Music maestro brings West End skills back to China

One of the most high-profile Chinese-born figures in British theater says she is thrilled by the prospect of taking one of the West End's most popular shows to audiences across China this fall.

Six the Musical is an international award-winning pop music retelling of the stories of the six wives of England's King Henry VIII, which over the course of a decade has grown from a student project at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe to playing to full houses across Europe, the United States, Asia, and Australia, and that had a six-week run in Shanghai last summer.

In early October, the play starts a 12-week tour of China that will take it to Beijing, Chengdu, Guangzhou, Hangzhou, Ningbo, and Suzhou.

The show's on-stage musical director, Dalian-born Zhang Yutong, divides her time between working in the world of theater in the United Kingdom and in Shanghai.

"I can't tell you how happy I was to take the show to Shanghai last year, as it's where my professional career began – I call it my other life, as I run a theater company there, I write musicals and a do a lot of producing," she said.

"I know how much people loved it and how much they want to see it in their local theaters, so it's great that they can see it in their home towns without having to buy a plane ticket – it means so much to the whole theater community, which in China is predominantly young women. As well as that, all the cast and company are so excited about traveling around the country and getting the authentic Chinese experience."

Although she has had a lifelong passion for musical theater, Zhang has, by her own admission, taken an unconventional route to her career, being active in student drama while studying linguistics at University College London, but only being alerted to musical direction as a career possibility when a friend studied a master's degree in the subject.

After studying at the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland, she worked in Shanghai for two years, then on her return to the UK worked in drama schools around the country before meeting Six's composers, Toby Marlow and Lucy Moss, on another show of theirs, and ending up as musical director of Six's British touring company, and now for the China tour.

The show's set-up is the six wives as members of a girl band, each with their own distinctive musical style and appearance, arguing amongst themselves as to who was the most mistreated wife, before realizing that six women working together as one is more powerful than the man who has, for centuries, historically defined them.

The musical runs for 80 minutes with no interval and its upbeat, energetic celebratory message of female empowerment and rewriting history as 'herstory' has spawned a huge fan community, known as the Queendom.

"It's such a brilliant message – it's been running for almost 10 years but it still remains so relevant, every day people are coming to see it for the first time, attracted by its story and its message," Zhang explained.

"There's so much in it, so cleverly packed into quite bite-sized pieces to enjoy in the moment but also to take away – whether or not you see it for the first or 100th time, you can take things away and dwell on it for days. Sometimes, because of how a different actress might deliver a different line, I still find myself going home and thinking about it – that's what continues to attract people to come and see the show."

Zhang plays keyboards in the on-stage live band, the Ladies in Waiting, and said that no matter how many times she does the show, the sight of such an energized audience still gives her an emotional lift, particularly in China.

"When the curtain opened, I was completely in tears for the first song because I thought 'these are all people who look like me'," she said.

The show leans heavily on the multi-member boy band and girl band style of presenting a variety of looks and characters on stage, for audience members to choose the one they identify with, and its Queendom community. Zhang said she knew people whose lives had been changed by seeing it, something she hopes to maintain.

"I have friends who can cite Six as one of the reasons they now work professionally in UK theater, because they saw it on holiday in New York, and decided to come and study and work here," she said.

"It's fantastic people find it one of their motivators. I've covered (as musical director) for the West End production a few times this year, and at the stage door afterwards, it's always great to see an audience member who is Chinese, I will always have a chat."