Six musical leaps from Edinburgh Fringe to Broadway

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Media caption,

Behind the scenes at the Arts Theatre in London to meet the sassy women in King Henry VIII's life

Six, the stage show that turns King Henry VIII's wives into musical divas, is to hit Broadway, two years after starting life at the Edinburgh Fringe.

Inspired by the likes of Beyonce and Ariana Grande, it was the brainchild of former Cambridge University students Lucy Moss and Toby Marlow.

The show went on to get five Olivier Award nominations and to sell out shows in London and Chicago.

Moss and Marlow said they were "unbelievably excited".

They said: "We are so grateful that we get to share our show with an even wider audience, especially somewhere as iconic as the home of musical theatre - BROADWAY BABY!!"

Image source, Idil Sukan

The show started out in a 100-seat venue at the Edinburgh Fringe in 2017 before moving to London's West End. It will open at New York's 1,000-capacity Brooks Atkinson Theatre next February.

It is the first new musical with an original score to be announced for the current Broadway season, according to the New York Times, external. The other scheduled musicals include four using existing pop songs and one revival, the paper said.

Moss and Marlow, who wrote the musical in their final year at Cambridge, told the BBC last year that they wanted to make something that didn't feel like a musical. People spontaneously bursting into song could seem "naff and contrived", they claimed.

The show has an all-female cast and an all-female band. Moss added: "Musical theatre often has lame parts for women. We wanted to write loads of meaty, funny parts for women."

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