IT MAY BE ABOUT A MOVEMENT MORE THAN ITS PEOPLE,
BUT A POWERHOUSE SCORE
AND WINNING PERFORMANCES EMPOWER SUFFS
There are several major conflicts in Suffs, the new Broadway musical directed by Leigh Silverman, with book, music and lyrics by Shaina Taub. Suffragists are battling the male hierarchy, which is not inclined to cede power to women (“Let Mother Vote”). The radical Alice Paul (Taub) is butting heads with the more conservative Carrie Chapman Catt played by Jenn Colella (“This Girl”). And Black feminist Ida B. Wells (Nikki M. James) is trying to get the movement to include and respect Black women (“Wait My Turn”).
Jenn Colella as Carrie Chapman Catt and Suffs Company
All these conflicts are historically correct, although one can argue that in the early 2oth century Black women were far more concerned with the spate of lynchings than with obtaining the vote. In fact, most of Wells’s activities were devoted to exposing the horrors of lynching. Still, she did see racism within the women’s suffrage movement, and believed that enfranchisement was key to ending lynching and winning civil rights.
Shaina Taub as Alice Paul
More specifically, Suffs chronicles the suffrage movement’s climactic push for passage of the 19th Amendment in 1920 giving women the right to vote. Paul’s task is enormous, but she is helped by a group of determined women: Polish activist Ruza Wenclawska (Kim Blanck); college friend Lucy Burns (Ally Bonino); wealthy patrician Alva Belmont (Emily Skinner); the young Doris Stevens (Nadia Dandashi), who headed the movement while Paul was in jail; and socialite Inez Milholland (Hannah Cruz), who leads the march on Washington on a white horse, but succumbs to overwork and pernicious anemia before the suffragists achieve their goals.
Nikki M. James as Ida B. Wells with the Suffs Company
Suffs, which opened last Thursday at the Music Box, started out at the Public Theater in 2022, and has received a good deal of attention thanks to the celebrity of two of its producers Malala Yousafzai and Hilary Clinton. But the show, which has been tightened and developed since then, in many ways can stand on its own merits.
Anastacia McCleskey, Laila Erica Drew, and Nikki M. James
as Mary Church Terrell, Phyllis Terrell, and Ida B. Wells
First, Taub’s score is deeply emotional and inspiring, although it does rely too heavily on anthems that don’t really advance the plot. Some of the musical’s best moments are when the score doesn’t take itself too seriously (“Great American Bitch”). What’s more, all those lovely ladies (the cast is entirely female) are delightfully charming as portrayed by the talented ensemble. Even the men are either silly (Grace McLean as President Woodrow Wilson) or lovable (Tsilala Brock as Wilson’s chief of staff, Dudley Malone).
Tsilala Brock and Grace McLean as Dudley Malone and President Woodrow Wilson
We learn a great deal about the suffragists’ commitment and how they endured jail, forced feeding and psychological abuse (Paul was threatened with incarceration in an insane asylum). These details are what make the second act superior to the first.
Kim Blanck as Ruza Wenclawska with the Suffs Company
But we learn little about the suffragists’ personal lives. Doris Stevens and Dudley Malone do have a budding romance (“If We Were Married”), and Carrie Catt is clearly in a relationship with Mollie Hay (Jaygee Macapugay), but for the most part we don’t know how many of these women are married or have children, and how members of their family feel about their activities.
Hannah Cruz as Inez Milholland with the Suffs Company
By the end of the show, we may care a great deal about the movement but not so much about its leaders. This makes Suffs more entertaining than memorable.
Emily Skinner as Alva Belmont
photos by Joan Marcus
Suffs
Music Box Theatre, 239 West 45th Street
open run
running time 2 hours, 30 minutes
for tickets, visit at Suffs Musical and Telecharge