A Royal Musical Quiz
Below is "The Royal Quiz,” a fun piece I created for this month’s ENCORE, the new national theatre magazine. The quiz was created to celebrate the opening of the new musical “Six” which will open this fall on Broadway . For the complete quiz — and answers , follow the link to subscribe.
By FRAN\K RIZZO
Six, a musical about King Henry VIII’s many wives, was just hours away from its Broadway opening in March 2020 before theatres were shut down as part of the response to the COVID-19 pandemic. To celebrate Broadway’s—and the show’s—return, here’s a quiz looking at that much-wed monarch—as well as trivia about other Broadway shows with a royal touch. Now, no Googling or peeking at IBDB. Remember what happened to a few of Henry’s wives.
1) Henry VIII might have liked musicals. After all, he was an accomplished musician who sang and played instruments such as the recorder and the lute. He also composed and arranged music himself. Which of these is the title of a song he wrote?
“Pastime with Good Company”
“Pleasures of May”
“Fine Wine and Women”
“Fine Ladies and Good Gentlemen”
“Henry, Sweet Henry”
2) Where was Six first written?
At a Starbuck’s
In a dorm room
In school detention hall
On soccer bleachers
At the Tower of London
3) Pair the wife with the fate:
Catherine of Aragon
Anne Boleyn
Jane Seymour
Anne of Cleves
Catherine Howard
Catherine Parr
Beheaded
Died during marriage
Survived
Divorced
Suicide
4) The Wives of Henry VIII was presented on Broadway in the 1930s…
As a costume drama starring Eva Le Gallienne
As a solo show starring Cornelia Otis Skinner
As a comedy starring ZaSu Pitts
As a musical starring Mitzi Green
As a puppet play starring the Bill Baird marionettes
5) Who was first offered to direct the musical Rex, a 1970s musical about King Henry VIII, but passed?
Harold Prince
Michael Bennett
Sir John Gielgud
Richard Attenborough
Bob Fosse
6) Who starred as the Ancient Egyptian queen in the ill-fated ’70s musical Nefertiti?
Andrea Marcovicci
Lenora Nemetz
Chita Rivera
Karen Akers
Anita Morris
7) Who starred as King Arthur in the London premiere of Camelot?
Laurence Harvey
Dirk Bogarde
Patrick McGoohan
Ian Holm
Richard Burton
8) In Once Upon a Mattress, what makes Queen Aggravain speechless?
When the king tells her to shut up
When her mouth is stuffed with peas
When she learns of the heavy artillery under the mattress
When she discovers Prince Dauntless is gay
When she finds out Princess Winnifred has the 11 o’clock number
9) The musical Pippin, about the son of King Charlemagne, was not the first Pippin to make it to Broadway. An earlier Pippin played in the year…
1870
1902
1922
1929
1949
10) What major event happened right before the opening of Noël Coward’s royal musical The Girl Who Came To Supper?
V.E. Day
The Cuban Missile Crisis
The Kennedy Assassination
The Moon Landing
Woodstock
11) Which actor was not approached to play the King in The King and I?
Noël Coward
Rex Harrison
Alfred Drake
Laurence Olivier
12) What nickname did the cast give Jonathan Groff who played King George in Hamilton?
King Awakening
King Blue Eyes
King Coy
King Looking
King George The Third The Second
13) What’s the total stage time King George appears in Hamilton?
Nine Minutes
Fourteen Minutes
Sixteen Minutes
Eighteen Minutes
He never leaves the stage
14) Mary Martin recommended that Rodgers and Hammerstein cast Yul Brynner as the King in The King and I because they had been in what show together?
Bob’s Your Uncle
Love Life
Lute Song
Gay’s the Word
One Touch of Venus
15) The Prince of Grand Street, a musical about the Yiddish theatre which closed out of town, starred:
Sam Levene
Morris Carnovsky
Joel Grey
Herschel Bernardi
Robert Preston
16) In Spamalot, which character is not a member of King Arthur’s court?
Sir Lancelot the Homicidally Brave
Sir Robin, the Not-Quite-So-Brave-as
Sir-Lancelot
Sir Dennis Galahad, the Dashingly Handsome
Sir Carole, the Winsome One
Sir Bedivere, the Strangely Flatulent