There’s a famous English rhyme that British children use to help them remember the fate of Henry VIII’s six wives: “Divorced, beheaded, died. Divorced, beheaded, survived.” That rhyme is now spreading far and wide thanks to SIX The Musical, a sassy, kick-ass, pop musical that opens using those same words.

Co-written by Lucy Moss and Toby Marlow while they were still undergraduates at Cambridge University, SIX The Musical was the surprise hit of the 2017 Edinburgh Festival. It was quickly picked up by producers and before long had a sell-out season at the Arts Theatre in London’s West End. It has since been presented in the US and Canada, and on a UK tour. It’s even being performed on several Norwegian Cruise Line ships. The Australian production has its official opening at the Sydney Opera House tomorrow, then tours to Melbourne and Adelaide, while a Broadway production opens in March.

The UK production of SIX The Musical. Photograph © Idil Sukan

The 80-minute show presents the six wives as pop princesses. Structured like a reality pop competition, each of them tells their story as they vie to become the leader of a girl-power pop...