Community hub
0 subscribers8 pages, 0 posts
Recent from talks
All channels
Be the first to start a discussion here.
Be the first to start a discussion here.
Be the first to start a discussion here.
Be the first to start a discussion here.
Contribute something
Welcome to the community hub built to collect knowledge and have discussions related to Toby Marlow.
Nothing was collected or created yet.
Toby Marlow
View on Wikipediafrom Wikipedia
Toby Marlow (born 12 October 1994) is a British musical theatre composer, lyricist, playwright, writer, and actor best known for co-creating the international hit musical Six with Lucy Moss. Six received five Olivier Award nominations, including Best New Musical and Outstanding Achievement in Music.[1] Marlow and Moss went on to win the Tony Award for Best Original Score in 2022.[2]
Key Information
Marlow is also co-creator of Hot Gay Time Machine, a musical comedy cabaret show directed by Lucy Moss, in which he co-stars with Zak Ghazi-Torbati .[3]
Early life and education
[edit]Marlow was born on 12 October 1994 to parents Helma and Andrew Marlow and was raised in Henley-on-Thames, England. He has two siblings: an older brother named Jasper and a younger sister named Annabel,[4][5] who later originated the role of Katherine Howard in Six at the 2017 Edinburgh Fringe Festival.[6] Marlow's mother and maternal grandparents are Jewish.[7] He was a child actor from the ages of 9 to 14,[4] appearing in several films and on TV, including an appearance on ITV's Marple, in which he played a French boy with glasses.[8] Marlow's father is a professional musician, his grandfather also trained as an actor and his great-grandmother taught speech and drama.[9]
Marlow was educated at Abingdon School from 2008 to 2013,[10] and was a member of the Acorn Music Theatre Company in Henley.[11] He went on to study English at Robinson College at Cambridge University.[8] While at Cambridge, he was very active in the ADC Theatre scene, as both a performer and a composer.[12][13] According to Lucy Moss, their friendship "solidified" during the 2015 amateur student production of Rent at the ADC Theatre,[14] during which Marlow played the lead character Angel, and Moss was one of the dancers.[15]
Career
[edit]Six
[edit]In 2017, Marlow co-composed and co-wrote the musical Six, produced by Kenny Wax.[16] The musical received positive reviews at the 2017 Edinburgh Fringe Festival and went on to be performed in the West End in London.[17][4] On 28 July 2019, Marlow stepped into the role of Catherine Parr for two sold-out performances at London's Arts Theatre when a cast member was on vacation, the two standbys for the role were out sick, and the other understudy was performing in a different role in the show.[18] Marlow, along with his collaborator Lucy Moss, signed with Warner Chappell Music in August 2019.[19] Six began previews on Broadway at the Brooks Atkinson Theatre on 13 February 2020 and was scheduled to open on 12 March 2020.[20] However, the show's opening night was delayed due to the closure of all Broadway theatres because of the COVID-19 pandemic.[21] Previews for the show resumed on 17 September 2021 and the official opening night occurred on 3 October 2021.
On 12 June 2022, Marlow became the first openly non-binary composer–lyricist to win a Tony Award, sharing the Tony Award for Best Original Score for Six with Moss.[2][22][23]
Recognition
[edit]Personal life
[edit]Filmography
[edit]| Year | Title | Role | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2004 | Agatha Christie's Marple: 4.50 from Paddington | James Stoddard-West | (TV Series), 1 episode: "Marple: 4.50 from Paddington" |
| 2005 | The Mistress of Spices | Young Doug | Film |
| Egypt | Young Champollion | (TV Series), 1 episode: "The Mystery of the Rosetta Stone" | |
| 2006 | Silent Witness | Stephen Owen | (TV Series), 2 episodes: "Supernova" Part 1 and 2 |
| 2008 | Senseless | Young Eliott | Film |
| 2009 | Shadows in the Sun | Sam | Film |
| 2010 | Ben Hur | Young Messala | (TV Series), 2 episodes[9] |
| Mongrels | Death (Voice role) | (TV Series), 1 episode: "Marion the Young Lover" |
See also
[edit]References
[edit]- ^ Rooney, David (7 April 2019). "Olivier Awards 2019: Full Winners List". The Hollywood Reporter. Retrieved 22 April 2022.
- ^ a b c Putnam, Leah (12 June 2022). "Six's Toby Marlow Makes History With Tony Win". Playbill. Retrieved 13 June 2022.
- ^ Button, Simon (14 December 2018). "Review – Hot Gay Time Machine at Trafalgar Studios 'leaves you wanting more'". Attitude. Retrieved 22 April 2022.
- ^ a b c Nathan, John (1 April 2019). "Hit Musical Six Creators Toby Marlow and Lucy Moss talk making Henry VIII's wives into pop stars". Evening Standard.
- ^ "Divorce, beheaded, live: Henry VIII's six wives". Henley Standard. 8 January 2018. Retrieved 12 June 2020.
- ^ Beswick, Emily (9 September 2017). "Six at the Fringe review – "the best hour of comedy I saw all week"". Cherwell. Retrieved 12 June 2020.
- ^ David, Keren (6 September 2018). "We wrote a musical during our finals...now it's on in the West End". The Jewish Chronicle. Retrieved 12 June 2020.
- ^ a b c Crompton, Sarah (16 January 2020). "With Six, Playwrights Lucy Moss and Toby Marlow Dramatize the Tudor Dynasty—One Power Ballad at a Time". Vogue. Retrieved 20 February 2020.
- ^ a b "Dad and talented teenagers have great expectations of acting together". Henley Standard. 30 September 2013.
- ^ "Guys and Dolls". Abingdon School.
- ^ "Theatre group returns with six Grimm tales". Henley Standard. 21 June 2021. Retrieved 22 April 2022.
- ^ Petkovic, Timothy (5 October 2017). "Review: Hot Gay Time Machine". The Tab.
- ^ Heppenstall-West, Luke (27 November 2015). "Review: CUADC/Footlights Panto – Robin Hood". The Tab.
- ^ "'I have really intense memories of the ADC and it being the beginning of a lifelong friendship'". CAM. 20 November 2020. Retrieved 27 April 2022.
- ^ "Rent (2015)". Camdram. Retrieved 27 April 2022.
- ^ "Toby Marlow". Six The Musical. Archived from the original on 2 August 2018. Retrieved 2 August 2018.
- ^ Worsley, Lucy (23 January 2019). "Lucy Worsley on the musical Six: 'It's Hamilton for the 16th century". The Times.
- ^ Fierberg, Ruthie (29 July 2019). "Six Composer Toby Marlow Steps in at Sold-Out Shows After Cast Illnesses". Playbill. Retrieved 17 October 2019.
- ^ Wild, Stephi (9 August 2019). "Six Writers Lucy Moss and Toby Marlow Sign With Warner Music". BroadwayWorld.
- ^ Petski, Denise (1 August 2019). "Toby Marlow & Lucy Moss Hit Musical Six Heads To Broadway In 2020". Deadline Hollywood.
- ^ Dex, Robert (13 March 2020). "Six the Musical: Broadway opening night for West End transfer cancelled as coronavirus causes theatres to go dark". Evening Standard. Retrieved 13 May 2020.
- ^ a b White, Abbey (12 June 2022). "Tony Awards: Six Co-Creator Toby Marlow Becomes First Nonbinary Composer-Lyricist to Win Best Score". The Hollywood Reporter. Retrieved 13 June 2022.
- ^ a b c McDougall, AJ (12 June 2022). "Six Composer Becomes First Openly Non-Binary Person to Win a Tony". The Daily Beast. Retrieved 13 June 2022.
- ^ Mendez II, Moises (28 September 2022). "Lucy Moss and Toby Marlow are on TIME100 Next 2022". Time. Retrieved 10 November 2022.
External links
[edit]
Toby Marlow
View on Grokipediafrom Grokipedia
Early life and education
Childhood and early acting
Toby Marlow was born on 12 October 1994 in Henley-on-Thames, Oxfordshire, England, to Helma and Andrew Marlow.[5] Raised in the town, he grew up in a household filled with music, as both parents were musicians who ensured instruments and musical activities were a constant presence.[6] This environment fostered his early exposure to performance arts, with Marlow recalling a natural immersion in music from a young age that sparked his interest in musical theater independently of formal training.[7] Marlow began acting professionally around age nine, securing roles that demonstrated his precocious talent before he transitioned toward composition and writing in his mid-teens.[8] His early credits include portraying young Eliott in the 2008 film Senseless and Sam in the 2009 drama Shadows in the Sun.[5] In 2010, at age 15, he appeared as young Messala in the ABC miniseries Ben-Hur, filmed partly in Morocco, alongside a voice role as Death in an episode of the BBC puppet comedy Mongrels.[5] These performances, spanning film and television, highlighted his versatility in dramatic and comedic contexts during a period when his focus remained on acting rather than creative authorship.[9] By age 14, Marlow had largely stepped away from on-screen work, channeling his childhood affinity for theater—evident in school productions and self-initiated songwriting—toward musical composition, marking a self-directed pivot from performer to creator without notable external awards or institutional pushes at that stage.[9][8]University years and initial theater work
Marlow enrolled at Robinson College, University of Cambridge, in 2014 to read English, reaching his third year by 2017.[10][11] During this period, he engaged extensively in Cambridge's student theater ecosystem, particularly at the ADC Theatre, contributing as a performer, composer, and writer across various productions.[3][12] He also joined the Pembroke Players, a student-run dramatic society established in 1955, which facilitated opportunities for original creative work.[10] Marlow's university activities included acting in shows directed by contemporaries, honing skills in performance and collaboration that informed his compositional approach.[13] He met Lucy Moss, another Cambridge undergraduate, through these shared theater endeavors, where their joint involvement—she in directing, he in acting—sparked early discussions on musical writing.[14][13] This partnership led to preliminary songwriting trials, experimenting with pop-infused structures amid the demands of finals preparation.[15] In autumn 2016, during his final undergraduate year, Marlow received a commission from the Cambridge University Musical Theatre Society to create original material for a student showcase, applying his evolving composition techniques in a fringe-adjacent format typical of university revues.[9] These experiences emphasized concise, performer-driven pieces, building technical proficiency in blending contemporary music with narrative elements prior to postgraduate pursuits.[3]Career
Pre-Six compositions and performances
Following his graduation from the University of Cambridge in 2017, Marlow composed stand-alone songs for various cabarets, concerts, and charity events, marking his initial forays into professional songwriting outside structured musical productions.[16] These efforts reflected a focus on lyric-driven, pop-inflected pieces tailored for intimate performance settings, though specific titles from this period remain undocumented in public credits.[1] Prior to these post-university activities, Marlow's creative output during his Cambridge years included co-writing and performing in Hot Gay Time Machine, a comedic cabaret-style show developed with Lucy Moss and Zak Ghazi-Torbati. The production debuted at Corpus Playroom from February 2 to 4, 2017, presented by Eggbox Comedy and the Cambridge University Musical Theatre Society, featuring autobiographical time-travel sketches interspersed with songs.[17] Reviews noted Marlow's charismatic stage presence and precise comic timing alongside his collaborators, highlighting his versatility as both writer and performer in university-adjacent venues.[18] Marlow's pre-university performing experience was limited primarily to childhood acting roles, including a part in the 2010 miniseries Ben Hur, which provided early exposure but did not extend into substantial film or television credits thereafter.[5] His involvement in Cambridge's ADC Theatre scene further honed these skills, contributing to a gradual shift toward composition amid modest, student-driven productions rather than immediate commercial breakthroughs.[19]Development and production of Six
Toby Marlow and Lucy Moss, both students at the University of Cambridge, conceived Six as a student project during their final year. In late 2016, Marlow was commissioned by the Cambridge University Musical Theatre Society (CUMTS) to compose and write lyrics for a new musical, which evolved into a pop-concert-style retelling of Henry VIII's six wives competing to outshine each other through solo performances.[9] The duo developed the core structure over approximately ten days, working at a piano and collaborating via a shared Google document while preparing for university exams, emphasizing a queen-centric narrative that reimagines Tudor history through modern pop and hip-hop influences.[20] The show received its preview performance in Cambridge on July 31, 2017, under CUMTS auspices, before premiering at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe from August 3 to 27, 2017, where it was staged as a 60-minute production with an all-student cast.[21] Marlow's contributions focused on crafting the score's pop anthems, such as individual "songs" for each queen that highlight their historical plights—e.g., Catherine of Aragon's defiant "No Way"—while Moss directed and co-wrote the book, establishing the format's innovative elimination-style contest among the wives.[3] This student-led iteration prioritized accessibility and energy, blending historical facts with contemporary musical idioms without institutional backing beyond university resources. Following critical and audience acclaim at Edinburgh, where it won the Carol Tambor Best Musical Award, Six transferred to a limited run at London's Arts Theatre in September 2018, extended due to strong ticket sales rather than subsidized arts funding.[22] By early 2019, driven by word-of-mouth demand, it opened Off-Broadway at the Stage 42 theater on February 13, marking its U.S. debut with minimal changes to the original 80-minute format, before further expansions including a UK tour and eventual Broadway transfer in 2020.[9] These milestones reflected organic growth from fringe origins, with Marlow and Moss retaining creative control amid scaling production elements like lighting and choreography to suit larger venues.[23]Post-Six projects and collaborations
Following the professional establishment of Six in 2018, Marlow sustained his primary creative partnership with Lucy Moss to oversee the musical's global expansions, including its Broadway premiere with previews beginning February 13, 2020, at the Lena Horne Theatre (formerly Brooks Atkinson), which resumed performances in 2021 after pandemic-related closures and marked the first new Broadway musical post-shutdown. This involved coordinating international tours across continents such as North America, Europe, Australia, and Asia, alongside production of cast recordings and a filmed live concert version distributed to cinemas starting April 2025.[24] The Marlow-Moss duo extended their collaborative process—characterized by joint writing sessions blending pop-infused scores with historical or contemporary narratives—into new stage and screen ventures in the early 2020s. They co-developed a second original musical, Why Am I So Single?, which underwent workshops and premiered in London's West End at the Garrick Theatre on August 27, 2024, for a limited run concluding January 19, 2025, emphasizing their hands-on approach of integrating performance elements during creation.[25] Parallel to this, Marlow and Moss contributed original songs to the Warner Bros. animated feature Bad Fairies, directed by Isabella Summers and starring Cynthia Erivo, with their involvement announced July 18, 2024, representing a shift into film composition while retaining their signature duo dynamic.[26] Marlow's post-Six engagements also included cabaret collaborations that previewed emerging material, such as the 2025 New York concert at Feinstein's/54 Below on October 7, where he and Moss performed selections from Six, Why Am I So Single?, and unreleased works, fostering direct audience feedback akin to Six's early developmental phases.[27] These efforts underscored Marlow's integration into Broadway ecosystems, with Six's ongoing run achieving its fourth anniversary in October 2025 amid sustained ticket sales and alumni events.[28]Major works
Six
Six reimagines the six wives of Henry VIII—Catherine of Aragon, Anne Boleyn, Jane Seymour, Anne of Cleves, Katherine Howard, and Catherine Parr—as modern pop princesses who compete in a concert-style showdown to determine whose historical suffering entitles her to headline the group, framed by the mnemonic "divorced, beheaded, died, divorced, beheaded, survived."[29] The narrative unfolds without intermission over an 80-minute runtime, beginning with the ensemble number "Ex-Wives," which recaps their collective fates under Henry, followed by solo performances where each queen asserts her individual agency and hardships.[30] [31] This structure positions the wives not merely as victims of royal whim but as empowered narrators reclaiming their stories through contemporary performance.[29] Each queen's song draws from verifiable Tudor events while infusing them with pop bravado to highlight personal resilience amid marital dissolution, execution, or survival. Catherine of Aragon's "No Way" references her 1529 stand against annulment at the Blackfriars court, rejecting Henry's claims of invalidity in their union.[29] Anne Boleyn's "Don't Lose Ur Head" alludes to her 1536 beheading after accusations of adultery and treason, portraying her wit and flirtations that initially secured but ultimately doomed her position.[32] Jane Seymour's "Heart of Stone" evokes her 1537 death in childbirth after bearing the desired male heir, emphasizing loyalty despite frailty; Anne of Cleves' "Haus of Holbein" nods to the 1540 annulment over Henry's dissatisfaction with her appearance post a Hans Holbein portrait; Katherine Howard's "Get Down" touches on her 1542 execution for adultery; and Catherine Parr's "All You Wanna Do" covers her 1547 survival through intellectual influence and evasion of heresy charges.[31] [29] The show concludes with "Six," a mega-mix reprise uniting their voices.[32] Musically, Six blends pop, hip-hop, and rock elements, with compositions evoking artists like Beyoncé and Ariana Grande to contrast the queens' 16th-century constraints against modern self-assertion.[32] The principal cast comprises six female actors portraying the queens in a band-like setup, supported by an all-female band in early productions, reinforcing thematic focus on female narratives.[21] This format, premiered in 2017, has sustained global touring adaptations by 2025, maintaining the core concert conceit across venues.[33] While rooted in historical facts such as the sequential marital upheavals—annulments in 1533 and 1540, executions in 1536 and 1542, and natural death in 1537—the lyrics take liberties to prioritize dramatic empowerment over strict chronology or nuance, such as amplifying Boleyn's precocity or downplaying Parr's theological role.[29]Why Am I So Single? and other endeavors
Why Am I So Single? is a musical comedy co-written by Marlow and Lucy Moss, featuring book, music, and lyrics by both creators, that centers on two friends navigating the challenges of contemporary dating while attempting to pen a show amid romantic mishaps. The project draws loosely from the personal experiences of Marlow and Moss as musical theater writers grappling with relationships and creative pressures.[34][35] Announced on February 14, 2024, it maintains the duo's signature blend of pop-driven melodies and theatrical storytelling, shifting from historical figures to modern interpersonal dynamics without direct ties to Six's Tudor framework.[35] The production opened at London's Garrick Theatre on August 27, 2024, for a limited engagement that concluded on January 19, 2025, after approximately 150 performances. Previews included a June 2024 showcase at West End LIVE, where Marlow and Moss joined cast members to perform excerpts. Demos of numbers like "C U Never" were released online starting November 8, 2024, offering early listens to tracks emphasizing witty, upbeat explorations of singledom.[35][36][37] Beyond the stage run, Marlow and Moss extended promotion through cabaret-style events, such as "An Evening with Marlow and Moss" at Feinstein's/54 Below in New York on October 3, 2025, where they performed selections from Why Am I So Single? alongside Six material and additional originals, accompanied by guest artists including Six alumni. These appearances highlighted unreleased or variant songs in intimate settings, underscoring Marlow's ongoing output in the pop-musical vein. Concurrently, Marlow contributed to Six's sixth anniversary celebrations on Broadway in early October 2025, featuring live renditions that bridged past and emerging works.[27][28]Recognition
Awards and nominations
Toby Marlow, alongside Lucy Moss, won the Tony Award for Best Original Score Written for the Theatre for Six at the 75th Annual Tony Awards on June 12, 2022. This marked the first such win for an openly non-binary composer-lyricist duo under the category's criteria.[38] The award recognized the innovative pop-infused score blending historical Tudor elements with contemporary musical styles. Marlow and Moss received a Grammy Award nomination for Best Musical Theater Album for Six: Live on Opening Night at the 66th Annual Grammy Awards in 2024.[39] The album captured the Broadway opening night performance, highlighting the score's commercial and artistic impact. For the original London production of Six, Marlow and Moss earned an Olivier Award nomination for Outstanding Achievement in Music in 2019, shared with music supervisor Joe Beighton.[40] The production received five Olivier nominations overall but did not secure a win in the music category.[41]| Year | Award | Category | Result | Work |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2018 | WhatsOnStage Award | Best Off-West End Production | Won | Six (Edinburgh Fringe transfer)[42] |
| 2022 | Tony Award | Best Original Score | Won (shared with Lucy Moss) | Six |
| 2024 | Grammy Award | Best Musical Theater Album | Nominated (shared) | Six: Live on Opening Night[39] |
| 2025 | WhatsOnStage Award | Best New Musical | Nominated (shared with Lucy Moss) | Why Am I So Single?[43] |
| 2025 | Olivier Award | Best New Musical | Nominated (shared with Lucy Moss) | Why Am I So Single?[44] |