#Esme Rothero

[paradise-bi-the-dashboard-lightt]

Six the Musical Alphabet

K is for -> Katherine Howard

[nifflering]

Six the musical costumes save me

Save me

some examples

[sixcostumerefs]

(l.eesa)

Six: Monochrome edition

[live-in-consort]

GUYS I WAS JOKING WTF

[janedances]

SIX PLEASE NEVER CHANGE

[but-im-unbreakable]

in honour of the festive season six west end should have a show with nikki aragon meg boleyn kayleigh seymour esme cleves shakira howard and harriet parr

call it silver and gold

[sixthemusicalextras]

@/charlottejones_17 and @/leapintomagic on Instagram, 16 October 2023

So how are we feeling today?

[thequeendomeffect-noah]

I was just thinking about how it’s insane that we have 3 silver SwAlts with the same variation (so far) and now Gaby’s first show back is a Parr show. 💀

[six-another-timeline]

esme is going to trieste too??!?!

[six-costume-refs]

Do you think they're going to give Esme a skirt for Seymour and Rachel a Bobo skirt now?

( @madrigalsandmaximoffs answering here. I swear I got another ask or two about this but for the life of me can’t find them in my inbox so hopefully y’all see this.)

It’s possible. There are two considerations: whether it’s logistically feasibly and whether they want to do it from a design perspective.

Let’s start with logistics and exactly why Esme likely got a new Boleyn. Costume makers are booked MONTHS in advance. West End recast was booked back in the spring. So they’re not always available to make a costume immediately if it’s not planned for quite a while in advance (which I talked about as being a likely factor in why Jessica Niles got her UKT costume so late and why Rebecca Wickes might have joined later too). That’s why I usually don’t expect we’ll get random variations significantly into the timeline of a show running. But in this scenario, those logistics actually might provide an argument for actors to get a new costume.

UK costume makers typically function like most other freelance contract-based jobs, where you’re booked in advance to spend a certain amount of time working on a project before a certain deadline. For instance, Six might contact the usual Boleyn maker and say “hey, we would like to book you to make two Boleyn costumes, ideally starting in August and finishing by October 1st,” and then would work out the details from there. But because costume makers can fill up quickly, you sometimes need to book significantly in advance. From what we know about the timeline, Six usually books the costume makers for the next cast change before the current actors are finalized as staying or leaving. But because it’s better to have costume slots booked with each of the needed makers than not and they might not know who all needs a costume, it’s easier to err on the side of caution and book costume makers for a full cast change (or very close to it). Depending on how many of the actors stay, that might mean there are unused costume slots that were booked but Six now doesn’t need. With this West End cast change, Claudia Kariuki stuck around as Seymour, Dionne Ward Anderson as Cleves, Roxanne Couch as Parr, Rachel Rawlinson as black alt, Esme Rothero as silver alt, Danielle Rose as B/H/orange alt. That means they had likely booked slots for a:

- Boleyn (alt)

- Seymour

- Cleves

- Howard (alt)

- Parr (principal)

- black alt

- silver alt

- potentially an orange alt or vague alt costume

that they now didn’t need for new West End actors. But those slots could also be used to replace any existing costumes that needed to be replaced, and that’s not necessarily constrained to purely West End. In fact, it seems like they used those slots to replace costumes for several actors in the UK Tour who needed new ones:

The Boleyn slot could have been used to make a new costume for Jennifer Caldwell, the Howard for Rebecca Wickes, and the Parr for Alana Robinson.

The silver alt slot was likely used to provide any needed updates to Esme’s costume. That obviously means they had the chance to make a new Boleyn skirt. It also could mean replacements for existing pieces or even another new variation.

That of course leaves Seymour, Cleves, black alt, and orange alt/vague alt unaccounted for. Those slots may have been cancelled, rescheduled for a different time,* and/or there could be costumes in progress that we just haven’t seen. With black alt specifically that would mean something like Esme’s silver, where Rachel might get any updates or replacements that is needed and maybe, just maybe, we could see a new variation.

And that brings me to a design perspective. Honestly, I’m not sure if they’d do either. Rachel has always had the full set of variations that Collette Guitart had before her - an open skirt for Aragon/Howard, a Seymour skirt, full Cleves with shorts used for Boleyn with the primary top, and Parr pants. This also means that Rachel and Esme now both have nearly a full set for one of their primary covers: an Aragon/Howard skirt, a Boleyn or Seymour (Boleyn for Esme likely as it’s her first cover, Seymour for Rachel as it’s hers), full Cleves, and Parr pants.

So….. though she doesn’t have a Boleyn skirt, black alt has used shorts for Boleyn long enough now that they might count that as a full set. But shorts for Boleyn doesn’t work for silver alt, so that may be why Esme got one but Rachel still might not.

With that in mind, I do think that Esme will only get a Seymour skirt if Rachel gets a Boleyn (and vise versa). I’m just not convinced that they’ll decide it’s definitely needed.

TL;DR: possible logistically, but they might not feel it’s necessary from a design perspective.

———————————

*Claudia Kariuki and Jessica Niles both get some new costume pieces over this past summer. There’s a chance those were those slots but moved up.

Rachel’s Aragon skirt photo is by Pamela Raith. The rest are from the queens’ own Instagrams.

[unwrittenemmy]

What roles I think the WE alts will be playing when they inevitably return:

Rachel: Seymour

Esme: Parr

Monique: Cleves

Danielle: Howard

Leah: Parr

[lightleckrereins]

(@/jonathanhillb)

Update on esme boleyn. She got tabs. (And I love it)

[dontbebittah]

The History of Swingo, Part 7: The New Era

(Esme Rothero performing as Jane Seymour on the West End. Photographed by @sixbyamelia on Instagram.)

(tie 10) Esme Rothero was one of two swings cast in the 2021-22 West End production, and both she and fellow swing Rachel continued on with the 22-23 production as well. Esme was the first to wear the silver swing costume, with the base split skirt as well as the pants and Cleves variations. She is also the only silver swing to date to get a Boleyn skirt variation, which she received towards the beginning of her second contract. Esme and Rachel actually both achieved Swingo on the same day, Esme as Cleves and Rachel as Howard, in the first ever Double Swingo performance. Esme is currently performing as a swing in the UK tour of Jesus Christ Superstar.

Days to complete Swingo: 120

Date completed: March 17th, 2022

Performance stats:

Fun Fact: Esme and Rachel swapped the role of dance captain in between productions, with Esme originally having the role with West End 3.0 and Rachel taking it over for West End 4.0.

(Rachel Rawlinson performing as Catherine of Aragon at West End Live. Photographed by @bekisphotos on Instagram.)

(tie 10) Rachel Rawlinson was the second swing in the 21-22 and 22-23 West End productions, plus a short extension with the 23-25 cast. She wore the black alt costume with the Howard skirt, pants, Cleves, and Seymour skirt variations. For unscheduled performances, Rachel was the priority cover for Aragon, Seymour, and Cleves while Esme was the priority for the other three roles; these are also the roles each performer learned first. Rachel was also the standby performer for the West End Reunion performances, although she did not need to perform. Rachel can currently be seen in Singin’ in the Rain.

Days to complete Swingo: 118 (single production: 85, WE 4.0)

Date completed: March 17th 2022

Performance stats:

Fun Fact: Rachel performed on the West End as a child in Chitty Chitty Bang Bang and Mary Poppins.

(Danielle Rose as Anne Boleyn on the West End. Photographed by @daynaransleyphoto on Instagram.)

(14) Danielle Rose was the only alternate in the West End 2021-22 cast to complete Swingo. Her first covers were Boleyn and Howard, and she wore the orange alt costume for her second and third covers. She played the same role in the 22-23 West End production, although her second and third covers changed from A/C and S/P to A/S and C/P in her second contract. She also briefly joined the 2023-25 cast as alternate B/S/H, although she didn’t end up performing as Boleyn. Outside of Six, Danielle was seen most recently in Ushers: The Front of House Musical.

Days to complete Swingo: 322

Date completed: October 8th, 2022

Performance stats:

Fun Fact: Despite Seymour and Parr initially being her 3rd covers, Danielle ended up performing those roles more than her second covers (Aragon and Cleves). Danielle’s final show with the West End 5.0 cast was as Seymour, although it was one of her first covers at the time.

[brojustshutup]

I LOVE THIS SOOOOO MUCH

[live-in-consort]

still thinking about how Six could’ve fixed the double identical silver alt costume situation by simply switching esme to boleyn and meg to seymour so esme could wear her custom boleyn skirt

[janedances]

DOUBLE SILVER COSTUME SHOW HERE WE GO