Five – 24 February 2024

Five, the new parody musical of Six, currently playing off Broadway, redesigns the contest between Henry VIII’s wives to be between the women former president Donald Trump used and abused. It’s a hilarious concept, especially with the addition of special guest Jasmine Rice LaBeija toward the end as Hillary Clinton, the woman who Trump arguably took the most from. I enjoyed the political commentary at the end about how it was America that got screwed over the most. The call to action was simply to vote, and I think in general the musical was too flippant about Trump’s presidency being over, since he is running for reelection and polling quite well.

In regards to structure, the songs ripped directly from Six were the most exciting and engaging to me. The lyric rewrites were on point. As in Six, dragging out the end and counting down the minutes was torturous—we had our fun and were ready to leave, and even as a parody this concept couldn’t quite keep the energy going.

I had a harder time getting into the songs that mirrored songs in other shows. Each woman’s featured number replicated a concept and a specific song from some of Broadway’s biggest hits. During these numbers I was hearing the originals in my head, and all I could think was that the numbers in Five could not musically compete with the originals. The arrangements did not hold my interest, and the visuals were so similar to the song they were trying to parody that it was impossible to push the disparity from my mind. Perhaps I felt this way because I am an ardent musical theatre fan who has a genuine love for some of the numbers being made fun of.

I also felt like I was the only person in the audience who got all of the references from other musicals in Hillary Clinton’s chaotic mash up. I loved the concept, but musically, this number felt particularly aimless and weak, cramming in a lot of ideas but not fleshing any of them out. These one-liners did not feel connected, but Jasmine Rice LaBeija’s opera training and drag performance experience were both exceptionally well utilized.

This was a fun evening and a really hilarious concept, but I felt like it was a damned if you do, damned if you don’t kind of situation with regards to seeing it as a person with extensive knowledge of other theatrical productions. Without my knowledge of what “Cell Block Tango” sounds like, I might have enjoyed “Don Dump Tango” more. However, I would have missed all of Hillary Clinton’s references if I was not as well versed in theatre as I am, and some of those lines were really quite funny when juxtaposed.

Ultimately, this was a fun show. Even at 90 minutes, it felt a little long at moments, and just as I wrote in my review of Six, it felt infinitely more like a concert than a musical. Five is a high energy performance that leaves you feeling good and enjoying the empowering feminist message, and I wholeheartedly believe that there is an important place in the theatre industry for shows like this that provide healing through laughter and camaraderie surrounding contemporary issues.

I did not attend this performance on a press pass.