Costume Meanings

## Divorced

Divorced queens wear spikes on their head to represent the spikes of divorces. The spikes also represent crowns, showing how they were royalty before they married Henry, along with the choices of gold and silver chains to show wealth.

## Beheaded

Beheaded queens, Boleyn and Howard, wear a high neck costume and chokers respectively to represent how they were decapitated when they were executed. This acts as a visual reminder that they both lost their heads and perhaps symbolises that they are trying to hide where the head has been severed.

## Died and Survived

Died and survived queens wear the costumes most closely alike to real Tudor fashion. These queens also wear the smallest tiaras/crowns, showing how little history knew and cared about them and how not much is known about them besides the life they had with Henry, much like how princes and kings received more praise and are studied more than princesses and queens. These crowns also allude to their presumed meekness and the "doormat" stereotype that history has marked them with.

## Catherine of Aragon

Gold represents power and prestige as only high-class people in Tudor times were allowed gold clothing, as well as being a colour that Beyoncé (her main "queenspiration") and her dancers wear often. Another possibility for her choice of colour is to represent how long Aragon was married (Gold has 24 carats and Aragon was married 24 years). Yellow could also be interpreted as a reference to Henry and his new wife Anne Boleyn wearing yellow to her funeral. This event is debated over whether it was out of respect (It is presumed that yellow was the colour of mourning in Spain at the time) or mock her.

## Anne Boleyn

She wears a checkered top and skirt, with red lipstick as a reference to her line in *Ex-Wives*. “My sleeves may be green but my lipstick's red”. Her outfit is green in reference to "*Greensleeves,*" a poem that was thought to be written about Boleyn by Henry. The dress, with a skirt that bounces around when she moves, and her hairstyle (two spacebuns) make her look more relaxed. This is because the show's writers wanted to turn the assumed perception of Anne Boleyn, serious and seductive, and flip it on its head. The real Anne Boleyn always wore a necklace with a "B" initial, which is why she wears a choker with a "B" in the musical which also represents her decapitation.

Fun fact: Her spacebuns weren't intentional, it's just what Millie O'Connell wore at West End Live 2018 because she "thought they were cute".

## Jane Seymour

Jane Seymour wears a black-rimmed dress which is heavily influenced by Tudor architecture. In the middle of her dress, she wears a white corset that represents the characteristics of purity and innocence that history marks her with. Her outfit also resembles a wedding dress since, to Henry, she was his "only true wife". Her outfit includes a knee-length skirt and long sleeves, most likely symbolising her modesty and traditional beliefs.

## Anna Of Cleves

Anna's main outfit colour is red, which is associated with strength, power and determination. Anna wears a crop top and a fur jacket with chains draping down from her shorts, which represent her 'faith to the higher power' as confirmed in her song Get Down. Anna of Cleves and Catherine Parr are the only characters not to wear skirts, which may be because they both outlived Henry.and the sleeves on her outer jacket pay homage to the top she wears in her iconic portrait.

## Katherine Howard

Katherine wears an outfit that highlights her body to represent the perspective of the men around her. The translucent skirt is meant to symbolise how men focused on what was underneath her clothing instead of who she really was. Although Katherine, like many of the queens, wears fishnet stockings, hers are much more see-through to delineate her alleged ‘flirtatious personality.’ Her outfit is pink in reference to her youth. (Pink is stereotypically associated with young girls and Katherine was estimated to be around 17 when she married the 49 year-old Henry). Her song intends to showcase her as a sexualised teenage pop star, much like Brittney Spears or Ariana Grande. She also wears long, almost opaque sleeves, as if she is trying to protect her modesty.

## Catherine Parr

Catherine wears a royal blue jumpsuit because it’s more flexible, and she had to be more flexible to survive Henry. Her outfit is blue to represent her wisdom, intelligence and her sagacious personality. Her puffed sleeves are similar to Henry's since she inherited most of his belongings when he died. Instead of wearing a skirt Catherine, like Anna of Cleves, wears trousers since she outlived Henry. This could also be a reference to how Catherine Parr was a strong feminist who strived for female empowerment since women were expected to look and act a certain way due to patriarchal structures in society. It could also be a possible play on the phrase "wearing the trousers".

## Ladies in Waiting

The ladies in waiting wear a pearl headband which closely resembles the French hoods commonly worn in the Tudor era. Their outfits are black, most likely so they don’t stand out more than the queens and to resemble classic punk outfits. The costumes are decorated with pearls and round studs, possibly a reference to how Jane Seymour required her ladies to wear a large number of pearls before they could appear before her as queen. The ruffs in their outfits were rarely worn in Henry’s reign but were common in the reign of Anne’s daughter, Elizabeth.