Songs From New British Musicals #1 Don't Lose UR Head

by Toby Marlow and Lucy Moss (2018)

So the musical Six is one of the big British musical successes of recent years. It started life as a student production at the Edinburgh Fringe and, at some point, has morphed into a high-end production that has tapped into the Wicked fan girls demographic. Although it hasn't quite shed its student skin which, I guess, is how you end up mouthing the word "threesome" on a family show on the BBC.

But, prudery aside, this is a fantastic comedy song and funny on a number of levels. (Note: the video is an abbreviated version of the full song.)

First level, we've got the basic idea of retelling a familiar-ish bit of history in modern jargon. So instead of ye olde speech of "my lady doth this" and "my lady doth that", it's all texting talk ("xo baby", "lol") and foreign slang ("pret a manger").

Second level, we've got the banter. Anne of Cleeves is at odds with the other queens so we get a bit of back-and-forth ("you didn't?", "you sent him kisses?"), as well as Anne's withering assessment of British virility ("epic fail"). All these little interjections liven up the song and, again, make it funnier.

Finally - and this is the best level - we've got the character comedy. Anne is scheming, derisive, arrogant, playful, capricious, naive. How do you convey that in a song? Well, the writers manage it in the first two lines of the chorus:

Sorry no sorry 'bout what I said

I'm just tryin' to have some fun

Listen to that little staccato melody. It's a playground taunt. It's "I'm the queen of the castle". It's "nah-nah-nah-nah-nah" with knobs on. That's a great bit of tune to go with the most succinct of put-downs: "Sorry not sorry". 

And here's what's really great. The same bit of song can be played in different ways to express different aspects of character. So the first time around, she's pretending to be coy, all wide eyes and innocent face, and the music is light and dainty. The choreography is cutesy shoe shuffles and tidy leg flicks. 

The second time around, it's different. Now she's all aggression and derision. The cutesy shoe shuffles have been replaced with head bangs and fist pumps. It's the same tune and the same lyrics but the arrangement and performance has brought out a different aspect of the song and, in doing so, a different aspect of the character. In only a couple of repeated lines of song, we know all we need to know about Anne.

The show Six has been praised for its feminist revisionist history as well as its parodying of modern pop styles. Now my knowledge of modern pop styles is about as extensive as my knowledge of feminist revisionist history, so I may be missing something. For me, this is just really smart musical comedy writing and properly funny. 

Epic fail, it ain't.