#ellie jane grant in teal on the west end

[thexwives]

six blink 2 times if you are not okay

chaos is getting out of hand atp

[justarandomsixfan]

ELLIE JANE GRANT REPLACING HANNA STEWART. THIS IS NOT A DRILL.

ELLIE WEST END DEBUT. TEAL ALT BACK ON THE WEST END FOR GOOD. MORE ELLIE SEYMOUR & HOWARD. I REPEAT. THIS IS NOT A DRILL!!!

[six-costume-refs]

2023-25 West End Alt Costumes

Hey y'all! I've already talked about the new alt costumes a few times in different places, but felt like it would be easiest to make one big post about this. If you haven't already, I'd suggest reading this post from the day the cast was announced breaking down potential color assignments for each.

Color assignments

First off, a few costumes we can reasonably assume: - A silver swing costume has been in progress. This should be Meg Dixon-Brasil's. - Naomi Alade has glitter eyeshadows in green, red, and orange as well as her palettes in those shades, so we can assume she has orange. - We've also seen teal pants hanging up in the alts' dressing room. They seem to be the same design as Monique Ashe-Palmer and Ellie Jane Grant have. By elimination, these should be Gabriella Stylianou's; they're also up on the rack by her Aragon and Seymour costumes.

The two big questions (aka, what is going on with pink alt) - First of all, we saw the top for a pink alt hanging in the dressing room. This was similar to Natalie Pilkington's, but not identical. When seeing that @lightleckrereins and I initially determined it could be either an altered version of Natalie's, or a costume for for Hannah Lowther. That still seems to hold true. - Hannah Lowther also posted her makeup. It includes two pink glitters (a hot pink and light, everyone else has just gotten one for each so shouldn't be two Howard), two pink lipsticks, and two pink palettes. One of those lipsticks is the go-to assigned Howard lipstick while the other is their go-to assigned pink alt lipstick. One of the pink palettes lines up more with pink alt than Howard. She also didn't have any lipsticks that I'd expect for teal/black, or any nudes/silver makeup that would work for black; the Parr palette could possibly be used for teal but doesn't quite work and seems less likely. - Natalie....also seems to have pink alt?? She posted a photo of herself in what is definitely pink alt makeup from this week. It's definitely new/current; it shows her and Meg in their new dressing room.

I feel like it's likely that they're both in pink alt, but of course this is Six so we'll have to wait on promo photos to know for sure.

Changed or new variations I've also gotten some asks about the possibility of changed variations. We already know teal will have pants, so we can rule that out. It seems like Naomi will be wearing orange for A/S/H/P, which is roughly what it's been used for with pants, so it seems very unlikely to see anything there. Meg Dixon-Brasil should have the same silver alt as Shakira Simpson, with an open skirt, full Cleves, and Parr (I've talked about why I think Esme's Boleyn skirt was a one-off here). That brings us to, again, the pink alt question. Some Hannah Lowther seems to have pink alt, she'd be wearing it for A/B/S/C, which the open skirt isn't a perfect fit for but is still easier/more obvious than a new variation. As swing, Natalie Pilkington throws a little more into question if she is in fact in pink. However, she should still be able to wear her Seymour and Parr principal costumes, so I'd expect her to continue to wear those and then pink for A/B/C/H. That's exactly how pink alt has been used in the past, so I don't think it's likely that that would change or necessitate a new variation. My only question (again, assuming they're both pink alt) would be if Hannah or Natalie get a change purely so they're not in exact duplicates, just like Natalie got for her black alt during the 21-22 UK Tour when her and Cassy Lee had duplicates. However, the chances of the West End getting to a double pink alt show where they really can't move things around and have to send them both on in pink alt is a lot less likely, particularly considering that they (presumably) both have two principal costumes as well. So...still considering this highly unlikely (but hey a girl can dream)

Other questions/notes - What the hell is going on with potential double pink - Assuming double pink, is black alt is being phased out entirely. This could just be a scenario where it's more logistically convenient for Natalie to seemingly keep S/P/pink, but in another scenario maybe they'd have black alt again. Or it might just be being phased out entirely - it's more simple than most of the other designs and doesn't quite fit into the design continuum. I have no good answer for this, so we'll just have to see (although my black-alt-cosplaying self would love to see it return eventually) - If Natalie Pilkington will still wear her Seymour/Parr (with black or pink). I think this feels like an obvious yes, but we'll see. - I realize I didn't post the full makeup breakdown for all of them. I'll do that in the next few weeks.

——————————

paulaspinallcostumes; naomialade1; thaotheresenguyen

sixthemusical; hannahlowther; natpilk1

[randaleah]

Ellie-Jane Grant did her West-End Debut today as her second Cover Parr!

Six is doing Six things again, what is happening at the West-End at the moment???

that is also the first time in this West-End Cast that someone is wearing the teal costume, right?

[sixcostumerefs]

Hi!! I haven't been keeping up with six as much recently, could you explain the UK standardising covers thing a bit more?

Hey! Yes! However I am going to slightly hijack this ask and give a broader “UK alt system 101” because I’ve been getting a lot of asks about it recently.

First covers (fully standardized) Prior to lockdown and with the first cast returning from lockdown, UK casts of Six would just choose alt covers based on the queens they had and what worked best. Saw combos like A/P, S/H, B/C; A/C, B/H, S/P; A/H, B/C, S/P. From fall 2021 - fall 2023, every new UK cast has used an alt system with A/C, B/H, and S/P, and then swing(s). This changed in fall 2023, when the new West End cast used A/S, B/C, and H/P, but it’s not clear if that’s a one-off situation.

Second covers (not standardized) Prior to Covid they had used two different second cover systems: #1. What I call the "consistent" cover system, where if someone is first cover B/C then someone else is going to be second cover B/C and someone else third B/C. This was used by the 2019-21 West End cast. Example: Zara MacIntosh: 1st A/H, 2nd B/C, 3rd S/P Cherelle Jay: 1st B/C, 2nd S/P, 3rd A/H Hana Stewart: 1st S/P, 2nd A/H, 3rd B/C #2. What I call the "scrambled" cover system, where if someone is first cover B/C then one of the other alts is second cover B/? and the other is C/?. This one was used by the 2019 West End alts... Courtney Stapleton: 1st A/P, 2nd S/C, 3rd B/H Vicki Manser: 1st B/C, 2nd H/P, 3rd A/S Grace Mouat: 1st S/H, 2nd A/B, 3rd C/P ...and the 2019-22 UK Tour alts: Cassandra Lee: 1st A/C, 2nd S/H, and 3rd B/P Jennifer Caldwell: 1st B/H, 2nd A/P, 3rd S/C Harriet Watson: 1st S/P, 2nd B/C, 3rd A/H This system is generally better from a coverage/management perspective, which I talked about here.

When they came back from lockdown they initially seemed to have standardized to the consistent system. The 21-22 WE followed it: Paisley Billings: A/C, S/P, B/H Danielle Rose: B/H, A/C, S/P Roxanne Couch: S/P, B/H, A/C as did the 22-23 UKT, formally anyway (may have followed a different one informally): Grace Melville: A/C, B/H, S/P Leesa Tulley: B/H, S/P, A/C Natalie Pilkington: S/P, A/C, B/H but the 22-23 WE started following a scrambled again: Monique Ashe-Palmer: A/C, B/P, S/H Danielle Rose: B/H, A/S, C/P Leah Vassell: S/P, C/H, A/B and the 23-24 UKT now is too: Ellie Jane Grant: A/C, B/P, S/H Izi Maxwell: B/H, S/C, A/P Tamara Anne Morgan: S/P, A/H, B/C

I'm guessing they will try to continue using scrambled in the future because of the coverage benefits, but we'll see.

Swings

For the 2021-22 and the 2022-23 cast, the West End used two swings. Each of them had three primary covers, but also cover the other three commonly enough as needed.

The UK Tour just has one swing, who covers all six roles technically equally (but just like with all prior swings there does still seem to be some sort of unofficial priority/preferred roles).

However, starting with the 2023-25 West End cast, Six started hiring only one full-time swing for the West End, but also added a universal who can go between both the UK Tour and West End productions.

Alternate Costumes Starting with the 2021-22 West End cast, the alts have principal-style costumes for their first covers. If/when they cover 2nd or 3rd covers, they wear an alt costume.

The 2021-22 and 2022-23 WE + 2022-23 and 2023-24 UKT casts followed this system:

(Pictured: Paisley Billings, Danielle Rose, Leah Vassell) A/C wears teal, B/H wears orange, and S/P wears pink. There's only one consistent variation: teal is always pants w/ peplum, orange is always pants w/ peplum, and pink is always the standard A/H.

However, stating with the 2023-25 cast, the system was once again changed. For the first time, the alternates received reused alternate costumes worn by prior queens, just altered for them. Due to this, alt costumes were assigned based on what fit each alternate from existing stock. In this specific instance, that means A/S wears silver (a swing costume), B/C wears teal, and H/P wears orange.

Swing Costumes

Historically, the swings have worn regular swing costumes for all six costumes. Those are typically black and silver:

(Pictured: Rachel Rawlinson, Esme Rothero; Rachel Aragon photo by Pamela Raith)

The black alt was historically used as the primary swing costume. The silver alt was added later as a secondary swing costume.

For the 2021-22 and 2022-23 West End casts, which had two full-time swings, both the black and silver costumes were used with variations as depicted.

For the 2023-25 West End + 2022-23 and 2023-24 UK Tour casts, the one full-time swing wears the silver swing costume. The UK Tour swings had all variations as depicted above with the exception of Boleyn; the West End swing exclusively had the first (far left) variation.

The universal swing who joined as part of the 2023-25 West End cast wears her old costumes from the 2022-23 UK Tour cast, including S/P principal costumes and a pink alt costume.

Across all casts, the Cleves swing costumes don’t have a reveal.

[dontbebittah]

The History of Swingo, Part 11: The Sleeper Hit

(Ellie Jane Grant performing as Anna of Cleves. Photographed by @nisado_photos on Instagram.)

(20) Ellie Jane Grant was the alternate Aragon/Cleves on the 2023-24 UK tour and wore the teal alt costume for her second and third covers. While it seemed like she and fellow alternate Izi Maxwell would both be left at 5/6 roles covered at the end of their contracts, Ellie’s was extended to provide extra coverage for the new tour cast, and she ended up playing Seymour and hitting Swingo in her only performance with the UK Tour 6.0 cast. Ellie was also brought in as an emergency cover on the West End twice during her time in the show, and will soon be returning as a swing on the West End.

Days to complete Swingo: 503

Date completed: September 11th, 2024

Performance stats (note: West End 5.0 is a current production, so these stats are only accurate as of 9/30/24):

Fun Fact: Ellie is one of seven performers to have been an emergency cover with the current West End cast (as of 9/30/24). This is the largest number of emergency performers ever needed within a single cast.