EGN NEWS DESK
In January 2019, Lucy Moss and Toby Marlow, the creators of the musical “Six,” have been on a author’s retreat in Connecticut, questioning easy methods to observe up their celebrated first present.
That month, “Six” — through which Henry VIII’s wives inform their tales through pop songs — was beginning a significant West End run, and a Broadway switch was on the horizon. The present had already been a success on the Edinburgh Fringe Festival, and a rising variety of American followers have been streaming the present’s soundtrack. More and extra, folks wished to know what the pair would do subsequent.
During the Connecticut retreat, they struggled to provide you with new concepts, Marlow recalled in a current interview, and as an alternative gossiped about their love lives. Then, they’d a breakthrough: “Maybe that is what we should always write about,” Marlow mentioned.
On Wednesday, Marlow, 29, and Moss, 30, introduced that their second musical, “Why Am I So Single?,” will open on the Garrick Theater in London on Aug. 27.
The present, which has a 12-person solid, follows two buddies struggling to put in writing a musical and asking one another why they’re chronically single. That thought could sound just like the creators’ time in Connecticut, however Moss, laughing nervously, mentioned it was “undoubtedly not an entire autobiography.”
Marlow mentioned that the musical, which incorporates songs impressed by Dua Lipa hits and numbers from “Singin’ within the Rain,” was “about friendship and love and loneliness and every part that goes with it.”
“Six” continues to be operating on Broadway and the West End, and in 2022, it received the Tony Award for finest authentic rating. There are additionally a number of touring variations, together with one on a cruise ship. Because of that success, anticipation for “Why Am I So Single?” has been constructing since a music the duo was engaged on appeared on-line a number of years in the past. Last fall, Marlow and Moss staged a quick run of an early model of the present in London.
During a current 30-minute interview, the 2 buddies mentioned how “Six” modified them and the multiyear writing course of behind “Why Am I So Single?.” Here are edited extracts of that dialog.
How are you feeling asserting your second present?
MOSS Wildly oscillating between extremely excited and very nervous and burdened. But that’s good. It’d be bizarre if I used to be chill.
The new present sounds so completely different from “Six.” Did you got down to distance yourselves from it?
MOSS After “Six,” folks would method us, like, “Why don’t you do that different historic present?” or “How about this different feminist revisionist thought?”
But the factor we have been enthusiastic about with “Six” was its kind, and our connection to it, somewhat than it being historic. “Six” was simply an accident actually — us making an attempt to put in writing a present that showcased our college buddies who have been ladies and nonbinary folks. The six wives was simply what was out of copyright and what we may use as a hook to get folks to come back and see it.
You wrote “Six” whereas nonetheless in school, at Cambridge University. How did the stress of such an early success have an effect on you?
MARLOW It was rather a lot. It instilled this concept that as a result of we’d had this sudden success in a short time, there’d be one thing else delivered simply as rapidly. Soon, we have been failing to put in writing something, most likely as a result of we have been being debilitated a bit by that stress.
MOSS In 2019, we spent about 4 months making an attempt to put in writing one other present we’d been commissioned for, working in a freezing shed, 10 a.m. until 6 p.m., Monday to Saturday. It was a complete catastrophe.
MARLOW Looking again on that point, a variety of the stress was feeling, “What if we don’t handle to put in writing one thing else?” The aid that I felt after we put a full cease on our first draft of “Why Am I So Single?” was so superb. It was this second of, “Oh my God, I don’t care if everybody hates it. We can nonetheless do it!”
How did you address that stress?
MOSS What’s very nice is that we’re in it collectively. I do know numerous writers who face that stress on their very own. That could make them lose a little bit of their sense of self. But I really feel we’ve all the time had one another, that’s been our saving grace.
Did your friendship change throughout this time?
MARLOW We’ve achieved a variety of work on our relationship to hold on working collectively — studying to belief and to be sincere and provides folks the good thing about the doubt. So a lot of these issues I’ve discovered, I’ve utilized to all of the relationships and friendships in my life, and I’m actually grateful for that.
Was the writing course of for “Why Am I So Single?” completely different from “Six”?
MOSS “Six” was us bashing out songs to this unfastened idea, whereas this has been many, many, many hours and days speaking about construction and character, and plotting the present with sticky notes all around the partitions. It felt very far more like setting up a musical in a standard sense.
What is your hope for this new present? Do you need it to turn into like “Six,” a juggernaut that’s carried out on cruise ships?
MARLOW I undoubtedly need to go on a cruise when it’s achieved! I don’t know. I hope folks prefer it.
MOSS I hope single folks — and non-single folks! — watch it after which depart the theater feeling reassured and uplifted by the love that they’ve of their lives.
