Creators of Six on their new show

For actor Jo Foster, it’s a role they never thought they’d get.

Jo’s the lead in a new West End show, playing a character who like them, is non-binary.

“Not to get all soppy, but it’s just something I never thought I would have”, says Jo, who previously starred in the musical & Juliet and uses they/them pronouns.

They say while non-binary roles have appeared in shows in the past, they were usually as part of an ensemble and not in the spotlight.

Jo feels they’re helping to make that leap, and on a particularly big stage too.

They’re headlining the first all-new production from the creators of the hit musical Six, a show that from humble beginnings at Edinburgh’s Fringe, has gone on to take over the world, with UK, US and Australian tours.

Six is a modern retelling of the lives of Henry VIII’s six wives, a comedy set around a singing competition.

Songs from that show have been streamed hundreds of millions of times, and dedicated fans now call themselves the Queendom.

So it’s fair to say there are high expectations for the team’s new show, called Why Am I So Single?

Jo says it will be a chance to bring queer and non-binary stories to new audiences when it opens later this month.

“It’s about allowing people to come in and see that we’re all the same. We’re all equal”.

Co-star and Six alum Leesa Tulley agrees: “We have all gender and sexual identities. We have everything. And it’s so important because that’s life, that’s normal. Old musicals don’t always reflect that”.

Jo adds: “It’s new perspectives, it’s new ideas, it’s new… everything.”

The show follows the dating lives of best friends and flatmates Oliver, played by Jo, and Leesa’s character Nancy.

They’re joined by their wise neighbour Artie, played by Noah Thomas, star of Everybody’s Talking About Jamie, a coming-of-age show about a teenage boy who wants to be a drag queen.

Noah says it’s exciting to be part of a show that explores modern dating, even when it’s not particularly successful.

“Whether you’re a serial app dater or you only meet people in person, we sort of track through all those different sub-cultures”.

Dating apps aren’t the only element of modern culture that are on the minds of the creators of the show. We also talk about TikTok’s increasing relevance in the world of musical theatre.

There was some criticism when the musical Dear Evan Hansen decided to use the social platform for open auditions to find a new lead.

Others have also turned to the app to promote their shows on tour. Six has more than 400,000 followers on its TikTok account, sharing snippets of the musical’s songs and dances people can copy at home.

Despite all that, Noah says social media can’t be the first thing in his mind.

“For us actors our priority is to make the show the most quality version it can be. We can hope for a viral moment as much as we want, but if people come and the show is rubbish, then there’s no point”.

Why Am I So Single? takes place over a single night as Oliver and Nancy try to write a new show.

So the obvious question Newsbeat asks the show’s creators Toby Marlow and Lucy Moss: how much of this show is based on their own lives?

“It’s loosely based on us, but also on the experiences of our friends”, says Lucy. “There’s stuff that’s true and stuff that isn’t.”

Crucially she says they wanted the show to be relatable and feel real, or as real as a show can be when the characters spontaneously burst into song.

“Things like the use of phones in this show is really wild. We’ve had to be super creative at how we present the digital space and use of phones in our storytelling”.

One challenge for musicals is how to avoid feeling quickly dated if set in the modern day. Dear Evan Hansen, a show which first debuted in 2015, has characters filming themselves in horizontal video for YouTube, while the generation that uses TikTok or Instagram Reels would film vertically with their phones.

Toby says they’ve tried to avoid “the cringe” by writing something they think young people like them would want to see.

“We are the target demographic,” they add.

So after the runaway success of Six, how are they handling the pressure of launching a new show?

Toby says “that pressure fuelled the writing of this show, and what this show is about kind of discusses that.”

Being thrown into the big leagues early on, Lucy says it taught her to “be more resilient” too.

“You have to accept what you don’t know and be open with people about that.”

Both say they’re pleased they can now use their platform to highlight the stories they don’t feel are being told enough on stage.

“Our ambition with the show was to shine a light on relationships that we didn’t see represented,” says Lucy.

“In culture… those relationships… they’re often secondary or supporting. So for us it was about focusing on the queer space”.

Toby adds they feel it’s more important now to showcase a non-binary character.

“It wasn’t an intention to do that as a form of resistance, but in the context of what we’re living in, it does feel important to have people who are gender non-conforming and see human stories about them.”

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