem identical to the left outfit, although I can’t quite tell if the belt detail is the same; there may be epaulettes at the top? It’s hard to tell. That top though is just delightfully bizarre and totally unlike anything else. It has the shape of Boleyn’s top, with the see-through cut out of Catherine Parr’s top. The horizontal stripes aren’t visible in any of the main queen’s costumes, which all use either diagonal or vertical (or checked in Boleyn’s case).
Right: Nicole Kyoung-Mi Lambert (US) - Aragon/Parr variation – The pants are pure Parr, although the fabric strips connecting the top and the pants are very different and seem to emulate Cleves’ or Howards’ criss-cross straps on their neckline. The top is very similar to the middle Manser look (with the Boleyn style cut and sleeve tops and the Parr style see through cut out), only with the long sleeves of Seymour. It seems to have similar possible epaulettes/belt thing as the Manser look, but with more of them.
Left: Pretty sure this is just a close up of the back of the jacket in the left Manser picture above, I’m pretty sure. It’s just so pretty that I had to share it again. I think the fur is so lovely and striking.
Middle: Bryony Duncan - Boleyn/Seymour/Howard - This looks almost exactly like Boleyn’s dress in silhouette, sleeves, wristbands, mesh, and skirt fullness, only the checks are diagonal instead of straight up and sideways. In addition, she has the cut out in the middle like Parr.
Right: Cherelle Jay (West End) - Dressed as Boleyn. The top seems very similar to the Duncan outfit in the middle, with all its similarities to Boleyn’s dress but the bottom has the Cleves belt and the epaulettes seen in the Manser outfit.
On to the Orange costumes!
Left: Hana Stewart (West End), who alternated primarily as Jane Seymour and Catherine of Aragon. This top seems to be very similar to the Maedke costume at the very top of the page, only with more busy ribbons on the sleeves - the tops of these sleeves appear to have four individual sections, while the Maedke sleeve tops appear to be one accentuated cap sleeve. The middle black stripe is similar to Catherine Parr’s, but without the sheer fabric. The criss cross laces on the top and the pants appear to be reminiscent of corset laces historically.
Second to Left: Courtney Stapleton (West End), who alternated primarily as Jane Seymour and Catherine Parr, but also understudied all the other roles. From the hair accessories, it looks like she’s probably going on as Catherine of Aragon or Cleves. This costume looks the same as Stewart’s, except it’s missing the straps in between the top and pants.
The two photos on the right are from the instagram accounts of costume designer Gabriella Slade and Camden Costumes, one of the people who sew and assemble the costumes. I don’t think these costumes have been used in the show yet, as I can’t find any photos of them anywhere, but they do look really interesting and exciting for the future! The costume in the second from the right looks very similar to the shape of Catherine of Aragon’s dress, but has the checks of Boleyn. The one on the far right reminds me most of the current orange costume, with its peplum, but it has the mesh of boleyn’s costume. The belt detail seems borrowed from Cleves’ shorts.
Finally, the pink costumes!
Shekinah McFarlane (West End), who alternated primarily for Aragon and Cleves. It appears that when she stood in for Cleves though, she wore the regular costume instead of a special alternate costume. She now is Cleves on the UK Tour. This lovely opalescent pink dress has the general shape of Aragon’s dress, with the split skirt and long sleeves. The sleeve top is similar to the blue Duncan costume above, with a Jetsons sort of feel to it. The neck decoration is really interesting - I love how it continues the vertical stripe in the bodice up around the neck. Haven’t seen anything like that in the other costumes. This outfit also has a split peplum on the skirt, which feel similar to the epaulettes seen in other alternate outfits, but is different enough that it stands apart.
Zara McIntosh (West End), who alternates for Howard and Aragon. In these photos, she’s made up for Howard. It’s clearly the same or similar style dress as the one McFarlane is wearing.
I haven’t seen any other opal pink costumes but the fabric is absolutely gorgeous, so I certainly hope that changes soon!
Thanks everyone! Next week, I hope to get a post up about the evolution of the costumes from the early days of the musical to what they’re like now. It is National Novel Writing Month though, so I may be short on time this month.
