15 Things I Learned from Six UK Tour Alternate/Dance Captain Harriet Watson's Workshop and Q&A

All My Six Posts!
Over-Analyzing All the Historical References in Six- “Ex Wives,” “No Way,” “Don’t Lose Your Head”
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

Last Saturday, I participated in a virtual dance workshop and Q&A with Six UK & Ireland Tour alternate and dance captain Harriet Watson! The event was hosted by Theatre Fan Parties and I really enjoyed it! Honestly, when I signed up, I kind of thought that there would be like 100 participants, but there were only around 20 and it made for a really lovely, intimate setting. Harriet was super sweet and lovely and encouraging, and I had a great time!

I liked it so much that immediately afterward, I went and signed up for a class in a few weeks with Colette Guitart, the dance captain and one of the Six alternates in the West End production (of course, I later realized that this particular workshop will happen at 5 am my time…ouch, but worth it!).

I frankly have zero dance training except for the few moves I learned in color guard in high school and some ballroom dance classes in college and shortly after. I definitely haven’t taken any dance classes since…2012 at latest. I’m not a very coordinated person, okay? But Harriet was a wonderful teacher and I managed to follow along pretty well despite all that.

Harriet posing nicely when Tyler (the owner of Theatre Fan Parties) asked her to. My face is awkwardly in the upper right because Zoom.

Harriet adorably hiding her face when someone asked her a question she wasn’t sure she was allowed to answer.

After a quick, efficient warmup, Harriet taught us the dance part to Get Down that starts at “I’m the queen of the castle, get down you dirty rascal” and goes through the next phrase through to “cause I’m the queen of the castle.” The individual moves weren’t too hard, but they were VERY FAST with the music, and I’m pretty sure I just flopped around like a fish. Harriet was constantly checking the chat for any questions about individual moves and interacted with everyone, complimenting people when they were killing moves and generally just being a wonderful person.

I did a lot better with the “Six” dance which she ended with, which was much easier. I actually still remember all the moves (Get down was gone…pretty much immediately from my mind, let’s just be honest). Harriet ended up taking a video of all of us doing the dance together and posted it to her Instagram stories, which was really cool! She also commented on my Instagram later about it, which was lovely.

Demonstrating a dance move

Demonstrating a dance move from “Six.”

After the dance workshop portion was over, Harriet answered questions from the attendees! She started out with a general explanation of how she got involved the show. I took a ton of notes, but I’m sure they aren’t perfect quotes (I was typing quickly but my cats decided that RIGHT THEN was the perfect time to start exploring the magical space behind my computer monitors and distracted me), so just expect that these are paraphrased quotes.

1. How she got in the show: She was initially up for Boleyn and Aragon – Maddie beat her out (presumably Maddison Bulleyment, who’s Anne Boleyn for the UK Tour cast).

Answering all the questions

She went to the open call for the show (handled by Pearson casting, who she described as “lovely and incredible”) and said there were probably 3,000 people there. The first day of auditions was just dance – choreography allllll dayyyy. When they got to the singing part of auditions, she sang jessie j’s mama knows best, then a song by adele, and beyonce’s halo.

After that she had a group audition, where a group would go in and each person would sing 5 songs in a row with all the other auditionees just watching. She saw Jenn (presumably Jennifer Caldwell, another of the UK Tour alternates) audition at that time.

She had a few more auditions after that, where they swapped around a ton of girls to see who worked well together. Apparently when she was offered the job, someone called and asked “what queen do you want to be.” (she later clarified that she didn’t actually get to choose which queens she was first cover for).

2. Favorite queen to play: Boleyn – she’s not my first cover but I love her because I get to be naughty on stage. [Harriet’s first covers are Jane Seymour and Catherine Parr]

 3. Training: She trained at a college in Nottingham called MADD. She specifically noted that she didn’t get an agent from her agent showcasing in college and graduated with no idea where she fit into musical theater.

Drinking the tea

6 years after that, she did a LOT of workshops in London – she’d go for a week or a day. Her main training was from workshops – she got her basics from college but she didn’t know what songs to sing, what she was doing – workshops were the best things for her. That’s where she got her agent and really learned her stuff.

4. Her Personal Pop Inspirations for each Queen:

Seymour – Madonna

Parr – Alicia keys

Howard – Britney

Aragon – beyonce

She also mentioned Ariana grande and asked who was that – howard???

5. How important is being a good dancer in musical theater? It depends what type of theater you’re going into. If you want to do 42nd street or fame – you have to be a good dancer. You’ve got to sell it –

6. Beginner dance class suggestions: BALLET is the first dance class you really need to do – it’s boring but you need the conditioning

7. Hardest choreography in the show: “for me, all you want to do” It’s not the hardest – but it’s a slog – you have to stay centered and balanced and it’s SO long

She confirmed that she’s been signed up as an alternate again for the next tour!

8. Do you have to train differently to be a swing?    Yes, for tech rehearsals before the show, she has to run the show from top to bottom on her own with the directors. She has a swing bible – that jenn [caldwell] made her – she listens to her harmonies and goes through her swing bible the whole time.

She highly suggested that if you want to be a swing or an alternate – start practicing NOW – start watching people’s tracks – you want to think about how to do the show as that person. I had never done it before – I never got trained in it in school – I cried so many days – jenn Caldwell saved me. Try to pick out harmonies for all the different performers. I didn’t get harmony training ever, and it’s the hardest thing I’ve ever done.

9. Favorite tour venue: I loved Glasgow!

She conferred with Gemma, who she referred to as “head of sound” and was in the room with her, to remember exactly which location she was thinking of. She ended up asking the crowd where she went on for Boleyn and a chorus of “Salfords!” came through on the chat.

Where I was on for Boleyn – Salford! That sing a long was the most incredible experience of my life – everyone was sobbing and crying.

10. Do you get to choose your first covers? She said no. She said at first that she was cast as first cover for cleves and then cassie took it away. (said with much affection!) 

11. Does she stay on the same harmonies or does she switch around with each queen? They switch everyone around – Boleyn’s on the top harmony lines at first. Howard starts low and then she hits top Gs. Alternates have to know all the harmony lines – it’s definitely the hardest bit about the show.

“Can we get a petition for alternates to have one harmony line? That would make my life very easy.”

Answering even more questions.

12. Rehearsal process: Jenn and I got called in a little early and got to train with the town alternates – Colette [Guitart] and such. Rehearsals were very long - she said it’s sounds so cliché, but when you really do something you really love, I could do something from 6 in the morning to 12 at night. You just did number by number day by day. We’d tap in or tap out – for the alternates – and when I felt ready, I would tap in for lauren or whatever –

She doesn’t know if she’s allowed to say anything about tours for next year. When corona is over – doesn’t know what she can say so she just covered her mouth with her shirt.

13. Dance Captain: She did not specifically audition for dance captain but was offered it in the contract she was given as the alternate. Carrie [Carrie-Anne Ingrouille, the choreographer for Six] is in every audition to watch. They also look at your ability to converse and be kind to people.

Jobs of dance captain – she goes in an hour and a half earlier – warms up all the girls up for half an hour – does notes with them – she does a show watch twice a week to just keep the show as it was when it left rehearsals.

When we went to blue peter – went along to make sure they’re all in the correct position. Photo shoots where they’re all posing – making sure they’re all in the right position –

If they have any concerns, they can take them to me and I can get them to the director – it’s my favorite job – be the advocate for the girls really

14. How they found out about the remainder of the UK tour getting postponed due to COVID-19: Basically they were traveling to brighton and they got the call that the theater was closed – and just had to turn around.  And that was that.

She said that she wasn’t doing stage door for like 2 weeks before they closed because she was scared of getting sick

15. Dressing rooms?: She always shares her dressing room with the other alternates, Jenn Caldwell and Cassie Lee.

The Early Costumes of Six the Musical: From Edinburgh to Cambridge to London

All My Six Posts!
Over-Analyzing All the Historical References in Six- “Ex Wives,” “No Way,” “Don’t Lose Your Head” “Heart of Stone” “Haus of Holbein” “Get Down”
The Tudor Crown Inspiration in Six’s Logo; The Tudor Fashion Elements of the Costumes in Six (with Painting References)
Six the Musical Wives 1-3: Historical and Modern Costume Inspirations; Six the Musical Wives 4-6: Historical and Modern Costume Inspirations
The Ladies in Waiting of Six: Historical Inspirations and Costumes; Details from Six Costumer Gabriella Slade’s Instagram Takeover
The Early Costumes of Six the Musical: From Edinburgh to Cambridge to London
Updated Six the Musical Costumes for Broadway!; The Shoes of Six the Musical
The Alternate Costumes of Six the Musical; How the Six Alternates Change Their Styling for Each Queen
Virtual Dance Workshops and Q&As with Different Six Cast Members!

The current incarnation of Six the musical is actually the fifth or sixth version! I’m not certain how much the show has changed since its original premiere at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival, but co-creator Lucy Moss described the Edinburgh version as having “the most unbelievably bad, clunky segues, and the exposition” in a recent New York Times interview, so I imagine there have been some significant updates since then. :)

One thing I CAN look at is how the costumes have changed over time. There are basically three distinct phases of costume development for Six. First, you’ve got the costumes from the casts Edinburgh and Cambridge, which appear to be made of existing ready-made clothing pieces. Next, you’ve got the costumes for the 2017 Arts Theatre cast off the West End in London, whose clothes appear to be a bit more costumey and made to the specific show. Finally, you’ve got the Gabriella Slade costume designs, which, for the most part, have only been tweaked a bit since they were originally made (the Cleves costume is the only costume that looks COMPLETELY different in its current form than it did in the original costume based off of Slade’s designs).

I’ve gone through a TON of old photos and information about the old casts and compiled them into the slideshows below. I hope y’all enjoy this. :)

Note: Obviously I don’t own any of these photos. I scoured the Six the Musical Wikipedia extensively to find these and unfortunately, they don’t generally share photo credits. I did the best I could to include photographers, but if I made any mistakes or missed any, please let me know and I will happily update them.

Front from left to right: Jane Seymour, Anne Boleyn, and Catherine Parr. Back from left to right: Anna of Cleves, Catherine of Aragon, and Katherine Howard. Edinburgh Festival Fringe, August 2017. Toby Marlow

Left to right: Catherine of Aragon, Anna of Cleves, Anne Boleyn, Katherine Howard, and Jane Seymour. Edinburgh Festival Fringe, August 2017. Toby Marlow

Edinburgh Festival Fringe - August 2017 performance of Six the Musical (performed by the Cambridge University Musical Theater Society)
& Cambridge University Musical Theatre Society - October 2017

The same cast of mostly students (and co-creator Toby Marlow’s sister) performed at both the Edinburgh Festival Fringe and at the run at Cambridge University a few months later. It APPEARS from careful examination of photos that these costumes were all essentially the same EXCEPT for Katherine Howard’s costume. So based on lots of reading, I believe the photos of the cast above this text are from Edinburgh, and the photos of the cast BELOW this text are from Cambridge. If anyone knows differently, please correct me. :) I’m working with a certain dearth of information here.

It also appears that some of the cast took publicity photos in different clothes at some sort of historical building at some point; I’ve included those in the slideshows as well.

These costumes are really very unlike the current professional production costumes, although you can see a FEW elements that ended up in the final West End production. The Anne Boleyn dress silhouette and color has stayed the same. The original ruff neck of the Katherine Howard dress at Edinburgh resembles the ruffs now used in “Haus of Holbein.” Jane Seymour is dressed in the most conservative and monochromatic costume, and her hairstyle appears to be the same. Anna of Cleves also appears to be wearing a much sexier outfit underneath her costume, which is also an element used in the current show.

Jane Seymour’s glittery black boots, interestingly enough, are almost exactly like the current shoes seen in Six.

Catherine of Aragon - Megan Gilbert
Anne Boleyn - Ashleigh Weir
Jane Seymour- Holly Musgrave
Anna of Cleves - Tilda Wickham
Katherine Howard- Annabel Marlow
Catherine Parr- Shimali de Silva

The cast and crew of “Six” at Cambridge University in October 2017. Johannes Hjorth

From left to right: Anne Boleyn, Jane Seymour (top), Katherine Howard (bottom), and Anna of Cleves. Cambridge University in October 2017. Johannes Hjorth

Front from left to right: Catherine of Aragon, Anne Boleyn. Back from left to right: Anna of Cleves, Katherine Howard, Catherine Parr. Cambridge University in October 2017. Johannes Hjorth

Left to right: Anne Boleyn, lighting designer Rebecca Fry, Katherine Howard. Johannes Hjorth

Catherine of Aragon - Megan Gilbert (Edinburgh Fringe and Cambridge University Casts)

Anne Boleyn - Ashleigh Weir (Edinburgh Fringe and Cambridge University Casts)

Jane Seymour - Holly Musgrave (Edinburgh Fringe and Cambridge University Casts)

Anna of Cleves - Tilda Wickham (Edinburgh Fringe and Cambridge University Casts)

When Wickham is sitting in one of the full cast and crew pics, you can see that they’re wearing some sort of sexy looking get-up under the main gray covered up suit thing. I SUSPECT that there probably was a “strip a bit to show how sexy i am” section in the original show just as there is in the current version.

(*Note, Tilda Wickham uses they/them pronouns, so don’t misgender them if you take info from this page and share it elsewhere).

Katherine Howard - Annabel Marlow (Edinburgh Fringe and Cambridge University Casts)

This is the only costume that appeared to significantly change between the Edinburgh and Cambridge performances.

Catherine Parr - Shimali de Silva (Edinburgh Fringe and Cambridge University Casts)

Front from left to right: Anne Boleyn, Katherine Howard. Back from left to right: Catherine Parr, Anna of Cleves, Catherine of Aragon, and Jane Seymour.

Recording cast! From left to right: Jane Seymour (Natalie Seymour), Catherine of Aragon (Renee Lamb), Catherine Parr (Izuka Hoyle), Anna of Cleves (Genesis Lynea), and Katherine Howard (Aimee Atkinson)

2017 Arts Theatre Production (Off-West End) - December 2017 (6 performances)
and Cast Recording –released September 2018

L to R: Anne Boleyn, Anna of Cleves, Katherine Howard, Jane Seymour, Catherine of Aragon, and Catherine Parr.

The first professional, non-student performances of Six went up in December 2017, only a few months after it premiered in Edinburgh (which is kind of an insane jump!). As described in the New York Times article, professional musical theater people began to attend the Edinburgh run and asked the co-creators Lucy Moss and Toby Marlow about securing rights for the show. A family friend of Toby Marlow’s, composer George Stiles, encouraged West End producer Kenny Wax to come see the show in Cambridge. Wax ended up securing the rights for the show with Stiles and partnered with producers Wendy and Andy Barnes (who had seen the show in Edinburgh), and produced a short run of the show in London off-the West End at the Arts Theatre.

The Arts Theatre cast also recorded the musical score and released it in September 2018. The Six album went viral, streaming millions of times on various musical platforms, and became a huge hit on the social media app TikTok.

The Arts Theatre costumes have a lot of Tudor fashion elements that weren’t present in the original student cast costumes. You can start to see some of the hairstyles and lacing elements that would become part of the final Gabriella Slade designed costumes.

It looks like they also took publicity photos at the Tower of London and against the backdrop of the Tower Bridge; I’ve included those in all the slideshows as well.

Catherine of Aragon - Renee Lamb
Anne Boleyn - Christina Modestou
Jane Seymour- Natalie Paris
Anna of Cleves- Genesis Lynea
Katherine Howard- Aimee Atkinson
Catherine Parr- Izuka Hoyle

L to R: Catherine of Aragon, Anne Boleyn, Jane Seymour, Anna of Cleves, Katherine Howard, and Catherine Parr. (Credit: Josh Bird)

L to R: Renee Lamb, Christina Modestou, Natalie Paris, Random Beefeater, Genesis Lynea, Aimee Atkinson, Izuka Hoyle

Catherine of Aragon - Renee Lamb (2017 Arts Theatre and Cast Recording Casts)

The last pic in this gallery shows Renee when she came back as an emergency stand in for Aragon during the West End run!

Anne Boleyn - Christina Modestou (2017 Arts Theatre and Cast Recording Casts)

Jane Seymour- Natalie Paris (2017 Arts Theatre and Cast Recording Casts)

Anna of Cleves- Genesis Lynea (2017 Arts Theatre and Cast Recording Casts)

The last pic in this gallery shows Genesis when she came back as an emergency stand in for Cleves during the West End run!

Katherine Howard- Aimee Atkinson (2017 Arts Theatre and Cast Recording Casts)

Catherine Parr- Izuka Hoyle (2017 Arts Theatre and Cast Recording Casts)

L to R: Catherine of Aragon, Anne Boleyn, Jane Seymour, Anna of Cleves, Katherine Howard, and Catherine Parr. The original UK Tour costumes, designed by Gabriella Slade. (Credit: Archant)

2018 UK tour – July – December 2018
and Original West End Production – January 2019 opening for initial 16-week run. Initial run has been extended until January 2021.

L to R: Catherine of Aragon, Katherine Howard, Anna of Cleves, Jane Seymour, Catherine Parr and Anne Boleyn. The original UK Tour costumes, designed by Gabriella Slade. (Credit: Archant)

The show gained its awesome current costumes designed by Gabriella Slade sometime during the 2018 UK tour. During her recent Instagram takeover, Slade said that Lucy Moss and Toby Marlow asked her to come in and do the costumes about two years ago. She looked at Tudor portraits, paintings, and architecture, and looked at modern fashion designers for inspiration. Each costume took a few weeks to make, with at least three fittings per costume.

An in-between step in the costume evolution. You can see that Aragon’s wig and hair accessories have decreased in size, and Jane Seymour’s hair accessory has changed, but Anna of Cleves is still in her black costume, and Anne Boleyn still has green hair accessories instead of black studs. (Credit: Idil Sukan)

As you can see in the slideshows below, once the actual Gabby Slade costumes were made, most of the costumes were only tweaked. Catherine of Aragon’s wig and crown decreased in size, Anne Boleyn and Jane Seymour’s hair accessories changed up a bit, etc. Catherine Parr’s costume design has changed up a bit as well; various elements moved around and the sleeves are totally different now.

However, the Anna of Cleves costume has changed a LOT, as it started out as a black and silver costume with a vest and changed to a red and black costume with a jacket.

Catherine of Aragon - Jarneia Richard-Noel
Anne Boleyn - Millie O’Connell
Jane Seymour - Natalie Paris
Anna of Cleves - Alexia McIntosh
Katherine Howard- Aimee Atkinson
Catherine Parr- Maiya Quansah-Breed
Understudy - Grace Mouat

The first photo in each of the slideshows below is the original costume by Gabriella Slade, and the second photo is the current costume for that character. The last picture in each slideshow is the original historical painting.

The West End costumes. L to R: Catherine of Aragon, Anne Boleyn, Jane Seymour, Anna of Cleves, Katherine Howard, and Catherine Parr. Eleanor Howarth

The Broadway costumes of Six. L to R: Catherine Parr, Anna of Cleves, Catherine of Aragon, Jane Seymour, Anne Boleyn, and Katherine Howard. Bryan Derballa for The New York Times.

Catherine of Aragon - Jarneia Richard-Noel (2018 UK Tour and Original West End Casts)

Anne Boleyn - Millie O’Connell (2018 UK Tour and Original West End Casts)

Jane Seymour - Natalie Paris (2018 UK Tour and Original West End Casts)

Anna of Cleves - Alexia McIntosh (2018 UK Tour and Original West End Casts)

Katherine Howard- Aimee Atkinson (2018 UK Tour and Original West End Casts)

Catherine Parr- Maiya Quansah-Breed (2018 UK Tour and Original West End Casts)

Details from Six Costumer Gabriella Slade's Instagram Takeover

All My Six Posts!
Over-Analyzing All the Historical References in Six- “Ex Wives,” “No Way,” “Don’t Lose Your Head” “Heart of Stone” “Haus of Holbein” “Get Down”
The Tudor Crown Inspiration in Six’s Logo; The Tudor Fashion Elements of the Costumes in Six (with Painting References)
Six the Musical Wives 1-3: Historical and Modern Costume Inspirations; Six the Musical Wives 4-6: Historical and Modern Costume Inspirations
The Ladies in Waiting of Six: Historical Inspirations and Costumes; Details from Six Costumer Gabriella Slade’s Instagram Takeover
The Early Costumes of Six the Musical: From Edinburgh to Cambridge to London
Updated Six the Musical Costumes for Broadway!; The Shoes of Six the Musical
The Alternate Costumes of Six the Musical; How the Six Alternates Change Their Styling for Each Queen
Virtual Dance Workshops and Q&As with Different Six Cast Members!

Originally posted April 2, 2020; updated May 18, 2020

Slade also took over the @SixBroadway account on May 17 and answered numerous questions! She also shared a lot of lovely pictures.

April 2, 2020
Six Costume designer Gabriella Slade has taken over the @SixtheMusical Instagram for the day! I’m taking notes on everything she’s saying and throwing out a couple questions myself.

• How she got involved in the production: About two years ago, Lucy Moss and Toby Marlow asked her to come in and do the costumes.

• Tudor elements confirmed in the costumes: split pane sleeves, doublet references, corsetry, square necklines, a four part skirt, lots of latticework in the lacing.

• Inspirations: For inspirations, she looked to Tudor portraits, paintings, and architecture. She also looked at modern fashion designers like Alexander McQueen.

• Costume Making Process: The costumes take a few weeks to make. They do at least three fittings per costume and sometimes more, as the costumes are very complicated. The costumes are VERY heavy. The wardrobe supervisors for each show handle any alterations and mending. The most commonly needed fix is stud related, as they apparently fall off VERY often, even with the BEST glue in the world.

• The queen’s costume that takes the longest to make: Catherine of Aragon’s! Most complicated costume in the show.

• The queen’s costume that was the hardest for her to design: Jane Seymour costume was the hardest for her to design, as that character has a very different vibe from the rest of the queens. She said she needed a different visual language.

• She’s not allowed to have favorite alternate costumes, however, she really enjoyed making the most recent pink costume currently worn by Zara in the WE production. There aren’t any purple costumes because it’s the brand color for six.

• The boots are designed by Slade and are made by Laduca Shoes, specialists in dancewear.

• Broadway Costume Changes: additional stud work, more latticework, just to enhance the initial designs from a few years.

• Whenever a new cast comes in, she goes to see the show, so she’s seen it “loads of times.” Old costumes of cast members that have left the show are kept by the production and looked after on an archive rail.

• Favorite detail about each costume: The many tudor and historical details in the costumes is so very important, even in contemporary fabrics.

• She LOVES it when people cosplay the costumes. Whenever people do really brilliant ones that look like actual stage costumes, her team shares pictures of them all around. She also really loves the fan art of the costumes she sees online.

Suggestions for cosplays:

• The costumes are super heavy so Slade suggests that cosplayers use “big chunky zips” on their creations.

• Parr’s top has a zipper and a hook and eye closure.

• Howard’s zip is on the center of the back of the bodice - the new broadway skirt has a side front opening instead of a center back one, as that helps the longevity of the skirt.

Miscellaneous:

• Advice for students going into doing textiles for GCSE - need to keep up on new techniques and terminology.

• Slade drinks tea all the time and she is a HUGE herbal tea fan.

& Juliet Historical Costume Influences: Part 2

Part 1 of this series is up here!

& Juliet is a 2019 musical now up in the West End in London that starts off at the end of Romeo & Juliet. Instead of killing herself, Juliet survives, and runs off to Paris with some friends to avoid being sent to a convent by her parents. Shenanigans ensue. There’s also a frame story about William Shakespeare and his wife, Anne Hathaway (no, not that one) arguing over how to plot out the story. All the songs in the musical are by Max Martin and were previously big pop hits; think “I Want it That Way,” “…One More Time",” “It’s Gonna Be Me, “Blow,” and other songs by Backstreet Boys, Britney Spears, NSync, and several other artists.

I’m not SUPER familiar with the musical, but I’ve listened to a bit of the soundtrack, have read through the WIkipedia page, and have seen some awesome photos of the costumes, which mash up renaissance and modern elements. So of course, I want to go through and analyze some of the costume elements through the lens of Tudor history. I’m not going to go AS in depth with these costumes as I previously have with Six, because & Juliet has WAY more than six characters and plenty of those characters seem to have several costumes. I’m also sure I won’t be able to get all the costumes, so I’m honestly not going to fuss about it too much.

Although Romeo and Juliet technically takes place in Italy, and most of this musical takes place in France, the costumes seem to be far more English renaissance inspired; there were a lot of similarities in renaissance dress in these three countries, but also some pretty striking differences.

FYI: A fair amount of the explanation of the different elements is borrowed from my previous post on the Tudor fashion elements of the costumes in Six the Musical.

William Shakespeare

William Shakespeare

Robert Dudley, Earl of Leceister

William Shakespeare (Oliver Tompsett) - Will’s wearing an undershirt, a vest with a high collar and some very distinct diagonal line cuts, and slim cut jeans that resemble Tudor hose. It’s all rendered in a very Tudor color scheme. Because Shakespeare was an actual historical figure and we have SOME portraits that purport to be of him, it’s possible that this costume was loosely based on one of them. This is one of the more famous ones, and it certainly looks like there’s some inspiration - the coloring in the costume vest and shoes is similar to the mustard yellow background of the Chandos portrait. the white under tunic also looks pretty similar. He’s also sporting a beard.

As you can see in the portrait of Robert Dudley (Elizabeth I’s favorite), high collars and diagonal lines, and vests with cap sleeves were all commonly seen in Elizabethan fashion. Shakespeare was an active playwright from at least 1585-1613 and died in 1616. Elizabeth was on the throne from 1558-1603, after which time her first cousin twice removed (the great-grandson of her father Henry VIII’s sister Margaret Tudor) , James, became king of England.

This peasant man is wearing hose that are much baggier than those often seen worn by nobles. Trevilian Miscellany, 1602

• Hose - Hose were undergarments covering the full length of the legs for a long time. They were probably made to measure by a hosier and cut on the bias to allow the cloth to stretch. However, in the last quarter of the 15th century, fashionable young men in Italy began to omit the gown or tunic traditionally worn over their hose and doublet. This resulted in the development of the codpiece (discussed further down in the post), as previously, each leg of a man’s hose was separate, as it wasn’t visible, and thus left a gap around the crotch area.
  Tight fitting hose and doublets that rose above the hips were popular in England in the first half of the 16th century, although the trend quickly moved toward wearing gowns over the doublet and tunic, which revealed the hose and codpiece beneath those layers, but widened the figure into the fashionable male silhouette inspired by Henry VIII’s own generous size.
  Hose was sometimes very tight and close fitting, particularly among upper classes that could afford the type of cloth and tailoring required for such looks, but lower class folks often had baggier hose.

• Beards- Beards were unfashionable for a long time in England, as Henry V chose to go beardless and EVERYONE wanted to be like Henry V. His son, Henry VI, his son’s successor, Edward IV, HIS successor, Richard III, and HIS successor, Henry VII allllll went beardless.
  However, Henry VIII brought the beard back into vogue during his reign. He was clean-shaven for the first two decades or so of his reign, but grew a beard after promising the French that he would not shave his beard until he met the King of France at the Field of Cloth of Gold; the King of France made the same vow (Fun story: Catherine of Aragon hated her husband’s beard enough that he eventually shaved it off, which caused something of a diplomatic debacle, until his French ambassador, a charming fellow named Thomas Boleyn, managed to persuade the French King’s mother that “Love is not in the beards, but in the hearts.”)
  Apparently even after the field of cloth of gold, Henry liked his beard enough to keep it, and sports it in his most famous portrait. It became fashionable again, and was VERY popular by the time of his daughter Elizabeth’s reign, during which Shakespeare lived. In fact, beards were cut in numerous different styles, which apparently were sometimes distinct enough for them to signify a specific profession (which must have been very useful for actors on stage - based on the styling of their beard, audiences could recognize them as a bishop, clown or what have you!). They were often styled with starch, which was a similarly popular fashion element for ruffs, which are discussed later in this post.

Romeo

Henry VIII. In case you didn’t know that.

I don’t know for sure, as I haven’t seen the show, but I believe this is Juliet’s dress when she finds Romeo’s dead body. At this point, her pink flower and color scheme match Romeo’s jacket.

Romeo (Jordan Luke Gage) - Believe it or not, Romeo’s outfit follows a lot of the same guidelines as Henry VIII’s outfit in his famous portrait. He’s got an undershirt, an overshirt, an overcoat, tightly fitting jeans resembling hose with zipper details that resemble garters and/or embroidery details, decorative (and detached) sleeves, ruffled shirt cuffs, and several necklaces and rings. He’s also sporting nice black boots with leggings tucked into them (that look BARELY used compared to most character’s very scuffed up shoes. I HAVE to figure out the meaning of these shoes - does it indicate life experience?).

He wears a pink shirt and his coat is covered in pink roses, probably representing his typically romantic worldview. His outfit also matches Juliet’s dress at the beginning. It looks like there’s writing on his jacket as well? This could be referring to his role as a play character.

• Undershirt/overshirt - I didn’t discuss this in my first post, really, but undershirts in Tudor times were really a practical solution to the difficulty of washing a lot of the finer clothes of the day. The thin shirt by your skin absorbed up most of your sweat and was significantly easier to launder.

• Detached sleeves - Detached sleeves that could be removed or attached by lacings to the body of a shirt or dress were common in both men and women’s garments, as it gave wearers options for changing up their style. The detached sleeve really began to develop in the 1480s and peaked around 1525 (according to “What People Wore When”).

• Garters - The zipper details on Romeo’s pants could be meant to resemble garters, which you can see in Henry VIII’s portrait at right. Garters were worn by men and women to hold up hose, as elastic hadn’t been invented yet. These could be made of leather, fabric, or ribbon and were often tied below the knee to support the hose. You can see Henry VIII’s garters in his portrait above.

• Embroidery - Since almost every young girl in Tudor Society was taught to work with a needle, and pretty much every noble lady could embroider, embroidery was very commonly seen in the clothing of nobles. You can see many different examples in the portraits I’ve shared throughout this post.
  There were sumptuary laws that restricted what color and type of clothing and trims could be worn by people of various ranks; embroidery was pretty much only allowed for nobles or knights (were the Montagues nobles in Romeo and Juliet? perhaps. But the actor playing Romeo in Elizabethan England sure wouldn’t have been). However, sumptuary laws were relaxed onstage, and actors could wear clothing that they’d be banned from wearing otherwise, as long as they were performing in a play at the time.

• Bling - Men wore just as much bling as women did in Tudor times! Here, you can see Romeo sporting a necklace and at least one ring, maybe more (it’s hard to see). In his portrait, you can see that Henry VIII is wearing at least two necklaces (the large one looks like his collar of office) and three rings, as well as jewels incorporated into this hat decoration, the buttons and decorations on his sleeves, and even in his knife’s scabbard. Records indicate that Henry VIII sometimes wore a ring on every finger.
  Although jewels in jewelry was generally confined to noble classes, as these were quite costly, lower classes still commonly wore jewelry made of glass, bone, or wood. Gold jewelry was apparently popular with all of the classes as well.

Lance

Charles IX of France, who reigned from 1560-1574. By François Clouet.

Lance, the King of France (David Bedella) - Lances’ outfit is actually very close to renaissance fashion except for the jeans. He’s sporting an under shirt, a blue doublet festooned with gold chains, and a heavily embroidered cape. His slim cut jeans closely resemble hose. His blue boots are totally glorious (and entirely unscuffed) and look like they’ve got some sort of delicate design over them.

It’s interesting that he and Angelique are the characters who sport the most Tudor fashions, and it looks like they might end up together in the end.

• Cloak/cape - Although overcoats were more popular in Henry VIII’s time, short capes that fell to the hips were fashionable in the later part of the 1500s. The cape (and shirt) that Lance wears in the musical resembles the one in the portrait of Charles IX I’ve included on the right, which is similarly festooned with intricate detailing. The one Lance is wearing is worn over the shoulder and held in place by the hand, serving both a practical and a fashionable purpose.

• Blue - Both Lance and Francois are wearing blue, which is a traditional symbol of France that’s been found in French flags and heraldry for centuries.

• Boots - In the renaissance, men and women wore similar flat shoes with rounded toes. The shoes were often made of silk, velvet, or leather. Duckbill shoes were pretty fashionable in Henry VIII’s time, as you can see in his portrait above, but were out of fashion by Elizabethan times and were back to narrow toes then.

Francois

Louis IX of France, who reigned from 1226-1270.

Francois, the Prince of France (Tim Mahendran) - Francois is wearing a short sleeved undershirt, a long robe covered in fleur-de-lis, and slim cut jeans which resemble hose. Everything is blue, naturally, because France.

• Fleur-de-lis - The flower symbol known as the fleur-de-lis, referring to the flowers growing by the Lys river in France, is very old, and has appeared in artwork dating back to ancient times. The fleur-de-lis was stamped on Gaulish coins from around 100-50 B.C. and has been used as a symbol by all the Christian Frankish kings.

• Long Robe - Francois’s fleur-de-lis covered blue vest looks like it was perhaps inspired by French ceremonial robes and fabrics worn by MANY monarchs (seriously, I found so many paintings of French monarchs wearing blue fabric covered with fleur-des-lis, although those were usually yellow, instead of Francois’ light blue); I thought this stained glass window of Louis IX had the most similar positioning of fleur des lis on the fabric to the & Juliet costume.
  This type of longer surcoat (outer tunic), which fits closely to the body, but has no defined waist, and goes down to the hips, was seen more in the early 15th century and wasn’t really very fashionable by Tudor times. In Henrican times, surcoats were much wider than this, and in Elizabethan times, they generally had a much more defined waist. That’s another reason I think this costume was really based off of depictions of French royal ceremonial wear, rather than portraits, which reflected modern fashion more often.

Imogen

Augustine

May

Imogen (Rhian Duncan) - Imogen wears clothes that are inspired by both female and male Tudor fashions. Her top clearly is based on a corset with stays, with an undershirt under it, and her pants are based on some of the baggier hose variations, with decorative lines down the front and studded designs.

I’ve noticed that the characters in &Juliet that are less likely to be nobles seem to wear much baggier pants than the royals. You can see this in nearly all the rest of the photos in this post.

• Boning/Stays - The supportive looking lines in Imogen’s top refer to boning within dresses and supportive stays. These aren’t overtly Tudor, as they’re generally associated with later time periods, and I unfortunately don’t have any painting references for this because they were explicitly /underwear/ and not something that would show up in art, but we do know that whalebone was used for support in women’s garments at least by the time of Elizabeth I’s death, as her effigy wore a corset containing whalebone.
  These diagonal lines on the costumes help evoke the ideal Tudor silhouette of a inverted triangular waist (see the portrait at right for an example. You can also see this in many portraits of Elizabeth I) without actually requiring the actor to wear such a body shaping garment.

• Studs - The metal studs in the pants resemble those seen in Brigandines, a type of historical armor. Brigandines are made of heavy cloth or leather with steel plates riveted to it, and are pretty distinctive, with visible metal studs on the front.

Augustine (Antoine Murray-Straughan) is wearing a quilted vest with baggy pants resembling hose.

• Quilted vest - Quilted cloth was actually commonly used by soldiers, either alone or under armor. One type of Medieval European armor called the jack of plates (or coat of plates) actually looked like a quilt, but had small iron plates sewn between layers of felt and canvas. Although jack of plates were used in Medieval times, they were worn through the 16th century.
  If you’ve read my Ladies in Waiting of Six post, you may notice that this garment sounds similar to the brigandine I described there. The main difference is that the plates in a brigandine were riveted into place between the cloth layers, rather than sewn, so metal studs were generally visible on the outside. A jack of plates has its metal bits sewn between cloth, so you’re not going to see metal on the outside of that.

May, Juliet’s non-binary friend (Arun Blair-Mangat) wears what looks like a single piece jumpsuit with a quilted design all over it and a leather belt over it. I’m pretty sure jumpsuits weren’t a thing back then, but the shapes of the clothing are very similar to some of the undershirts and baggy hose that I’ve talked about elsewhere in the post. This outfit is actually very similar to renaissance male clothing, but the color is a bit more feminine to modern eyes. It’s a very unusual color for Tudor times, as you usually don’t see purple clothes at all in paintings from back then (I looked. a lot), and definitely not this light lavender look. It’s so pretty!

It also looks like May’s wearing a flower/butterfly crown. Although you see flower crowns everywhere at renaissance festivals, I couldn’t find any in actual paintings from that time period. Flower crowns have such a long history in multiple cultures though, that I’d be surprised if they weren’t worn occasionally, probably by peasants for various festivals and such.

I don’t know much about non-binary/transgender people in Tudor times, but I do want to research it and write a blog post about it in the future!

• Belt - Both men and women commonly wore belts just as a practical element, as they could hang purses, knifes, or other useful items from them.

Henry

Kempe

Henry (Alex Tranter) - This costume features super tight pants with slashing like details on them, an um, emphasized crotch that might be a reference to a codpiece, a leather-ish cropped vest and belt with cool cross-hatching details, and ruffling around the neck that looks like it’s meant to resemble a ruff.

• Split Ruff- This looks a bit like the ruff in Robert Dudley’s portrait further up in the post, in the section on Shakespeare. The ruff began as an attached trimming to the high collar of a mid-16th century shirt or chemise (which looks to be the case here), but over time, developed into a separate accessory that could be worn with various different outfits. The discovery of starch in the 1560s really influenced the growth of ruffs, both in size and popularity. A large split ruff like the one in the portrait above became popular in the 1590s, when Elizabeth I was spotted wearing such looks. The ruff may also have been wired, to keep it standing up.

• Slashing- Slashes are slits of different lengths cut into a garment in a specific pattern, for decorative purposes. The style became popular in northern Europe around the end of the 15th century.

• Codpieces- As mentioned earlier, the codpiece was developed once doublet lengths went to above the waist, as the separate legs of men’s hose previously left a gap there that had to be covered. This started out as a very practical cloth covering but it become larger, more emphasized, and more decorated over time. Boning and padding was added and sometimes they were even large enough to hold money or jewels, which may have led to the saying “the family jewels.” You can see examples of them to the right and in the portrait of Henry VIII up earlier in the post. Their popularity may have also been influenced by the spread of syphilis; a codpiece allows for lots of room for bandages and ointments and such.
  The name, funnily enough, comes from the middle English for both “scrotum” and “bag.” They were very popular under Henry VIII but eventually declined in popularity under his daughter Elizabeth I.

Renaissance gentleman in armour, unknown, circle of Peter Pourbus

Kempe (Kieran Lai) - I haven’t seen the play so I don’t know a lot of the details, but this character’s name, at least, is clearly based off of Will Kempe, an English comic actor who worked with Shakespeare. He was fairly famous at the time and in 1600, actually morris danced from London to Norwich (~100 miles); this took him nine days spread out over a few weeks. This drawing on the right shows him performing this stunt. The character Kempe’s costume doesn’t seem to owe much to this historical drawing except perhaps in the structure of the pants, which are tight at the bottom and baggier at the top, allowing for free movement during dancing.

His studded vest has some of the jack of plate elements I was talking about earlier and his pants look inspired by baggy hose.

Benvolio

Sly

Benvolio (Kirstie Skiv) wears fingerless gloves, a hat, a spiky leather vest over a longer shirt, and sweat pants resembling hose.

• Hat - Historically, almost everyone would be wearing a hat or hair covering of some sort. You just had your hair covered most of the time, that’s just…what you did. Benvolio’s one of the only characters who has a hat.

• Gloves - Gloves were very popular among the rich in Tudor England, as they demonstrated that the wearers weren’t doing any manual work. They were shown in a lot of portraits and were often simply held by the sitters instead of being worn (you can see that in the portrait on the left below this text). Tudor England was really stinky, so gloves were often scented. In addition, this may be a stretch of a reference, but William Shakespeare’s father John Shakespeare WAS a glover, who made leather from animal hides and then into gloves.

Portrait of a Gentleman, Unknown

Portrait of a Gentleman of the English Court, by Hans Eworth

Henry IV, King of France, 1610, by France Pourbus the Younger

Sly (Ivan DeFreitas as Sly) wears super voluminous sleeves with ties in various places and super baggy pants that resemble baggy hose and/or trunkhose, with a belt.

• Princess Jasmine sleeves - This costume features poufy sleeves with various ties on them. I don’t know how to describe these sleeves except they kind of look like Princess Jasmine’s hair. Since I don’t know how to describe them, I can’t really google them and figure out what they’re called, but I DID find this portrait above in the middle showing a Tudor era gentleman with very similarly shaped sleeves.

• Poufy pants - Sly’s pants are so poufy that they almost look like the trunkhose that Juliet wears (see part 1 of this). As a reminder, those were voluminous breeches that usually ran from the waist to the middle of the thigh, and were worn with tight fitting hose under them.

Update: Six Alternates Won't Have Their Own Costumes on Broadway

All My Six Posts!
Over-Analyzing All the Historical References in Six- “Ex Wives,” “No Way,” “Don’t Lose Your Head” “Heart of Stone” “Haus of Holbein” “Get Down”
The Tudor Crown Inspiration in Six’s Logo; The Tudor Fashion Elements of the Costumes in Six (with Painting References)
Six the Musical Wives 1-3: Historical and Modern Costume Inspirations; Six the Musical Wives 4-6: Historical and Modern Costume Inspirations
The Ladies in Waiting of Six: Historical Inspirations and Costumes; Details from Six Costumer Gabriella Slade’s Instagram Takeover
The Early Costumes of Six the Musical: From Edinburgh to Cambridge to London
Updated Six the Musical Costumes for Broadway!; The Shoes of Six the Musical
The Alternate Costumes of Six the Musical; How the Six Alternates Change Their Styling for Each Queen
Virtual Dance Workshops and Q&As with Different Six Cast Members!

UPDATED MARCH 12, 2020 WITH MORE INFO AND PICTURES

The Six fandom has been buzzing over the last week about the Broadway alternates’ costumes, as both Mallory Maedke and Nicole Kyoung-Mi Lambert took the stage in old versions of the regular costumes rather than the previous alternate costumes they wore in Chicago. There was speculation that the alternates were getting new costumes that just weren’t ready yet (as the show is technically still in previews; opening isn’t officially until March 12, 2020).

Mallory Maedke going on as Jane Seymour and Nicole Kyoung-Mi Lambert going on as Catherine of Aragon. Both of these costumes are older ones that don’t feature the peplums that were added for Broadway.

Nicole Kyoung-Mi Lambert going on as Catherine of Aragon

However, Lambert has now officially confirmed in the comments on Instagram that there won’t be any more alternate costumes on Broadway, for unspecified reasons. (MANY THANKS to Katie Proctor of the Six: The Musical (Fan Group) on Facebook for capturing and sharing this interaction).

This is really sad to hear, the Queendom really loved the alternate costumes. It really seemed to be one of the big aspects setting the Six musical franchise apart from other shows; traditionally, alternates wear the same costumes as the main characters in the musical, but the special costumes really made them stand out in an exciting and unique way. I really don’t know anything about Broadway equity and/or union rules, but I’ll be looking into this a bit more this week to try to find the exact reason why this isn’t allowed. This seems to be just another thing on Broadway that’s different from the other shows (as I previously mentioned, filming and photography technically isn’t allowed during the Broadway Megasix, although it doesn’t look like the ushers or show have been enforcing that too hard).

It does seem like all the other shows will be continuing to use the special alternate costumes though, so those can still be seen in the 5 OTHER SHOWS running right now: in the West End in London, on the UK/Ireland Tour, on the Australia/New Zealand tour, and on two cruise ships: Norwegian Bliss and Norwegian Breakaway. Additional Performances will go up on the Norwegian Getaway in April and in Chicago and Wellington, Australia in July.

UPDATED MARCH 12

We actually saw an alternate costume on Broadway, as Nicole wore her old one when went on as Catherine Parr, as her new costume presumably isn’t ready yet and the older ones don’t fit her. It is Very similar to the usual Parr though, just with a different color blue and different sleeves.

Courtney Mack going on as Anne Boleyn (in an older costume, as the updated for broadway version features silver beading around each black epaulet) and Nicole Kyoung-Mi Lambert going on as Catherine Parr, wearing her old alternate costume (presumably because her new Catherine parr costume isn’t ready yet).

Nicole Kyoung-Mi Lambert going on as Anna of Cleves in an old costume (the old version has a crop top, while the new version doesn’t) and Courtney Mack going on as Katherine Howard in an updated for Australia/Broadway costume (visible in the check pattern fabric outline on the skirt)

& Juliet Historical Costume Influences: Part I

& Juliet is a 2019 musical now up in the West End in London that starts off at the end of Romeo & Juliet. Instead of killing herself, Juliet survives, and runs off to Paris with some friends to avoid being sent to a convent by her parents. Shenanigans ensue. There’s also a frame story about William Shakespeare and his wife, Anne Hathaway (no, not that one) arguing over how to plot out the story. All the songs in the musical are by Max Martin and were previously big pop hits; think “I Want it That Way,” “…One More Time",” “It’s Gonna Be Me, “Blow,” and other songs by Backstreet Boys, Britney Spears, NSync, and other artists.

Credit: Johan Persson

I’m not SUPER familiar with the musical, but I’ve listened to a bit of the soundtrack, have read through the WIkipedia page, and have seen some awesome photos of the costumes, which mash up renaissance and modern elements. So of course, I want to go through and analyze some of the costume elements through the lens of Tudor history. I’m not going to go AS in depth with these costumes as I previously have with Six, because & Juliet has WAY more than six characters and plenty of those characters seem to have several costumes. I’m also sure I won’t be able to get all the costumes, so I’m honestly not going to fuss about it too much.

Although Romeo and Juliet technically takes place in Italy, and most of this musical takes place in France, the costumes seem to be far more English renaissance inspired; there were a lot of similarities in renaissance dress in these three countries, but also some pretty striking differences.

Because there are so many characters and SO many costumes in this show, I’ve had to divide up this post into two to make it more manageable. :) Part two should come out next week, and will focus more on men’s costumes, although a few women and an awesome nonbinary character will also be covered.

(FYI: A fair amount of the explanation of the different elements is borrowed from my previous post on the Tudor fashion elements of the costumes in Six the Musical. )

Juliet from &Juliet (Credit: Michael Wharley)

Portrait of Queen Elizabeth I, 1598. Artist Unknown.

Juliet (Miriam-Teak Lee)- As the main character, Juliet has numerous costumes, but at least in the few I’m seeing here, it seems like she usually wears tops that resemble corsets, with the stiffness and lines of boning and/or stays evident, but without lacing. She also sports a lot of wide square necklines, long sleeves, and a fair amount of bling, in the form of necklaces and bracelets. Of interest: the white jacket she wears at the end of the show has little cross hatching and beading details on it that actually somewhat resemble Elizabeth I’s sleeves in the portrait I’ve included above.

Several of her skirts are very poufy, resembling both the volume of Tudor skirts. Her blue outfit also features big poufy pants, which are similar to some men’s styles of the time. It looks like she’s wearing similar pants in the photograph at the top of this post, only in pink, but I couldn’t find any close up pictures of this costume to confirm it.

It looks like almost all the shoes used in the musical are very deliberately worn and a little ragged around the edges, with a few specific exceptions. I wonder what the meaning of that is.

Understudy Grace Mouat on as Juliet

A great farthingale. Elizabeth I, "The Ditchley Portrait", c.1592. By Marcus Gheeraerts the Younger

Spanish farthingales. Retable of St. John the Baptist, ~1470-1480, by Pedro García de Benabarre.

Details of paintings from (starting top left, going clockwise): Anne of Cleves, Jane Seymour, Catherine Howard, Elizabeth I, Mary I, and Catherine Parr.

• Poufy Skirts - The voluminous skirts Juliet wears in her pink and white outfits seem inspired by Tudor skirts, which were of a decent size. Tudor skirts weren’t even close to the biggest skirts in history (that honor belongs to the French court dresses of the 1760s-70s-ish, which often featured panniers, structured undergarments which stretched the skirts out horizontally by several feet) but they were still rather large at times! That’s generally due to the farthingale, but bum rolls contributed a bit as well (I’ll talk about bum rolls later in this post).
  Catherine of Aragon brought the Spanish farthingale (hoop skirt) fashion into England when she married Prince Arthur (Henry VIII’s older brother, who died less than a year into their marriage). These early farthingales were usually made with wood; the name actually derives from the Spanish word verdugo, which means “green wood.” French farthingales, which started showing up in England in the 1520s, possibly due to Anne Boleyn’s influence on fashion, were often stuffed with cotton and stiffened with hoops of wood, reed, or whalebone. Although we know the materials that made up these undergarments, as tailor’s receipts and such have survived, we don’t know exactly what they look like, because, as an undergarment, they weren’t visible in paintings (boudoir art that showed women in their underwear wouldn’t be culturally acceptable in England for a LONG time).
  Later, by the time of Elizabeth I, these French farthingales became “great farthingales,” which ballooned the skirts out all around. You can see that in the portrait of Queen Elizabeth in the previous section. The classic Tudor silhouette you see in portraits, showing an inverted triangle waist dropping down into a voluminous skirt, is created by farthingales.

• Wide square necklines - Wide and low cut square necklines were very big in women’s fashion under Henry VIII, from about 1500-1550.

• Bling- In Tudor times, noble ladies would often wear lots of rings, bracelets, and several necklaces. You can see this in their portraits.

• Sleeves - All Tudor women would have worn long sleeves coming down at least to the wrist, and sometimes below that. These often were very voluminous at the top.

Credit: Johan Persson

Henry IV, King of France, by Frans Pourbus the Younger

Elizabeth I’s effigy corset and examples of boning in modern recreations

• Boning/Stays - The supportive looking lines in Juliet’s blue top refer to boning within dresses and supportive stays. These aren’t overtly Tudor, as they’re generally associated with later time periods, and I unfortunately don’t have any painting references for this because they were explicitly /underwear/ and not something that would show up in art, but we do know that whalebone was used for support in women’s garments at least by the time of Elizabeth I’s death, as her effigy wore a corset containing whalebone. I’ve included a picture of the effigy corset and a few pictures of historical reproduction corsets so you can see what I mean.

• Poufy pants - These are actually called trunkhose. They were voluminous breeches that usually ran from the waist to the middle of the thigh, and were worn with tight fitting hose under them. They were worn by men in the 16th and 17th centuries. They kind of look like onions, right?
  I’m trying to pin down more information about when exactly men started wearing trunkhose and why (if there is ever a reason for fashion), but unfortunately, I’ve found it’s much more difficult to find information on men’s renaissance fashion than women’s (see: reasons I’m putting off the second post of this series until next week).

Anne Hathaway (Credit: Michael Wharely)

A 1708 drawing that purportedly shows Anne Hathaway, William Shakespeare’s wife.

Anne Hathaway (Cassidy Janson) - This outfit features cross-lacing, a corset style top that appears to have the stiffness and structure of boning/stays, a wide, square neckline, and a belt at the waist, all elements commonly seen in noble lady fashions during Henry’s reign.

Charles Brandon, Duke of Suffolk

The vest is interesting. In terms of Tudor fashion, it most resembles an overcoat, which was normally worn by men (see the portrait of Charles Brandon to the right), and is covered with gorgeous colorful embroidery. I’m guessing this refers to her role in the play, in which she takes some of the story-telling power away from her husband.

I’ve included a purported portrait of the historical Anne Hathaway for reference, but it’s basically just her face and a ruff. I don’t think there’s much inspiration to be found here.

Cross lacing detail from a portrait

• Cross-Lacing - The “corset” top here is cross-laced, looking like a shoelace tie. This is pretty much what you see at every renaissance faire. In reality though, Tudor gowns were generally spiral laced or ladder laced rather than cross laced (Xes) You can see what I mean in the collection of painting references; all of these show spiral lacing or ladder lacing except for one Italian painting, which shows Xes which are almost certainly more decorative than practical. The other forms of lacing are simply more supportive and adjustable, which is the entire idea behind having lacings in an outfit anyway, after all.

• Embroidery - Since almost every young girl was taught to work with a needle, and pretty much every noble lady could embroider, embroidery was very commonly seen in the clothing of nobles. You can see many different examples in the portraits I’ve shared throughout this post.

  There were sumptuary laws that restricted what color and type of clothing and trims could be worn by people of various ranks; embroidery was pretty much only allowed for nobles or knights, so it’s questionable whether the historical Anne Hathaway would have been allowed to wear embroidery, as Shakespeare was neither a nobleman nor a knight. However, sumptuary laws were relaxed onstage, and actors could wear clothing that they’d be banned from wearing otherwise, as long as they were performing in a play at the time.

Angelique (Credit: Michael Wharely)

Peasants dancing

Angelique, Juliet’s nurse (Melanie La Barrie) - This honestly looks like the most renaissance costume in the show, complete with a fanny pack resembling a belt and purse and a hair covering. This is a very standard outfit for a female peasant, featuring a woolen undershirt, and a matching skirt and corset style top (with more of that cross lacing). In actuality, the entire orange layer would probably be a single dress, known as a kirtle, which commonly featured square-necks and came down to the ankles.

Details from portraits, showing the gable hood of Catherine of Aragon, the French hood of Anne Boleyn, and Catherine Parr’s feathered hat.

• Belt and Purse - The fanny pack is a wonderful little touch, as people generally did wear purses on their belts.

• Hair Covering - Angelique also is sporting a hair covering here; historically, almost everyone would be wearing a hat or hair covering of some sort (ignore the hair in The Tudors and The White Queen y'all, it's just...hilariously wrong). Famous hats included the Gable hood (seen on Catherine of Aragon and Jane Seymour) and the French hood (popularized by Anne Boleyn and seen in her portrait and in Katherine Howard's supposed portrait). Women even started wearing male hat styles at times, as seen in Catherine Parr’s portrait.

Elisabeth of Austria by Francois Clouet, ca. 1571

Portrait of a Woman, anonymous, 1525-1549

Judith (Grace Mouat)- This costume features numerous Tudor costume elements, including a ruff, white cross hatched sleeves, a double layered skirt rendered in rich orange and reddish orange colors and decorated with copious embroidery, and cross lacing in her leg warmers. I found the Elisabeth of Austria portrait above to demonstrate the sleeves but wow, this costume might actually be totally inspired by it? The color scheme and collar set up is very similar. The anonymous portrait below demonstrates a mesh look more clearly though.

• Ruffs - Neck ruffs like this ARE Tudor and specifically, Elizabethan (as opposed to the previously discussed square necklines, which were very Henrican). You didn’t really see them until the 1560s. Keep in mind: Henry VIII died in 1547, his son Edward VI ruled from 1547-1553, his daughter Mary I ruled from 1553-1558, and his younger daughter Elizabeth I ruled from 1558-1603; William Shakespeare lived from 1564-1616 and was active as a playwright probably from the mid-1580s to 1613.
  Ruffs were made of fabric, usually cambric but sometimes lace (particularly if you were rich) and were later stiffened with starch imported from continental Europe (think around the Netherlands). They were separate pieces so you could wear a ruff with multiple different outfits, and specifically over the high necklines common to Elizabeth I’s reign. They started out pretty small, but once starch was discovered, ruffs became larger and larger, sometimes up to a foot wide. Really big ruffs had a wire frame to support them.
  Fun fact: Apparently ruffs are still part of the ceremonial garments for the Church of Denmark!

• Double layer skirt - There were lots of layers to women’s garments at this time and often, an over dress, shirt, and skirt were all visible.

Lucy

Katherine Parr, ~1545, by Master John.

Nell

From left, going clockwise: details of paintings of Catherine Parr , Mary I, another of Catherine Parr, and Princess Elizabeth.

Lucy (Danielle Fiamanya) - This costume includes split skirts worn with a bum roll, boning/stay type elements in the top, and a tied ribbon choker necklace.

• Bum Roll - Roll farthingales, or “bum rolls” were padded rolls covered in cotton fabric. They sometimes included wiring. The roll would be placed around the hips and under the kirtle. The one shown in Lucy’s costume appears to be a demi-roll, since it is clearly defined under the skirt but doesn’t completely encircle the body.

Nell (Jocasta Almgill) - This outfit is so fun. Tudor elements include her hair covering (which vaguely resembles a French hood in shape), the boning/stays, the splitskirt layered over denim shorts, and stockings. I can’t quite tell, but it looks like the t-shirt over the outfit has some sort of writing on it? Does anyone know what this is?

• Split skirts - Nell’s and Lucy’s costumes both evoke the look of a classic Tudor dress under Henry VIII, in which a kirtle (underdress) was layered under a contrasting overdress. You can see this demonstrated at right, which includes details from portraits of Mary I, Princess Elizabeth.

Susanna

Anne Boleyn, late 16th century, based on a ~1533-1536 work, by an Unknown English artist.

From left, going clockwise: details of paintings of a young Catherine of Aragon, Jane Seymour, Catherine Howard, and Anne of Cleves.

Susanna (Kerrin Orville) - Here you’ve got boning/stay elements, a top that vaguely looks like an overdress, a belt, layers of a skirt over shorts, a wide square neckline, and a choker necklace.

• Chokers - Chokers were super popular in renaissance times! You can see several examples in portraits I’ve shared throughout this post. Even the famous “B” necklace from Anne Boleyn’s portrait is a choker.

I don’t have the time to analyze every single costume in the show, and since I haven’t seen the show and don’t have plans to go to London any time soon, I don’t have any way to check if I found all the costumes or not. But I’ve put together a gallery from various photos I can find on Instagram of other costumes anyway; look at how gorgeous they are!

I Saw Six on Broadway!

All My Six Posts!
Over-Analyzing All the Historical References in Six- “Ex Wives,” “No Way,” “Don’t Lose Your Head” “Heart of Stone” “Haus of Holbein” “Get Down”
The Tudor Crown Inspiration in Six’s Logo; The Tudor Fashion Elements of the Costumes in Six (with Painting References)
Six the Musical Wives 1-3: Historical and Modern Costume Inspirations; Six the Musical Wives 4-6: Historical and Modern Costume Inspirations
The Ladies in Waiting of Six: Historical Inspirations and Costumes; Details from Six Costumer Gabriella Slade’s Instagram Takeover
The Early Costumes of Six the Musical: From Edinburgh to Cambridge to London
Updated Six the Musical Costumes for Broadway!; The Shoes of Six the Musical
The Alternate Costumes of Six the Musical; How the Six Alternates Change Their Styling for Each Queen
Virtual Dance Workshops and Q&As with Different Six Cast Members!

Here are some of my scattered initial observations and thoughts on finally seeing Six, which i will clean up and organize and format more formally later (the square space app is buggy when it comes to formatting with bullets and photos) when I’m less tired and less sick (yayyy having a cold).

Me with my friends Arielle, Hannah, and Sarah, about to go see Six!

• I loosely dressed up as Historical Anne Boleyn for the show, wearing a square necked black blouse, black skirt and leggings, and a replica “B” necklace. I paid homage to the show version by putting my hair in space buns and wearing sparkly green eyeshadow and red lipstick. There were LOTS of people there with space buns, haha.

• My friends and I bought Disney Princess crowns at the Times Square Disney store before the show and wore them for several hours and it was SO much fun. People repeatedly assumed we were a bachelorette party or that one of us was celebrating a birthday. I went in as the obsessed fan with my friends Sarah (who had listened to the soundtrack previously) , and Arielle and Hannah (who both deliberately went in blind). It was utterly delightful to watch their faces as they discovered this show and all the wonderful wordplay throughout it.

• Before the show, “Joan” on the keyboard was playing covers of modern pop songs on the harpsichord setting, so it sounded all old school. I distinctly heard Lizzo’s “Truth Hurts” and Camilla Cabello’s “Havana” and there were many others in there as well that I couldn’t figure out.

• The Brooks Atkinson Theater is GORGEOUS and super colorfully decorated.

• The line to get into the matinee for people who already had tickets literally wrapped around the block, so my friends and I used the opportunity to grab a quick bite to eat at Pret a Manger and use the restroom there before jumping in the (now moving) line at like, 2:45 for the 3 pm show. We didn’t see any benefit to standing outside in the cold waiting for a super long time. This ended up working really well and has the bonus of being an Anne Boleyn line!

• Right before the show started, they flashed lights in the shapes of Tudor roses all around the auditorium!

• Jane Seymour gave me MAJOR Celine Dion vibes, and this actress had a slightly different twist on it than the soundtrack. She did her high whistly notes earlier in the song rather than at the end. 

• it sounds like the actresses are all using American accents except where the rhyme NEEDS a British accent.

• like, this is obvious, but The choreography and acting add SOOO much to the songs. “Get Down” was absolutely brilliant and in person, it’s really obvious how idiotic Henry’s excuse is and how hot she KNOWS she is. I actually didn’t know that Cleves strips off her outer layer (with the help of the other queens pulling on either side of her costume) during her song until last week and that is just SUCH a show stopping move; it’s totally something Rihanna (Cleves’ main pop inspiration) would do as well. I also suddenly understand why the alternates have to wear such a specific Cleves jacket/costume when they play her- hook and loop fasteners! (Aka Velcro, a registered trademarks) 

• Cleves got funnier and funnier as the show went on. My favorite line is probably “guys. I have the plague. Lol, just kidding, my life is amazing!”

• “All you want to do” was so affecting, I was sobbing by the end. It’s such a compassionate and human portrayal of Katherine Howard, who I think is often just put down as a cheater or a silly girl. No, she was a young teenager who was abused by men throughout her life and neglected and exploited by the people that were supposed to protect her. The choreography in that is really beautiful, how more and more of the other queens touch Katherine Howard’s shoulders in more and more invasive ways as she gets more and more despondent and dances less and less energetically until she’s left alone on the stage at the end, hunched over in despair and almost crying. 

• When Catherine Parr is pointing out at the end that the only reason everyone knows Henry VIII is BECAUSE of his six wives, she asked who the wives of Henry VII, Henry VI, and Henry V were. I was delighted and like quietly raised my hand, hah. all my friends laughed at least.

• also Howard coming out and just nonchalantly saying “Catherine of Valois” was amazing. I liked Boleyn’s complicated feminist sum up as well, but in the context, I felt that it made her character seem like she had the same level of education/intelligence/maturity as Howard, when in fact, Boleyn was really highly educated and Howard was fairly poorly educated for a noble girl, considering that she was pretty much pawned off on neglectful relatives most of her life.

Me and Sarah at Brooks Atkinson Theater

Arielle and Hannah at Brooks Atkinson Theater

• That observation feeds into my next thought . Everyone who said that my thoughts on the portrayal of Anne Boleyn would change when I saw the show was wrong. She’s a fun character, but she’s portrayed as a huge self involved ditz who just wants to party, when in real life, she was actually an extremely well educated and accomplished woman who influenced religion and politics more than probably any other queen did. I think of her the same way I think of Shakespeare’s Richard III- I love the play and I love the character but I recognize that it’s a totally inaccurate portrayal of the historical figure, who i also love for completely different reasons. 

• they actually pack in a LOT of history into this play, like during Boleyn and Aragon’s argument over mistresses and miscarriages and who had it worse. Plus I love a casual Thomas Cromwell name drop.

• You can really see the colorful Swarovski crystals on the boots in the lights! It’s subtle but visible if you look for it. 

• Cleves’ new thigh high boots are AMAZINGGGG.

• I tried to check if the lighting matched each character’s main costume color; it seemed like yes, it mostly did, but I didn’t check on all of them. 

• The lighting at the end of “Don’t Lose Your Head” fades out to just a direct spot on Anne Boleyn’s head and like, surrounding pink lights. It was very effective. 

• The “10 amongst these 3s” pin sold at the merch table has an incorrect apostrophe in between the “3” and the “s” and it drives me madddddd. PLEASE FIX THAT. 

• j loved that Catherine of Aragon started her song by calling for Maria on the drums to start her off; “Maria” is named for the historical Catherine of Aragon’s lady in waiting and lifelong friend, Maria de Salinas, so it’s totally fitting that they join together on that. 

• The whole musical is such a girl power piece, but it also realistically talks about the fact that these women wouldn’t be known without history and how little agency they had in their own lives. The only other musicals I’ve seen that are that self aware and self reflective of their own characters’ legacies are Hamilton and Assassins. 

Updated Six the Musical Costumes for Broadway!

All My Six Posts!
Over-Analyzing All the Historical References in Six- “Ex Wives,” “No Way,” “Don’t Lose Your Head” “Heart of Stone” “Haus of Holbein” “Get Down”
The Tudor Crown Inspiration in Six’s Logo; The Tudor Fashion Elements of the Costumes in Six (with Painting References)
Six the Musical Wives 1-3: Historical and Modern Costume Inspirations; Six the Musical Wives 4-6: Historical and Modern Costume Inspirations
The Ladies in Waiting of Six: Historical Inspirations and Costumes; Details from Six Costumer Gabriella Slade’s Instagram Takeover
The Early Costumes of Six the Musical: From Edinburgh to Cambridge to London
Updated Six the Musical Costumes for Broadway!; The Shoes of Six the Musical
The Alternate Costumes of Six the Musical; How the Six Alternates Change Their Styling for Each Queen
Virtual Dance Workshops and Q&As with Different Six Cast Members!

UPDATED 03/17/2020 WITH OFFICIAL BROADWAY PHOTOS.
Also, now with original costumes in a before and after format to make the changes extra apparent!

It looks like the changes I already chronicled in the Cleves costume and Howard costume for the Australia cast were also made for the Broadway cast, but there are lots of other changes as well.

Here’s the Broadway stage door for reference of what the costumes looked like before the show opened. Cleves’s and Howard’s costumes in the stage show definitely do not look the same as they do here. The others look very similar, but there are some details changed in each look.

The Broadway costumes! Photo thanks to @Tschusko on Instagram.

Jarnéia Richard-Noel in the West End, By Eleanor Howarth

Adrianna Hicks on Broadway, By Joan Marcus/Kelly Taub

Aragon: The inverted chevrons on Aragon’s top have been changed to black and gold checks. These checks also show up in her skirt, where it replaces the gold stripe section, which also sports a new peplum layer The sleeves are different, with bigger puffs at top and black fishnet over gold bottoms that look an awful lot like Seymour’s sleeves.

• peplum- a short flared, gathered, or pleated strip of fabric attached at the waist of a woman's jacket, dress, or blouse to create a hanging frill or flounce

Millie O’Connell, who originated the Boleyn role on the West End, Unknown photographer

Andrea Macasaet on Broadway, by Joan Marcus/Kelly Taub

by Joan Marcus/Kelly Taub

Boleyn: Boleyn’s costume looks almost the same, but she’s got more silver studs at the bottom and top of her skirt and defining each black grid and epaulette on her top

Natalie Paris in the West End (Photographer Unknown)

Abby Muller on Broadway, by Joan Marcus/Kelly Taub

Seymour: Hey, Seymour got a peplum too! Everyone gets peplums now! Her peplum is white with black lines, visually extending her top rather than sitting on her skirt like Aragon’s or on Parr’s pants. Her top also has more diagonal black stripes on the side now, instead of the just plain vertical ones she had before.

The original-ish West End costume. There actually was a black version that was phased out a long time ago. Alexia McIntosh in the West End, Unknown Photographer

Brittney Mack on Broadway, by Joan Marcus/Kelly Taub

New Cleves Earrings for Broadway! by Joan Marcus/Kelly Taub

Cleves:
Cleves’ jacket is pretty much the same it’s been in other casts except for some added epaulettes and perhaps some added sleeve length and overall length, but UNDERNEATH the jacket. Damn girl.

The black crop top with red trimming has been replaced with a MAGNIFENT red top (longer than her previous crop top with lots of silver studding, a mini faux black corset, lots of silver chains draping everywhere, and magnificent sleeves made up of gridded silver studded red leather strips. I wish I had a picture of this so badly, as it doesn’t show up as much under her jacket, but when she strips in her song, it’s super visible and AMAZING.

She also gets to wear some friggin amazing thigh high black boots covered in gorgeous silver studs.

Katherine Howard (Aimie Atkinson), Photo by Idil Sukan.

Joan Marcus/Kelly Taub

Howard: Howard’s Broadway costume looks identical to the updated Australia costume but with only one X across the neckline rather than two. From my post on that: “It looks like the same black striped mesh fabric is in use all over both the West End and the Australia outfits, but the pink fabric has changed up a bit. In addition to the original sheer pink fabric used on the skirt, there's now a slightly less sheer pink fabric with black hatching on it; the skirt's panels alter between sheer and sheer with hatching and there's now a bottom border of the sheer with hatching fabric. There's also more silver beading throughout the skirt. This fabric with hatching is also incorporated into the alternating style panels on the bodice and on the bodice's top sleeves. It also looks like the hatching fabric may be used on the back of the bodice as well.”

Danielle Steer in the West End. (Production photo)

Joan Marcus/Kelly Taub

Parr: Her sleeves look fuller and rounder, and now she has a blue and black peplum with silver studs. Her belt is more heavily studded. It also looks like her pants are made with a totally different black fabric, with a cool print visible on it.

Both pants actually have the same lacing and silver studs on the side, but I couldn’t find a good photo from the west end that shows the entire current costume AND the lacings visible.

Accessory Changes:

It looks like all the Queens are now wearing SPARKLY fish nets (except Parr, who wears pants). Previously, it looked like they just wore sheer black hose. The sparkles are hard to see in photographs, but they’re super visible in person! You can probably see them best in the Cleves broadway photo above.

All of the Queens now have large earrings with the Roman numeral version of their “order” in the wives!

All Broadway Cast Accessories:

Aragon:

• Sparkly spiked gold hoops with a roman numeral “I” in the center

• Large gold spikes on a leather headband

• Lots of piled up gold chain necklaces.
  

Boleyn:

• Silver spiked hooks with “II” in the center

• Leather cuffs with spikes around her “space buns”

• Green sparkly “B” necklace
  

  Seymour:

• Silver hoops with “III” in the center, no spikes (I can’t tell if the earrings are sparkly or just made of tiny silver circles like Cleves)

• White headband with small silver spikes

• It looks like she’s wearing a silver chain necklace, but that appears to be part of her costume
  

  Cleves:

• Large silver “IV”s made of tiny little silver circles

• Silver spikes arranged lengthwise on her head on either side of her hairdo (which is this gorgeous braid twist bun thing I can’t properly describe)
  

  Howard:

• Silver hoops with a big sparkly pink “V”

• Leather cuff with spikes around ponytail with pink ends; “K” necklace
  

  Parr:

• Big silver hoops with sparkly black “VI”

• Silver spikes along her part line in a vaguely mohawk style

I saw the show on February 22 and it was BRILLIANT. I got some photos but honestly, they weren’t very good quality. You’re welcome to go see them at www.instagram.com/rachaeldickzen.

The Ladies in Waiting of Six: Historical Inspirations and Costumes

All My Six Posts!
Over-Analyzing All the Historical References in Six- “Ex Wives,” “No Way,” “Don’t Lose Your Head” “Heart of Stone” “Haus of Holbein” “Get Down”
The Tudor Crown Inspiration in Six’s Logo; The Tudor Fashion Elements of the Costumes in Six (with Painting References)
Six the Musical Wives 1-3: Historical and Modern Costume Inspirations; Six the Musical Wives 4-6: Historical and Modern Costume Inspirations
The Ladies in Waiting of Six: Historical Inspirations and Costumes; Details from Six Costumer Gabriella Slade’s Instagram Takeover
The Early Costumes of Six the Musical: From Edinburgh to Cambridge to London
Updated Six the Musical Costumes for Broadway!; The Shoes of Six the Musical
The Alternate Costumes of Six the Musical; How the Six Alternates Change Their Styling for Each Queen
Virtual Dance Workshops and Q&As with Different Six Cast Members!

One of the coolest things I’ve learned about Six is that not only is the entire CAST of each show all female, the backing band is all female too! Each musician is named for a real lady in waiting to one of the queens of Henry VIII. The only queen who doesn’t have a historical lady in waiting represented in the band is Catherine Parr.

First off, what’s a lady in waiting anyway? Each royal lady of the Tudor court were served by numerous attendants and servants. Although most members of a Queen’s household would be male, those who served her personally or kept her company were always women.

Painting from History Extra

The Ladies in Waiting of Six, West End cast.

In Tudor times, the Queen would basically never be alone; she must always be accompanied by noble ladies, day and night. Even at night, if the Queen wasn’t actually spending the night with the King (royal couples kept separate bedrooms in those days), she would likely have someone sleeping in the bed next to her.

Ladies-in-waiting (also known as “ladies-of-honor”) were married noble women who held the highest rank in the Queen’s household. These women often were married to the King’s own personal attendants. These ladies accompanied the Queen both privately and in public, at various ceremonial or casual occasions. They were all expected to be excellent dancers, singers, musicians, and needed to be proficient at whatever other games or past times the Queen was interested in. Although the Queen might choose her own ladies, often times, the King actually chose them, as a favor to a friend or because of his own interest in the woman. They spent long periods at court and were expected to put their positions before their own families.

Next in rank were the maids-of-honor, who were unmarried well-born women, generally young girls age 16 or older. It was a great honor to be asked to serve the Queen or Princess in such a fashion. It was very common practice for nobles to send their children off to work at another family’s home for a few years as an attendant of some sort to teach them the skills they’d need to run their own households and move up in the world. Positions at the royal court were greatly coveted; there, nobles’ daughters could meet many powerful people and make good marriages.

Maids-of-honor were expected to be beautiful, accomplished, and highly virtuous, as while they were at court away from their families, the queen acted in loco parentis; any scandal attached to a maid-of-honor would reflect poorly on their mistress.

Photo by Melissa Jo York Tilley, from when I myself played a maid of honor at the Maryland Renaissance Festival in 2011!

Elizabeth I, Francis Drake, and some of her court.
Jean-Leon Huens—National Geographic/Heritage-Images

Henry VIII ended up marrying three of his former queens’ maids-of-honor – Anne Boleyn, who served Catherine of Aragon, Jane Seymour, who served Anne Boleyn, and Catherine Howard, who served Anna of Cleves. This was actually very unusual for the time; kings were expected to marry for advantage, to cement powerful alliances or to achieve other goals that would serve the good of the country. Henry VII married Elizabeth of York to help bring about the end of the Wars of the Roses; Henry VI and his father Henry V both married French princesses as part of peace treaties with various entities in efforts to try to end the 100 Years’ War. Henry VIII’s first wife, Catherine of Aragon, was a rich Spanish princess and the daughter of two powerful monarchs – Isabella of Castille and Ferdinand of Aragon; she brought legitimacy to the Tudor dynasty as Henry VII (whose claim to the English crown was pretty weak, actually) worked to fight off pretenders to his throne.

The Banquet of Henry VIII in York Place (Whitehall Palace), 1832,
by James Stephanoff

The ladies-in-waiting and maids-of-honor assisted the Queen in her daily tasks, helping dress her in the layered clothing of the period and lacing her into her dresses. They washed and bathed her and even assisted her with using the privy (yup. That was a thing. And it was actually a very sought after position). The Queen and her ladies often sewed, read, or danced together.

Each Queen had different preferences for their ladies. Catherine of Aragon was known for reading devotionals to hers. Anne Boleyn gave her ladies little books of prayers and psalms to carry with them always, and had them sew garments for the poor. Jane Seymour had strict rules as to her ladies’ garments; trains had to be so long and different parts of clothes had to have a specific number of pearls embroidered on them. 

I’ve noticed before that historical dramas always seem to have fewer attendants around the Kings and Queens then would have been there in reality; if the real numbers were represented, it would probably be a bit overwhelming to modern eyes, as we just have very different standards of privacy and necessity. During Henry VIII’s time, there were usually 6-8 “great ladies of the household” serving the Queen at any time, and Catherine of Aragon had 30 maids-of-honor, while Anne Boleyn had 60! After Henry started living separately from Catherine of Aragon, she actually had around 250 maids-of-honor, as he didn’t want to be accused of treating her poorly (at that time, anyway)! Although I’m sure they likely served the queen in different shifts, that’s still a huge amount of women who served the queen throughout the week. Can you even imagine?  

Maria de Salinas, by an unknown artist (lady in waiting to Catherine of Aragon)

Catherine Willoughby, Maria de Salinas’s daughter, by Hans Holbein the younger.

Maria - María de Salinas, known as Baroness Willoughby after her marriage (maid-of-honor and lady-in-waiting to Catherine of Aragon) – Drums

Maria de Salinas actually came with Catherine of Aragon from Spain and served her as a maid-of-honor until 1516, when she married an English nobleman named William Willoughby (and became a lady-in-waiting to Catherine). She was devoted to Catherine; although she was ordered to leave Catherine and stop communicating with her after Catherine’s marriage to Henry VIII was annulled, she begged permission to visit her later. In the final days of Catherine of Aragon’s life, Maria simply disobeyed all orders to avoid her and forced her way into the castle where her beloved mistress lived; Catherine died in Maria’s arms two days later.

Maria’s daughter, Katherine Willoughby, became a ward of Henry VIII’s buddy Charles Brandon after Baron Willoughby’s death; Brandon ended up marrying her after his third wife (Henry VIII’s sister, Princess Mary Tudor, the dowager Queen of France) died. They married when Katherine was 14 and Charles was likely 49 (eww), but by all reports had a pretty happy marriage. Katherine was actually friggin awesome and I’d love to see more portrayals of her in media; she apparently named her dog Gardiner after a bishop she detested, because it amused her to call “Gardiner” to heel. Her name was floated as a possible seventh wife for Henry VIII at a time when he was considering placing Catherine Parr aside, although of course, that never went anywhere. She was also named the guardian of Parr’s child with Thomas Seymour after the death of both of her parents (it’s not known what happened to this child, but she doesn’t appear in the records, so she likely died very young). As a fierce Protestant, Katherine fled to Europe with her second husband and their two children and lived in exile during the reign of Queen Mary.

Another interesting fact: Catherine Parr, Henry VIII’s last wife, was the daughter of Catherine of Aragon’s lady-in-waiting Maude Parr. It was possible that she was actually named after Catherine of Aragon.

Margaret Wyatt, Lady Lee (1540), by Hans Holbein the Younger

Maggie - Lady Margaret Wyatt, later known as Margaret Lee after her marriage (served Anne Boleyn) - Guitar

Margaret served Anne Boleyn and was likely her long-time friend, as the Boleyn’s estates lay near the Wyatt’s. The sister of Thomas Wyatt, the poet who fell in love with Anne Boleyn and wrote MANY passionate poems about her, Margaret was serving Anne as a lady-in-waiting at least by 1532, when she accompanied her to Calais, when it is presumed that Anne and Henry VII secretly decided to marry /very soon/. Margaret was Mistress of the Queen’s Wardrobe, a role that placed her in charge of Anne’s clothing and jewels.

It is believed that Margaret attended Anne at the Tower of London and at her execution; she served as chief mourner at her funeral. Anne gave her a prayer book in farewell, and wrote in it “Remember me when you do pray, that hope doth lead from day to day.”

I’m really glad Maggie is included in the Ladies-in-Waiting. Anne Boleyn is portrayed in basically every TV show, movie, and book I’ve ever watched/read about her as not really having any close friends; it’s wonderful to learn that that wasn’t really the truth. I feel like women’s friendships are often erased from the narrative, both historically and in fiction. Men get to have same-sex buddies, but women don’t. That neither seems fair nor realistic, so I’m happy to learn more about a woman I really didn’t know much about before.

Possibly a portrait of Elizabeth “Bessie” Blount, by Lucas Horenbolte,

Bessie Blount’s son with Henry VIII, Henry Fitzroy, at age 15.

Bessie - Elizabeth "Bessie" Blount (maid-of-honor to Catherine of Aragon, lady-in-waiting to Anna of Cleves) - Bass

Bessie Blount is a really interesting choice for the backing band in Six, as historically, she was the only acknowledged mistress of Henry VIII who did not go on to become his wife. We have no known portraits of Bessie, but I’ve included a possible painting of her.

Bessie was around 7 years younger than Henry VIII, and 13 years younger than Catherine of Aragon. She was reputed as a beauty, and their relationship lasted around eight years (much much longer than most of his other affairs). She gave birth to an illegitimate son named Henry FitzRoy in 1519 (FitzRoy was a common surname of the illegitimate offspring of royalty, as it literally means “son of the king”); this is the only illegitimate child that the King ever acknowledged as his own. This birth was pretty important, as by this time, Catherine of Aragon had been pregnant numerous times (in 1509, 1510, 1513, 1514, 1515, 1517, and 1518), yet only one child, Mary, had lived beyond a few months of age (most of her children were miscarried, stillborn, or died within a few hours). Thus, the existence of Henry Fitzroy proved that Henry COULD have healthy male children. This helped fuel Henry’s desire to divorce Catherine of Aragon later in life.

For a while in the 1520s, when it became clear that Catherine of Aragon would not be able to have a legitimate son with Henry, the king seriously considered naming Henry Fitzroy as his heir; he did give him the royal title of the Duke of Richmond at a certain point. This plan fell to the wayside though, when Henry decided to marry Anne Boleyn. Henry Fitzroy later died at the age of 17.

Joan/Jane Meutas, by Hans Holbein the younger

In 1522, a few years after her son with Henry was born, Bessie married her first husband. She apparently was absent from court for many years while raising her children with her first and second husband, although she later served Anne of Cleves briefly. However, Bessie’s poor health caused her to leave court before even her mistress’s 6 months as queen were done. She died shortly thereafter.

Joan - Jane/Joan Astley, known as Jane/Joan Meutas after her marriage (maid-of-honor, then lady-in-waiting to Jane Seymour) - Keyboard

I haven’t found a ton of information about Jane Astley, also known as Joan. We know she served Jane Seymour and got married in 1537, probably shortly before Jane Seymour’s death after birthing her son, the future Edward VI. Jane and her husband were granted several estates and positions after Jane Seymour’s death, so they likely remained in favor at the royal court.

The most notable part of Jane’s life appears to be the drawing of her portrait by the famed Hans Holbein the younger.

Her maiden name, Astley, is the married name of Elizabeth I’s famed companion, Kat Astley, so it’s possible that she’s related to her husband somehow, but there’s no actual proof for that. I’m just guessing, tbh. I wonder why her name was chosen for the Ladies in Waiting? There are several other more famous ladies-in-waiting to the Queens of Henry VIII that could have been a good choice: Jane Parker/Boleyn perhaps.

The Costumes of the Ladies-in-Waiting: The ladies-in-waiting of Six all wear very similar costumes, with only very slight variations. Each band member wears the same long sleeved black shirt with silver and pearl trimmings. They specifically have parallel silver lines all down their sleeves and diagonal silver lines on the main shirt meeting in downward points like chevrons. Beads resembling pearls are scattered throughout. Some of the band members have shirts that are longer than others’, which is probably just a comfort thing.

The ladies also sport what look like leather/pleather ruffs. These are an interesting historical detail, as ruffs weren’t actually worn at all until at least 13 years (1560s) after Henry VIII’s death (1547) ; so they’re anachronistic in a way that most historical details in Six costumes aren’t (keeping in mind that like, the costumes are obviously not intended to be exact historical replicas). I plan to talk a lot more about ruffs in a later post about the Haus of Holbein’s ruffs, so I’ll leave it at that for now. :D

You know, in looking at the pictures side by side, I’m wondering if the Ladies-in-Waiting shirts were specifically based off of this one portrait of Maria de Salinas. It’s not great quality, and it’s hard to tell what’s going on in it (I’m 90% sure that collar is supposed to be fur or ruffles, but not A Ruff, as that wouldn’t exist for many decades yet). Despite that, the similarities are very evident!

The pearls all over the costumes may actually be a reference to the pearl requirements of Jane Seymour’s ladies in waiting/maids of honor, which I mentioned briefly earlier. We actually have historical records showing that her ladies were required to wear girdles/belts with a specified number of pearls; if there weren’t enough pearls (at LEAST 120), they weren’t allowed to appear before the Queen.

Pearls also edge the band members’ neck ruffs and headbands, which seem pretty obviously based off of a French hood. Look how similar the headbands are to Anne Boleyn’s French hood from her portrait.

The layout of the pearls on the shirt actually reminds me a LOT of some historical armor, specifically the brigandine. Brigandines are made of heavy cloth or leather with steel plates riveted to it, and are pretty distinctive, as you can tell from these renaissance painting examples.

The chevrons on the shirt may be a reference to popular skirt or doublet styles in Elizabethan times. Alternatively, chevrons were commonly used in renaissance heraldry, so these may be referencing that.

The band members wear black pants with lacing up the front that resemble one of the Catherine-Parr-in-Six variations, although their pants are significantly more shiny and leather looking than Parr’s, which are matte cloth. The pants also seem to be a deliberate reference to renaissance cloth or leather armor, which was generally worn with close fitting pants

The temporary costumes that have been pulled out a few times for main Queen cast members when their costumes need emergency repairs and for emergency alternate step-ins (like the awesome time that co-writer of the show Toby Marlow and original soundtrack Anne of Cleves Genesis Lynea stepped in to perform at two sold-out shows after the cast and alternates were badly affected by illness) also appear to be based on the Ladies in Waiting costumes. As you can see, the main portion of the shirt is the same, although it may be worn with or without sleeves and with or without an additional neck piece. Lauren Drew of the UK tour cast is shown wearing shorts that look an AWFUL lot like the Anne of Cleves shorts, although I don’t think I’ve seen those cool chain closures on the side before. Toby and Genesis are shown just wearing plain leather/pleather shorts.

Breaking the Fourth Wall: Shakespeare’s Richard III and Fleabag

I’m a big Shakespeare nerd, in addition to my love for history, and have spent the last few months stage managing a community theater production of Shakespeare’s Richard III, one of my favorite plays. The timeline and family tree of the Wars of the Roses I posted a while back were specifically created to walk the cast through the historical background of the play. That production is going up THIS WEEKEND in Northern Virginia; if you’re nearby, please do come! The cast is incredibly talented and our director Megan Fraedrich has such a wonderful vision for the show.

Richard III and Hamlet regularly battle it out for the title of my favorite Shakespearean play. Richard may slightly win out due to its historical roots (even though it’s…terribly inaccurate). It’s a beautiful play with a very intelligent, twisted anti-hero at its center, who you can’t help but cheer for, even though he’s awful. It’s a little like Tudor Breaking Bad in many ways.

Over the course of the rehearsal for the play, I’ve noticed some similarities between Richard III and Fleabag, the acclaimed Amazon series from Phoebe Waller-Briggs. I know, I know, it sounds wacky at first, stay with me here and I’ll explain it all.

Phoebe Waller-Brigg, the creator of Fleabag, playing the main character in season 2.

Benedict Cumberbatch as Richard III in The Hollow Crown.

Richard III:

Throughout Richard III, Richard has a habit of talking directly to the audience about all his plots, like we’re his friends. Though many Shakespearean plays feature characters with muttered asides or longer soliloquies, which no other character on stage can hear, Richard’s are a bit different.

DISCLAIMER: I am getting into a bit of literary analysis here but haven’t taken an English class since college, and that one was pretty useless, so let’s say I haven’t taken a GOOD English class since…oh, 2006? So be nice, friends, lol.

Though both asides and soliloquies indicate private thoughts and are, as a rule, not heard by the other characters, they have some key differences. An aside is usually a short, direct and simple line pointing out an immediate conflict, issue, secret, or judgment; a soliloquy is longer and more complex, and shows the character wrestling with an internal struggles, motives, or moral dilemmas. Soliloquies date back to ancient Greece, where they were seen in Oedipus Rex and Antigone (although it could be argued that they served a different function in this genre of play, in which choruses commonly served as narrators and commentators on the events shown onstage). And plenty of Shakespeare’s contemporaries used them as well. So Shakespeare wasn’t by any means the only playwright to use them, but his plays are probably the most famous example we have of them that you commonly see in society today.

Richard’s lines, particularly his opening soliloquy, generally are long and detailed, commenting on immediate issues and his current plans, thereby having the length of a soliloquy, but the function more of an aside. Throughout the play, he displays no sign of a conscience, happily seducing women who hate him into marrying him, having family members, enemies, friends, women, and children alike all killed in his quest for power, without ever expressing any sort of regrets.

Only in one speech towards the end of the play really ever demonstrates any remorse or wrestling with morality, and that one is brought on by an attack of ghosts telling him to “despair and die” during his dreams (which, you know, could bring feelings out of even the most hardened sociopath, i would imagine). As you can see in the excerpt below, he’s clearly tormented in this scene, and audibly goes back and forth on his own nature; is he a villain? Does he love himself? If so, why? What has he done to deserve such love? He has committed such horrible acts. No one truly knows or loves him, not even Richard himself.

(I stylized several of my favorite portions because it’s my blog and i can do what i want. :D)

O coward conscience, how dost thou afflict me!
The lights burn blue. It is now dead midnight.
Cold fearful drops stand on my trembling flesh.
What do I fear? myself? there's none else by:
Richard loves Richard; that is, I am I.
Is there a murderer here? No. Yes, I am:
Then fly. What, from myself? Great reason why:
Lest I revenge. What, myself upon myself?
Alack. I love myself. Wherefore? for any good
That I myself have done unto myself?
O, no! alas, I rather hate myself
For hateful deeds committed by myself!
I am a villain: yet I lie. I am not.
Fool, of thyself speak well: fool, do not flatter.
My conscience hath a thousand several tongues,
And every tongue brings in a several tale,
And every tale condemns me for a villain.
Perjury, perjury, in the high'st degree
Murder, stern murder, in the direst degree;
All several sins, all used in each degree,
Throng to the bar, crying all, Guilty! guilty!
I shall despair. There is no creature loves me;
And if I die, no soul shall pity me:
Nay, wherefore should they, since that I myself
Find in myself no pity to myself?

-Richard III, Act V, Scene 3-

These asides/soliloquys set the entire tone of the play and make Richard’s motivations very clear. If you took out these speeches to the audience and just had the rest of the play to go on, you would only see the face Richard shows to the world and miss an awful lot of his machinations. These also show Richard’s state of mind; the number of his asides and soliloquies distinctly decrease over the run of the show, as he becomes more and more stressed and agitated by his responsibilities as king and as he begins to face the consequences of his various murders and manipulations.

The only person who ever hears any of his asides is his nephew, Edward V (who is only ever referred to in the play as a prince, but was in fact, actually a king by the time we see him in the play, even if he’s still a minor. This…irritates me). Richard improvises quickly when he realizes Edward can hear him, but at least in our version, evinces surprise at the incident, for no one has ever heard his asides before.

It’s unclear /why/ Edward hears his uncle; we certainly don’t get a chance to find out, since Prince Edward only ever appears in this one scene (well, except as a ghost, but he doesn’t exactly show us his innermost thoughts at that point). Perhaps the young boy is more connected to the Duke of Gloucester than we realize. Could he be as intelligent as Richard is? Or is he perhaps already suspicious of his uncle?

Richard III (Duke of Gloucester). [Aside] So wise so young, they say, do never
live long.

Prince Edward. What say you, uncle?

Richard III (Duke of Gloucester). I say, without characters, fame lives long.
[Aside] Thus, like the formal vice, Iniquity,
I moralize two meanings in one word.

He’s young, but appears to be rather perceptive, as demonstrated in a later quiet exchange with his uncle Richard:

Prince Edward. I fear no uncles dead.

Richard III (Duke of Gloucester). Nor none that live, I hope.

Prince Edward. An if they live, I hope I need not fear.
But come, my lord; and with a heavy heart,
Thinking on them, go I unto the Tower.

* In case you can’t read the caption on the photo, it says: “Photo of Matthew Rauch as Richard, Duke of Gloucester in Richard the Third by Scott Suchman.”

Phoebe Waller-Brigg, the creator of Fleabag.

*I saw this production last year at the Shakespeare Theater Center in DC and it was really well done, although some of the production choices were….very different. It had a very mad scientist/dystopian/steampunk feel to it and featured growing stomp percussion/dance sequences building throughout the second half of the play, indicating a growing tension as Richard takes the crown. I actually really liked its effect, but it was divisive, and I know a lot of my friends hated it.

Fleabag:

I recently watched the acclaimed comedy series Fleabag; the unnamed protagonist of the show is constantly giving asides to the camera (literally known only as Fleabag, although no one actually ever refers to her that way), breaking the fourth wall to comment on whatever’s happening at the moment. These asides are definitively from her own biased point of view and are usually jokes; she does not usually use them to discuss moral dilemmas or issues with the audience. No one in the show ever hears her asides or even notices the pauses….until Season 2.

Fleabag really doesn’t talk about these asides at all until Season 2, Episode 2, when she sees a therapist (after her father gives her a voucher for a free session). In this brief session, the therapist describes her as “a girl with no friends and am empty heart.” Fleabag defensively responds.

FB: “I have friends.
Counsellor: “Oh so you do have someone to talk to?”
FB: “Yeah.” /clicks tongue and grins at camera with a grin/ “Oh they’re always there. they’re always there.” /chuckles/
C: “Why do you find that funny?”
FB: “Look, I don’t need to be analyzed, i have a nice life.”

By admitting that she has friends that are “always there,” but who do not actually respond to her (as the very medium prevents such a response), the dialogue highlights the narrator’s loneliness and raises questions about the audience’s role in the show’s universe. It becomes more apparent that FB specifically slips into these “asides” when she’s feeling intensely, and uses them as a way to slip out of the situation and detach herself from it.

Although this narrator’s interaction with the therapist is short and limited to just one episode, it seems to have far-reaching consequences, as for the rest of the season, Fleabag seems to actually want to understand her actions and interactions with the audience and do the right thing. Although, according to the therapist, maybe Fleabag was always going to get to that place.

FB: “Can you just tell me what to do?”
C: “You know. you already know what you’re going to do. Everybody does.
FB: “What?”
C: “You’ve already decided what you’re going to do.”
FB: “So what’s the point of you?”
C: /visibly annoyed/ “You know what you’re going to do.”

(it occurs to me that a few episodes later, in the midst of a near breakdown, she expresses her desire to have someone tell her what she’s going to do - every moment of every day - to the priest. She doesn’t want to have control over her own life anymore. It’s interesting to see that desire outlined earlier in this exchange with the therapist)

In season 2, she also befriends the priest (also unnamed) who is performing the marriage ceremony of her father and his girlfriend. This character, played by the brilliant Andrew Scott, is super interesting and curses, drinks beer, writes restaurant reviews, and has an intense fear of foxes. The two bond very quickly and have a very tight connection, along with romantic and sexual chemistry that the priest tries to deny for several episodes. Their connection is highlighted in Season 2, episode 3, when the priest becomes THE FIRST character in the series to ever notice her mental or emotional absence from a conversation, specifically, in a conversation about his celibacy in which he explicitly states that he’s not going to have sex with her. The intensity of the conversation seems to get to Fleabag, who glances away at the camera several times, visibly uncomfortable.

Priest: “I’d really like to be your friend though.”
FB: “I’d like to be your friend, too. /aside, looking at camera/ We’ll last a week.”
P: “What was that?”
FB: “What?”
P: “Where’d you, where’d you just go?”
FB: “What?”
P: “You just went somewhere.”
/looks questioningly at camera/
P: “There. There. Where’d you just go?”
FB: “Nowhere.”
/looks at camera with a look of panic and confusion/

Since the only really close friend Fleabag has ever been shown to really connect with died before season 1 began, it’s truly touching to see that someone notices her enough to see when she’s gone somewhere else. She seems flabbergasted by it. This connection later proves a bit embarrassing to Fleabag, as he hears her cooing about “his beautiful neck” while they’re out on a shopping trip together. It seems that he /sees/ her, even when she’s at her worst.

FB: “His beautiful neck”
P: “What?”
FB: /looks at camera in panic/ “What?”
P: “You just said ‘his beautiful neck.’”
FB: “No, i no, i-i- said th-that they were already gone.”
P: “Okay. Weird.”

Later in the day, the priest gives more attention to the guinea pig at Fleabag’s cafe more than anyone else in the show has really since Boo died, petting her and cuddling her sweetly, calling her “a gorgeous little thing” and continuing to pet her while carrying on a different conversation with FB. This connection to a pet that no one else has ever really paid attention to seems to, again, symbolize Fleabag’s close connection with the priest.

It’s later in that conversation, when the priest asks FB whether she runs the cafe by herself and she tries to tell him about her dead friend Boo that she, first, does the aside to the audience again, and second, he notices again. (If you’ve watched the first season of Fleabag, you’ll realize that the mention of Boo specifically brings up a lot of complicated, conflicting feelings in FB).

P: "Do you run this place on your own?”
FB: “No, I opened it with a friend.”
P: "Oh cool, so you run it together?”
FB: “No, she….she uh,” /sees flashback of Boo in the corner, stares at the camera in a panic/
P: "What?”
FB: “What?”
P: “She what?”
FB: ”She” /laughs uncomfortably/ ”He’s a bit annoying actually.” /behind her back, to camera/
P: ”What is that?”
FB: ”What?”
P: ”That thing that you’re doing, it’s like you disappear.”
FB: ”Nothing.”
P: ”What are you not telling me?”
FB: ”Nothing.”
P: ”Tell me what’s going on underneath there.”
FB: ”Nothing”’
P: ”Tell me, come on, tell me.”
FB: ”nothing, nothing.” /directly to camera/
P: /screams quietly/ “Ahhk what are you doing?” /looks directly to camera/
FB: ”No, stop being so churchy.”
P: ”I’m not being churchy, I”m just trying to get to know you.”
FB: ”Well I don’t want that.”

He seems concerned when he notices her disassociation from the present, and expresses the desire to help her. This ends up pissing her off and she kicks him out of the cafe. The next scene we see, she’s hurriedly trying to walk around the corner and lose the camera/audience, as she flashes back to her mother’s funeral.

Later, when the two characters finally, ah, connect, Fleabag straight up pushes the camera away, and in turn, the audience, possibly indicating that she is at home with her own emotions and doesn’t need to joke about them in this moment.

At the very end of the season, she says goodbye to the audience and her habit of saying asides entirely, joyfully walking down the street and waving goodbye to the camera. She’s grown as a person. She doesn’t need to dissociate herself from the present anymore. She’s accepting her intense feelings.

Breaking the fourth wall is just an interesting way of building the story now as it was in Shakespeare’s time, and it feels just as revolutionary.

(Sidenote: Fleabag is based on Phoebe Waller-Bridge’s original one-woman play, which apparently was quite a bit darker, at least in terms of how it handled the guinea pig! Eek.)

OTHER SHAKESPEARE EXAMPLES OF BREAKING THE FOURTH WALL:

At least some of Shakespeare’s characters seem to be aware that they ARE characters in a play, and comment on it in a lampshading style fashion.

• Julius Caesar: "How many ages hence shall this our lofty scene be acted over in states unborn and accents yet unknown!" (Act 3 Sc 1)

• Twelfth Night: "If this were play'd upon a stage now, I would condemn it as improbable fiction" (Act 3 Sc 4)

• As You Like It: "All the world's a stageand we are but players." (Act 2 Sc 7)

• The Merchant of Venice: "I hold the world but as the world, Gratiano; / A stage where every man must play a part, / And mine a sad one." (Act 1 Sc 1)

  1. Henry VI, Part 3:

• Macbeth: "Life is but a walking shadow[= actor], a poor player [= actor] who struts and frets his hour upon the stage" (Act 5 Sc 5)

You often see this lampshading specifically at the end of a play, as a character speaks directly to an audience. These tend to comment on the play itself as a play, in a terribly meta fashion.

• A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Act 5, Scene 1, Epilogue

  Puck
  If we shadows have offended, 
  Think but this and all is mended: 
  That you have but slumbered here 
  While these visions did appear. 
  And this weak and idle theme, 
  No more yielding but a dream, 
  Gentles, do not reprehend. 
  If you pardon, we will mend. 
  And, as I am an honest Puck, 
  If we have unearnèd luck 
  Now to ’scape the serpent’s tongue, 
  We will make amends ere long. 
  Else the Puck a liar call. 
  So good night unto you all. 
  Give me your hands, if we be friends, 
  And Robin shall restore amends.

• As You Like It, Act 5, Scene 4, Epilogue:

Rosalind
It is not the fashion to see the lady the epilogue;
but it is no more unhandsome than to see the lord
the prologue. If it be true that good wine needs
no bush, 'tis true that a good play needs no
epilogue; yet to good wine they do use good bushes,
and good plays prove the better by the help of good
epilogues. What a case am I in then, that am
neither a good epilogue nor cannot insinuate with
you in the behalf of a good play! I am not
furnished like a beggar, therefore to beg will not
become me: my way is to conjure you; and I'll begin
with the women. I charge you, O women, for the love
you bear to men, to like as much of this play as
please you: and I charge you, O men, for the love
you bear to women--as I perceive by your simpering,
none of you hates them--that between you and the
women the play may please. If I were a woman I [this slyly refers to the fact that female characters were played by young men in shakespeare’s time]
would kiss as many of you as had beards that pleased
me, complexions that liked me and breaths that I
defied not: and, I am sure, as many as have good
beards or good faces or sweet breaths will, for my
kind offer, when I make curtsy, bid me farewell.

QUICK HISTORICAL NOTE ON THE ACCURACY OF THE PLAY:

I also find Richard III a legitimately fascinating historical character and have based my character Claudius in my Hamlet prequel “Most Horrible” on him (King Hamlet is based on Richard’s older brother Edward IV). He was definitely not the villain that Shakespeare portrayed him as. I could seriously give a whole TED talk on how badly Richard III has been treated by history, but I’ll just give a few quick examples.

• The play has Richard taking credit for killing Edward, Prince of Wales (Henry VI’s son) and Henry VI himself. However, the only historical sources that claim that Prince Edward was killed by Richard 1) were highly biased Tudor propaganda tools designed to impugn Richard III, the king that Henry Tudor killed and unseated, and 2) also said that Prince Edward was killed by all three York brothers (Edward, George, Richard) together, not just Richard alone (interestingly enough, Shakespeare’s Henry VI Part 3 has the story of all three brothers killing Edward as well, but Richard III itself has Richard as the only killer).

• In the Shakespearean play, Richard ends up wooing Lady Anne Neville during the mourning rites for her father-in-law, Henry VI. He later kills her in the play. In real life, Richard married Anne after tracking her down from the London cookshop his greedy brother George of Clarence had hidden her in. It’s a terribly romantic story and I so wish they had portrayed that instead of just showing him as an outright villain. They were married for 13 years and had a child together; they also adopted George’s son Edward, Earl of Warwick, after his death. Anne was very ill when she died and there’s no sign that she was poisoned or hurt in any way by her husband.