♪ Listen up let me tell you a story ♪
♪ Welcome to the show ♪
♪ To the historemix ♪
♪ Switching up the flow ♪
♪ As we add the prefix ♪
♪ Everybody knows that we used to be six wives ♪
♪ But now we're ex-wives ♪
- The cast of Six have reclaimed their Thrones
as the new Queens of Broadway.
Paul Wontorek sat down with one
of the stars of Six, Brittney Mack.
- Thanks, Tamsen.
We chatted about the show's passionate fan base,
The Queendom, and so much more.
♪ Get down ♪
♪ Get down you dirty rascal ♪
What about this show, what is the secret of the sauce?
Why this is just magic?
- I think there's a combination of magic pieces.
Toby and Lucy are telling a story that has
to do with their history, right?
They are from London and, you know, they went to school.
So, then creating this was for school.
- Right.
- Their friendship is, kind of leaps off the pages,
so to speak, you can see and smell
and taste the collaboration when you're like
just reading the score in the script.
In the room in Chicago, I will never forget,
we sat down the very first day we sat there
and I was like, I said, "Okay, ladies, I just,
I wanna take a second and just clear the air
that this is a room full of all women.
So I think if we respect each other as black, white,
mixed, Filipino, whatever your generations may be,
we're humans first, then we're women
and then we're these creative beings.
And I think as long as we keep that going,
we can have something very special.
We agreed that day and from that day on,
I think that's the magic in our sauce.
It's respect first and then, you know,
I don't know what they did with that casting.
I don't know how they did it.
♪ One of a kind no category ♪
♪ Too many years lost in his story ♪
♪ We're free to take our crowning glory ♪
Casting and the music.
I mean, where we we're in rehearsal,
wiling out over everybody.
Adriana sang, we were like, "What the?"
You know what I mean?
Like, we would just freaking out
and just like gassing each other up, gassing each other up.
Cause that's what women need.
We need to be gassed, constantly.
And that's what artists needs.
So, to give each other exactly what
we need is just enough to get through the show.
And that, from there just kind of evolved into respect
and honor, and then just like genuine love
because Abby Mueller cracks my world up.
She makes me laugh so hard every day, all the time.
And you know, I try to be a professional and I,
I can't with her around.
So, it's respect first.
- It's a lot of fun to watch Six the musical,
but how much fun is it to be up there
with those women doing it?
- Is bananas, it's so dope.
It's so dope, it's so cool.
Like if I'm there, No Way is my favorite song
to dance in the show and baby, you cannot tell me
that I am not dancing for Janet Jackson, okay?
I am giving you rhythm nation like I am serving you
everything you could possibly need in life, you're welcome.
Like that's how I feel, that's my swag, you know?
And, you know, then watching Abby just stand
and sing, I'm just like. (crying)
♪ You can build me up ♪
♪ You can tear me down ♪
♪ You can try, but I'm unbreakable ♪
It's incredible, it's incredible.
And I get to be a part of it every night, it's an honor.
- The fan base has not gone anywhere.
They're very excited, they have their tickets.
That must feel good and must feel good to know that
that energy, there was such an energy
for the show and it's still there.
- It does, it's humbling, it's humbling
because we are all very, just kind of normal chicks.
We call our fans The Queendom.
They're crazy, they are crazy.
They're crazy, they always like, "Hey, auntie Brittney."
It's a good time, they keep us, they keep us on our toes.
You know, they keep us aware.
They keep us accountable.
So, the discussions that we're having now as a cast
with producers and with other cast on equality and equity,
which are two different things,
in the workplace and on Broadway is for them, right.
It's because they're all aspiring.
So, we gotta get it right.
♪ We're Six. ♪
- What made you wanna do this first,
when you were first a kid, when you were that kid
in high school, why did you wanna switch yourself this way?
- Oh my gosh, well, okay.
So what had happened was, right.
So, growing up in Chicago, WTTW, Channel 11, used
to play musicals really, really late on Sunday nights.
My mom sat me down in front of the TV one night
and was like, don't move.
And I didn't move, you know, I grew up watching musicals.
I grew up watching it all happen at the same time, right.
Sing and dance and acting.
So it wasn't, I can't even say I'm the person that's like,
"Oh, I'm a dancer first and singer second and sub par."
Like, I just do all of it to whatever level I can do it
at that day Cause Denise, my God.
So, the influences of like Gary Coleman
and Shirley Temple, I told my mom, I said,
"I wanna be Gary Coleman and Shirley Temple when I grow up."
She was like, "Okay."
And then, and that was it.
And I was like, and she said, "I can't remember,
I can't believe you remember that conversation."
I was like, I'll never forget it
because she never told me I couldn't.
(upbeat music)