Henry VIII's six wives are back from the dead as a girl band in "Six," which opens Tuesday at the Ordway Center in a return engagement.

When the theatrical concert first landed at the St. Paul venue in fall 2019, "nobody really knew what it was," said Ordway producing director Rod Kaats. "But after a few days of word-of-mouth, it was selling like crazy. That's because it's a great show, well-told."

"Six" reimagines the queens — Catherine of Aragon, Anne Boleyn, Jane Seymour, Anna of Cleves, Katherine Howard and Catherine Parr — as Beyoncé- and Spice Girls'-style pop princesses who get to tell their stories on a glitzy concert stage.

A work of British college chums. Creators Lucy Moss and Toby Marlow were students at Cambridge University when they decided that they wanted to show Henry VIII's six queens beyond their fates ("divorced, beheaded, died, divorced, beheaded, survived"). They remixed the history, casting the queens as contemporary pop divas that recall everyone from Beyoncé and Rihanna to Taylor Swift and the Spice Girls. "Six" premiered in a converted conference room in 2017 at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival.

From horrible history to hope. "Six" "provides a great escape, pure entertainment, but it also has gravitas," said producer Kevin McCollum, a former president and CEO of the Ordway. "It's about terrible, horrible history from 500 years ago when women lived by laws created by men who have absolute authority over them. The upliftment and empowerment come from the fact that we know better and we have to use our voices to remind the world that we're better than that."

Pre-Broadway run. "Six" made history as the first production to go from St. Paul to Broadway. The Ordway was one of four pre-Broadway stops for "Six," which also had engagements in Chicago, Boston and Edmonton in Alberta, Canada.

Diva power: The Tudor stage concert does not fit the traditional princess paradigm that "Frozen," "Wicked" and "Beauty and the Beast" are all modeled on. It is a more complicated world in "Six," said Kaats, where people are beheaded, have miscarriages, divorced. It is for a mature audience — young women discovering themselves as adults, he added.

"Not only is it rare for a Broadway musical to be focused exclusively on women, but it's unheard of to have six women as protagonists," Kaats said. "It's female forward, reanimated for the 21st century. They're magical metaphors of empowerment and agency."

Seven "Sixes" worldwide: Productions include sit-downs in London, New York, Australia and one on a Disney cruise ship. In the U.S., the two touring companies — the Boleyn and the Aragon — both launched in March 2022. Interesting fact: Actors Amina Faye, who plays Jane Seymour on the Boleyn tour that's coming to the Ordway, and Jasmine Forsberg, who plays Jane Seymour on the Aragon tour, went to college together at Penn State University in State College, Pa. Also, Aline Mayagoitia, who played in "In the Heights" at the Ordway, is Katherine Howard in this production.

'Six'
Who: Music, lyrics and book by Toby Marlow and Lucy Moss. Directed by Moss and Jamie Armitage.
Where: Ordway Center, 345 Washington St., St. Paul.
When: 7:30 p.m. Tue.-Fri., 2 & 7:30 p.m. Sat.-Sun. Ends Nov. 6.
Tickets: $55.50-$168.50. 651-224-4222, ordway.org.
Protocol: Masks not required but welcomed and encouraged.