Susan Granger’s review of “Suffs” (Music Box Theater)
Feisty, funny and heartfelt, “Suffs” is this season’s best Broadway musical surprise as it chronicles how women battled for the basic right to vote. Calling themselves ‘suffragists,’ or ‘suffs,’ not ‘suffragettes,’ the original activists were not only opposed by gender and generations but also by racial rigidities.
Opening with Carrie Chapman Catt (Jenn Colella) and the chorus warbling the rousing “Let Mother Vote,” reminding men: “We raised you after all/won’t you thank the lady you have loved since you were small…We reared you/cheered you/raised you when you fell/with your blessing, we could help America as well.”
Then there’s young, outspoken radical Alice Paul (Shaina Taub) of the National Women’s Party, trying to find common ground with non-confrontational rival Catt as well as workers’ rights spokeswoman Ruza Wenclawska (Kim Blanck) and Black historical icons like investigative journalist Ida B. Wells (Nikki M. James) and Mary Church Terrell (Anastacia McClosky), who refuse to be left behind.
Let’s not forget flamboyant labor lawyer Inez Milholland (Hannah Cruz) and their generous benefactor Alva Belmont (Emily Skinner)…plus Grace McLean, hamming it up as President Woodrow Wilson, with Tsilala Brock as his dutiful assistant Dudley Malone, who eventually sides with the women.
The book, music and lyrics by Shaina Taub combine as a total statement that depends for its potency more on the sum of its parts than on the strength of any one component, especially the raucous, hilarious, show-stopping “G.A.B.”
Sadly, humor totally vanishes in the second act when earnest, assertive Alice Paul is arrested and thrown in jail where she goes on an extended hunger strike and additional setbacks arise.
After years in development and a 2022 Off-Broadway run at the Public Theater, “Suffs” has obviously evolved, becoming less didactic and adding former Presidential contender/Secretary-of-State Hillary Clinton and Nobel Prize-winner Malala Yousafzai as co-producers.
The creative team includes director Leigh Silverman, choreographer Mayte Natalio, music supervisor/director Andres Grody, costumer Paul Tazewell, scenic designer Riccardo Hernandez and lighting expert Lap Chi Chu. Plus, the pit orchestra is entirely comprised of women musicians.
The timing is right for provocative “Suffs”…as those of us who can – go marching on.