This Was... Difficult. | All You Wanna Do - Six The Musical | Reaction/Analysis

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Intro: (0:00)
Katherine Howard Roast: (5:48)
All You Wanna Do: (11:50)
Outro: (47:15)

Katherine Howard Roast transcript:
[Catherine Parr]
Okay, you know what, I think it's time we heard from our next queen: Kate Howard!

[Anne Boleyn]
Who's that again?

[Catherine of Aragon]
Oh I think she was the least relevant Katherine.

[Anne Boleyn]
Oh yeah, yeah, now I still don't care.

[Katherine Howard]
Oh haha, funny.

[Catherine of Aragon]
Yeah, speaking of funny, good luck trying to compete with us, honey!

[Katherine Howard]
You're right, you're right. I'm gonna need all the luck I can get. Your lives sounded terrible. And your songs! REALLY helped to convey that. I mean, Catherine, almost moving to a nunnery and then NOT? That almost could've been really hard for you. And Anne! Getting your head chopped off! Surely that means you'll win the competition- Oh wait. Divorced, beheaded, died, divorced, beheaded- oh, never mind. And Jane, dying of natural causes. WHEN WILL JUSTICE BE SERVED? And surviving. But seriously, Anna. All jokes aside, being rejected for your looks legit sounds really rough. I wouldn't know anything about that. I mean look at me, I'm really hot. So yeah, I can't even begin to think of how I'd compete with you all! Oh wait, like this.

[Intotheabyss]

I don’t know if you noticed, but Howard’s song is the only one where the other queens don’t join in as backup singers. Another excellent storytelling device to show how alone and abandoned by those who should have protected her she was.

[zellachan]

'Her story wasn't over when she lost her head, her story was over when it happened again" this line just made me bawl my eyes out, Katherine Howard was taken advantage ever since she was young and she had no one to depend on because all those around her didn't even care enough to see how she was doing

[knjjah]

this song is the perfect representation of getting caught up in a friend joking about the most traumatic experience of their life and then suddenly getting hit with just how actually fucked up it is afterwards.

[amie_maria]

Katherine Howard was around 13 during her involvement with henry mannox (as the song points out) but it is believed that he could have actually been anywhere up to the age of 36

she was around 15 during her invovement with Francis Derham and he was in his late 20s/early 30s

she was 17 when she married 50 year old henry viii and it is around the same time when her and thomas culpepper became involved, and as usual he was quite a bit older than her (27 or 28)

she was beheaded when she was 18 or 19 for her ‘relationships’ with both thomas culpepper and francis derham,

for centuries she was seen as some sort of serial adultress, ‘the promiscuous one’ and even now some still paint her out to be this way, i've heard people claim that she wasn't abused or groomed by henry mannox or francis derham because she went along with it ‘willingly’ (wich is beyond frustrating). Im so glad that this musical finally tells her story the way it should be told. She was an abused child who was failed by those that were supposed to guide her. She was young and naive and thought these men cared about her, when in reality they were just using her which ultimatley lead to her death.

[Daniel-inzi]

Also notice how in the first two choruses she says “PLEASE me” but in the third she says “SEIZE me”. It really symbolises that she’s only now realising these men are using her for their own desires😢

[karpetinnknty]

fun fact! the song *does* end with k howard's execution, the clip just cuts before that. she just stands there in the dark sobbing quietly for a few seconds, and then says in her normal voice, "and then I got beheaded 🤷‍♀️" the way she downplays the whole thing always gets me, like she's trying so hard to sound cool and unaffected, and after the whole breakdown she still clinges to that mask of indifference until the end 😭😭😭

[KyliaSkydancer]

The comparison between this and her verse in ex-wives is so drastic. "Lock up your husbands, lock up or sons. K Howard is here and the fun's begun."

History portrays her as promiscuous when, really, she was a young girl who was taken advantage of and was never given the space to create boundries and reject the advances of others when she didn't want them.

[skatykw]

I always interpreted the hands as people (men) that 'wanted' her, they always felt more possessive to me, and her pushing them off is her fighting to get out finally
And then at the choris, there are more hands, and they pull her down, trap her

[JJ]

A not so fun fact about the costume design of Kate Howard is that it is based off of the out fits of several celebrities that were sexualized at a young age one example being Ariana Grande that you can see in her hair style

[PhreakOutBigTime]

the fact that the other wives aren't supporting/singing with katherine, but are always in shadow, looking away from her, putting hands on her and tugging her this way and that with blank faces, its so ominous and well done. she is utterly alone, and no one around her meant her well.

[saiyasha]

There has been a lot of Ideas that KH doesn't even use words like sx and similar because she is actually _too immature._ She doesn't even fully comprehend what she is talking about

[Mocha_teas]

Facts about Katherine Howard:

- During Henry VIII's reign, there weren't definative or consistent spellings of words or names yet, meaning that Katherine's name was also spelt as Catherine or Katheryn by other people. A letter she once signed herself was signed 'Katheryn' at the end, so many people believe that is how her name is actually spelt. People still spell her name as Catherine however to differenciate her from Katherine Parr, Henry's 6th wife.

- She and Anne Boleyn were cousins but they never met each other. Katherine was also a second cousin to Jane Seymour, Henry's 3rd wife.

- There is a gallery in the Tower of London called the 'Haunted Gallery', given that name since some Tourists have reported seeing a female figure running across the gallery, hearing screams that are believed to be Katherine's as she was said to have run away from guards trying to arrest her, screaming for Henry to forgive her. However, even if Katherine had tried to flee her captors, her original apartments no longer exist and the route that she would have taken would not have included that gallery. Nevertheless, there have been more reported ghostly sightings (and faintings) than anywhere else in the palace.

- It's unknown how old she was when she was beheaded. Since she was around 17 when she married Henry, who was 49 at the time, it's assumed that she was around 18-19 years old since they were only married from 28 July 1540 – 13 February 1542 (1 year 6 months and 16 days )

- There was myth that was created that when she was saying her final words she said that she would 'rather die the wife of Thomas Culpeper'. This has been proven to be false by several witness statements at the time and was likely a lie that was made up to paint her as 'Temptress' similar to Anne Boleyn.

- In Six, Katherine's design is inspired by Britney Spears and Ariana Grande, both of whom started their music careers young and were heavily sexualised by the media.

- She had little interest in politics or religion. Katherine did, however, become involved in helping a prisoner in the Tower of London called Margaret Pole, the Countess of Salisbury,  who was imprisoned for two years. (Her 'crime' was ultimately the fact that she was one of the very last Plantagenets as the daughter of George, Duke of Clarence, brother of King Edward IV. Henry believed that Margaret and her family were planning to overthrow the Tudor dynasty with a plan to replace Henry with his first cousin and Plantagenet, Henry Courtenay, 1st Marquess of Exeter.) In a goodwill gesture, Katherine purchased warm clothes for the woman. 

- She was described as very beautiful by those who knew her. French ambassador Charles de Marillac described Katherine as, 'A young lady of extraordinary beauty.' Katherine was believed to be quite short in stature with long, copper red hair, wide blue eyes, a round race and a fair and youthful complexion.

-Her relationship with Mary (Catherine of Aragon's daughter) was strained as Mary was older than her stepmother, and disrespectful, although their relationship improved after Katherine dismissed two of Mary’s maids as punishment. Her relationship with Elizabeth was more harmonious. The pair were related through Anne Boleyn (Elizabeth was Anne's daughter) and Katherine gifted jewels to her. Katherine also won favour with Prince Edward (Jane Seymour's son)

- Katherine appeared a gracious and conventional Queen. At her first court Christmas, she greeted her predecessor, Anne of Cleves, Henry's 4th wife, warmly. They exchanged gifts and even danced together.

- Katherine and Henry surprisingly got on well together. She even managed to make Henry, who was very obese due to a lack of exercise and poor diet, lose some weight because of her influence.

- Her father was Lord Edmund Howard, who had connections to other people associated with the English royal family at the time. Her mother was Joyce Culpeper, also known as Jocasta. Katherine was one of the youngest in a big family that included siblings, half-siblings, and step-siblings. As a result, her parents struggled to afford her upbringing and she was sent to live with her step-grandmother, the Dowager Duchess of Norfolk.

- At her grandmother's house, Katherine received relatively little education and little oversight. Several young girls, including some of Katherine's family members, as well as her grandmother's servants, were all raised in the same house.

- Thomas Culpeper and Francis Dereham were convicted of treason on the 1st of December 1541 and executed shortly afterwards. Culpeper was a sexual predator and there is evidence that he had previously been accused of rape and murder but escaped punishment thanks to his favour with the King. Katherine always stated that Dereham had raped her and he had used her 'in such sort as a man doth use his wife many and sundry times'.

- Dereham faced a traitors death, which consisted of: hanging, membering, disembowelling, beheading and quartering. Dereham was quatered while Culpeper suffered the same fate as Katherine did. Dereham's and Culpeper's heads afterwards were put on display on London Bridge.

- Katherine alongside Anne Boleyn has a memorial plaque and plate of her family's arms in the Chapel of St. Peter ad Vincula to commemorate her and her cousin, which you can visit and send flowers to. Every year on the anniversary of Anne Boleyn's execution, May 19th, a bouquet of red roses is delivered to the tower of London anonymously with the instruction for it to be placed over the plaque carrying Anne's name. The identity of the sender has never been confirmed.

- There's some confusion about how old Henry Manox was as some people say in the song that the line 'He was 23, and I was 13' was actually their age difference, making Manox around 36 according to the age difference belief. It was seen as strange for a man at the time who was in mid to late 30's to not be married yet. It's more likely that he was in his early to mid 20's, as he did later get married, but it doesn't make it any less creepier as he was an adult whilst she was a child.

(I honestly just want to hug her and tell her that we believe her and that it's not her fault.)

[FAEDOODLE]

Not so fun fact, the video itself cuts short. In the live performance she’s just kind of left in the silence, crying.

[phinnking]

"her story wasnt over when she lost her head, her story was over when it happened again"
godDAMN that hurts so much but is so true. the worst part of it for her wasnt being killed, the worst part was that final lifeline being just another betrayal

[lauka]

One of the things about this song and it's lyrics, is how much of it is using very childlike terms, it's not that audible from the live reacording but the lyric is "Enough be Enoughsies", and coupled with the Birds and the Bees, it just goes to show how young Katherine was and how truly messed up it all was as well

[Taljer]

The way the line "I get you and you get me" morphs through context each time its said is so well done. First, it's excited to be special and chosen. Second, it's proud to be so valuable. Third, it's resigned to being essentially owned. Fouth, it's hope at finally being understood, which is then betrayed. It just wrecks me every time.

[mariekehageman]

The thing that always gets me is the fact that Henry's first marriage was longer than Cathryn howards life. It's just a little fact I know but it has a devastating meaning.

[Okay_Is_Wonderful]

Mortius, I am SO sorry that this is personal for you. Thank you for your vulnerability and showing your big heart here.

And because you should hear it too, _you're_ not alone. Thrilled you're in a better place now, please continue to take care of yourself.

And you're nicer than me, so I'm gonna preemptively warn folks against any incoming victim blaming BS - disrespectfully GTFOH

[katereagon]

In regards to the “why are people laughing” thing; I saw this show three times, la, San Francisco, and Vegas. In Vegas and la the audience went along with the song, increasingly getting more uncomfortable until erupting in applause at the end because it moved us so well. But in sf the audience slowly stopped going along with the song and got quieter and quieter. After her final ‘mwah’ everyone just sat there in stunned silence for at least 15 seconds before she said her next line and it felt appropriate to clap again. It was one of the most powerful moments of live theater I’ve ever experienced.

[michaelinthebathroom]

The way the other queens touch Katherine during the chorus just makes it hit so much harder. 🥺😔