New West End cast and a new booking period for the hit musical SIX
by Best of Theatre Staff on Thursday 29 September 2022, 10:37 am in Cast Changes and Announcements
A new quintet of cast members will soon become the newest wives of Henry VIII in hit West End musical, SIX, as the show extends its run at the Vaudeville Theatre with tickets now on sale up to October 2023.
Joining the principal line-up are Rhianne-Louise McCaulsky as Catherine of Aragon, Baylie Carson as Anne Boleyn and Koko Basigara as Katherine Howard with Monique Ashe-Palmer as Alternate Aragon/Cleves and Leah Vassell as Alternate Seymour/Parr.
The new cast met together for the first time earlier this month, swapping the stage for boards of a different kind, playing the immersive challenge attraction of the much-loved Hasbro boardgame Monopoly Lifesized. Located in the heart of London, Monopoly Lifesized, is an immersive, on-your-feet version of the world’s favourite family board game, with real-life characters of the legendary board game tokens as their guides.
The new cast members’ first performance will be on Tuesday 18 October when they join current cast members Claudia Kariuki, Dionne Ward-Anderson and Roxanne Couch as Jane Seymour, Anna of Cleves and Catherine Parr respectively.
Rhianne-Louise McCaulsky (Catherine of Aragon) made her professional debut in ‘The Book of Mormon’ at the Prince of Wales Theatre and appeared in ‘Bat Out of Hell’ at the Dominion Theatre. She starred as Rizzo in the UK Tour of ‘Grease’ and most recently played Alline Bullock in ‘Tina: The Tina Turner Musical’ at the Aldwych.
Baylie Carson (Anne Boleyn) trained at the Western Australian Academy of Performing Arts before making their professional debut in ‘Dusty’, with further roles in ‘Bring it On’, ‘Lazarus’ and ‘The Boy From Oz’. Baylie joins SIX direct from the Australian tour of Alanis Morissette musical, ‘Jagged Little Pill’.
Koko Basigara (Katherine Howard) joins the company from recently appearing as Lorraine in the revival of ‘Jersey Boys’. She has also appeared in the West End productions of ‘Beautiful - the Carole King Musical’, ‘Les Misérables’ and appeared in the live-action Disney films ‘Aladdin’ and ‘Beauty & the Beast’.
Monique Ashe-Palmer made her West End debut in Waitress at the Adelphi Theatre and joins SIX from its most recent UK Tour.
Having recently graduated from Arts Ed, Leah Vassell also appeared in West Side Story at the 70th Annual Ljubljana Festival.
Claudia Kariuki and Dionne Ward-Anderson continue their roles as Jane Seymour and Anna of Cleves, with Roxanne Couch joining the principal line-up as Catherine Parr having previously appeared regularly as Alternate Jane Seymour and Catherine Parr. Danielle Rose (Alternate Boleyn/Howard) and Super Swings Rachel Rawlinson and Esme Rothero also continue their roles.
Since joining SIX the current West End cast have appeared on Dancing on Ice, the Women in Film and Television Awards and This Morning, collected the award for Best West End Show at the 2022 WhatsonStage Awards and appeared in the television broadcast of Party at the Palace as part of the late HRH Queen Elizabeth’s Platinum Jubilee celebrations.
The current cast will continue their roles at the Vaudeville Theatre, playing their final performances on Sunday 16 October, with the new cast beginning performances from Tuesday 18 October, with the show booking until Sunday 29 October 2023.
In addition to its usual performance schedule, the new booking period includes various access performances, and another Sing-along performance on Sunday 14 May 2023.
Since its debut outing at the Edinburgh Fringe in 2017, SIX has solidified its global reputation as a musical theatre phenomenon. In addition to the West End production, the show is currently touring across the UK, Australia and New Zealand, with two concurrent productions travelling across North America. The show also continues on Broadway, where it won 2 Tony Awards, 4 Drama Desk Awards, and 3 Outer Critics Circle Awards including Outstanding New Musical earlier this year.
In June 2022, producers of SIX reunited the original West End cast and the production played three open-air performances at Hampton Court Palace in front of a total audience of 10,000 people, with the production also being recorded at the Vaudeville Theatre for a future release date.
The global success of the show’s score also continues, having amassed over 500 million streams and 3 billion views on TikTok, with the Original Studio Cast Recording achieving Gold status, and a Broadway album, recorded live on their opening night.
SIX is co-directed by Lucy Moss and Jamie Armitage, featuring choreography by Carrie-Anne Ingrouille. The design team includes Emma Bailey (Set Design), Gabriella Slade (Costume Design), Tim Deiling (Lighting Design) and Paul Gatehouse (Sound Design). The score features orchestrations by Tom Curran with music supervision and vocal arrangements by Joe Beighton. Casting for SIX is by Pearson Casting.
SIX is produced by Kenny Wax, Wendy & Andy Barnes and George Stiles.