Queens: The Exhibition

While many may be familiar with The Lowry’s theatre space, the venue also boasts numerous gallery spaces that host a range of temporary exhibitions alongside a permanent exhibition of LS Lowry’s work. The latest temporary exhibition curated by The Lowry combines history, musical theatre, and the modern world to ask, ‘What type of Queen are you?’

Produced with the support of Toby Marlow and Lucy Moss, the co-creators of the hit musical SIX, Queens: The Exhibition primarily celebrates the show. Costumes, memorabilia from Moss’s personal collection, and insights into Marlow and Moss’s development process combine with informational boards detailing the lives of the real Tudor Queens and the pop Royalty that inspired their looks within the musical.

The exhibition combines traditional displays with creative areas, with the second-floor exhibition space divided to create a unique and intriguing narrative about the world of SIX and Queens.

On entering, immediately to the left of the door are the costumes of Catherine of Aragon and Katherine Howard. Initially, all six costumes from the musical were due to be displayed as part of the exhibition. However, a few days before opening, The Lowry announced that only two of the six costumes would be on display due to production demands.

Moving past the costumes, a cabinet containing Moss’s memorabilia offers a fascinating insight into the creation of SIX. A script with production notes gave a glimpse into the level of detail required to create an iconic musical.

The exhibition then moves into a space that provides details about each Tudor Queen in order of ascension to the throne. These are all traditional board displays with large fonts and easy-to-read text. There is only a paragraph on each Queen, followed by a paragraph about the details of the pop princess that inspired the costume of that particular Queen in the musical. This exhibition area also has two karaoke booths featuring four different song selections. The booths are completely soundproof, so you can belt out a bit of Britney or Adele as loud as you like without disturbing anyone else.

The exhibition then moves on to show different types of Queens, with a display of photographs by local artist The Mancorialist opposite a display showing Lady Gaga fans.

A separate room contains the selfie station, where guests can dress up and take selfies using their mobile phones under ring lights of varying colours.

Towards the back of the exhibition is the shop, which features a range of SIX merchandise, books about Tudor history, and a full display of books about famous women. The prices were reasonable in the shop, but if you have ever been to watch SIX, the merchandise related to SIX was all items that you will have seen at the musical. We would have liked to see something unique for the exhibition.

The far end of the exhibition has a flow chart to work out which Queen you are and a board for you to write about who your personal Queen is. The final room contained another photo opportunity for you to have a photo on a throne, a UV art room called Haus of Holbein, and another traditional display featuring ‘Queen-agers’, influential women throughout history who began their careers in their teens.

Throughout the exhibition are LEGO models of influential women, which you’re encouraged to locate as an additional scavenger hunt element.

This is a good exhibition, but it could be better.

The big draw of the exhibition was all six costumes being together for the first time on display, so it was disappointing to only have two available. Gabriella Slade’s costumes are impressive, and you can get quite close to them. However, you can’t see any of the backs of the costumes. Adding a mirror or, ideally, moving the costumes into a bigger space (maybe that of the Queen-agers display) to allow a full 360-degree experience would have been far more enjoyable.

The display of the SIX memorabilia and the information boards about each Queen also needed to be in a different location. There needed to be more space around each of these areas, as these displays were extremely popular, which created bottlenecks and hampered the enjoyment of these displays.

The karaoke, photo booth, and Haus of Holbein UV art sections were fun, interactive additions to the exhibition. However, they didn’t add any additional information, which felt like a missed opportunity. Most of the displays were simple printed boards of text, likely because of the exhibition’s temporary nature. However, the exhibition runs until November, so using more digital tools doesn’t feel outside the realm of possibility and could have helped improve the flow of visitors throughout the space.

If we had designed this exhibition, we’d have focused more on the history of the Tudor Queens before moving into the Queen-agers section and, finally, a pop Princess section that included the SIX elements. We feel this arrangement would have had a more cohesive flow, as there seemed to be elements of SIX throughout, without any real story; it was more like two individual exhibitions sharing a space.

However, criticising The Lowry and Queens: The Exhibition does feel slightly unfair as it is an entirely free-to-visit exhibition (though pre-booking is required via The Lowry website).

We spent about an hour going through this exhibition and enjoyed the displays. However, something felt missing (and we’re not referring to the other four costumes).

Alongside the exhibition, The Lowry has renamed its bar area the Queen’s Head and is offering a range of cocktails and mocktails inspired by the exhibition. The Pier Eight restaurant also offers a special afternoon tea.

We went to the Afternoon Tea and found it very competitively priced at £25 per person (£35 if you included an alcoholic drink). There was a good selection of sandwiches and cakes, plus two scones per person. Each was tasty, if a little sickly in parts, though some cakes received didn’t match the menu. However, as with any seasonal / themed menu, they are subject to change. Whilst we didn’t have the vegetarian option, a nearby table did and commented to us that they were disappointed in the sandwich options: cheese and pickle or egg mayonnaise. The staff were attentive throughout, and the service was pleasant and relaxed. This wasn’t a high-end afternoon tea, but the quality was good and comparable to the price.

Overall, Queens: The Exhibition is a fun way to spend an hour and provides an interesting look at the costumes of SIX, but we wouldn’t rush to visit solely for this.

Queens: The Exhibition is on until 3 November 2024. Tickets can be booked via The Lowry website.

A video of the exhibition can be found below:

Originally posted: July 25, 2024