An Edmonton theatre hosting a musical that’s soon to hit Broadway in New York is drawing an international crowd to Alberta’s capital.
Six: The Musical, tells the reimagined story of the wives of Henry VIII as if it were a pop concert.
The show was written by Lucy Moss and Toby Marlow for the Edinburgh Fringe in 2017 and quickly gained monumental popularity.
As Edmonton is the only Canadian stop on the musical production’s tour, the show has made the city a destination for Broadway fans.
As of Thursday, more than 100 patrons had come from out of town — including a few from the United Kingdom — a representative for the Citadel Theatre told Global News.
Jen Okulanis and Sara Barreto Worthing, who travelled from the San Francisco Bay area, said they were blown away the first time they saw the show.
They loved it even more the second time on Friday — and the third and fourth time on Saturday.
The pair run a YouTube channel called “The Broadway Broads of the Bay,” which reviews musicals. When they heard the show was heading to Edmonton, they quickly booked a flight.
Barreto Worthing admitted she was surprised Six was coming to Edmonton.
“If you have a community that loves theatre, if they can support a Fringe festival the way that they do, why not get the show [to Edmonton]?”
Daryl Cloran, artistic director at the Citadel Theatre, said he knows how huge the arrival of the show is for Edmonton.
“In combination with Hadestown in Februrary on Broadway, there will be two shows on Broadway that happened at the Citadel first,” he said.
Cloran said it’s not easy to snag these shows before they hit the big time.
“It’s ridiculously competitive,” he explained.
Okulanis and Barreto Worthing agree Edmonton’s theatre scene can hold its own.
“It’s going to be hard when we go to New York to see it. I think given the option, if we could go back to see it at the Citadel, we would,” Okulanis said.
“We came to Edmonton to see Six, but after being there, we really fell in love with Edmonton. It’s quite charming and the people are wonderful. We found out there is an amazing Fringe Festival that happens there.”
“We’re sort of keeping it on the radar. It may be an annual thing for the broads,” Barreto Worthing said.
Six will be in Edmonton until Nov. 24 before it heads to St. Paul en route to Broadway.
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