Tony Awards: British musical Six nominated for eight Broadway honours

Six uses a pop soundtrack to tell the stories of Henry VIII's wives

Six, the high-octane stage musical about Henry VIII's wives, has been nominated for eight of Broadway's most prestigious honours, the Tony Awards.

The show started life on the Edinburgh Fringe in 2017 before becoming a hit in the West End and now New York.

Its nominations include best new musical, best original score and best direction of a musical.

Other British nominees include all three stars of the National Theatre's production of The Lehman Trilogy.

Simon Russell Beale, Adrian Lester and Adam Godley will go head-to-head for the award for best leading actor in a play.

The drama, which follows the financial dynasty up to the 2008 crash, received eight nominations in total, including best direction of a play for Sam Mendes.

Alfie Allen and David Threlfall are nominated for Hangmen

In a good year for UK talent, Alfie Allen and David Threlfall are nominated for a transfer of the London Royal Court's production of Martin McDonagh's Hangmen while Sharon D Clarke is shortlisted for Caroline, or Change.

The top shows overall are the meta musical A Strange Loop with 11 nominations, while Michael Jackson jukebox show MJ and US Civil War-set Paradise Square have 10 each.

A Broadway transfer of the West End revival of the musical Company has nine, including one for British director Marianne Elliott.

Sharon D Clarke (centre) is nominated for best leading actress in a musical

Six's nominations have brought it belated success, two years after the show's Broadway opening was scuppered when theatres were forced to shut on its planned opening night because of the spread of Covid-19.

In a statement, Toby Marlow and Lucy Moss, who wrote the musical while at Cambridge University, said they were "so humbled and grateful" for the recognition.

"We created Six as a fun summer project for us and our friends in 2017, thinking that, come the autumn, we'd be moving on with our lives and like becoming lawyers or accountants or something, so for that show to be nominated for a literal Tony Award is just beyond," they said.

"It's a truly amazing, baffling honour to be even considered in the same category as these other wonderful pieces."

The winners will be announced at a ceremony on 12 June at Radio City Music Hall.