{"id":2170245,"date":"2025-11-21T12:11:21","date_gmt":"2025-11-21T12:11:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/?p=2170245"},"modified":"2025-11-21T12:11:21","modified_gmt":"2025-11-21T12:11:21","slug":"suffs-review-how-women-won-the-vote-the-musical","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/suffs-review-how-women-won-the-vote-the-musical\/","title":{"rendered":"‘Suffs’ review: How women won the vote, the musical"},"content":{"rendered":"

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\u2018Suffs,\u2019 Shaina Taub\u2019s musical<\/a> about how women finally secured the right to vote in America, won Tony Awards<\/a> for its book and score. It lost the best musical race to \u201cThe Outsiders,\u201d<\/a> but the respect it earned when it opened last spring on Broadway made it an unequivocal winner.<\/p>\n

The show is having its Los Angeles premiere at the Hollywood Pantages Theatre in a touring production that is smooth and smart. Taub\u2019s work deserves nothing less than an \u201cA.\u201d The cast is excellent, the staging is graceful and the political message could not be more timely.<\/p>\n

The show might not have the crackling vitality of \u201cHamilton\u201d<\/a> or the bluesy poignancy of \u201cThe Scottsboro Boys.\u201d<\/a> It\u2019s a good deal more earnest than either of these history-laden musicals. There\u2019s an educational imperative at the heart of \u201cSuffs,\u201d which deals with a subject that has been marginalized in schools and in the collective consciousness.<\/p>\n

The 19th Amendment, which gave women the right to vote, was ratified in 1920, a little more than a century ago. The history isn\u2019t so distant yet I\u2019m sure I wasn\u2019t the only one at Wednesday\u2019s opening who was learning about the forceful tactics that helped Alice Paul and her fellow suffragists push their movement over the finish line.<\/p>\n

\u201cSuffs,\u201d a musical for the public square, is as informative as it is uplifting. It is above all a moving testament to the power of sisterhood. The struggle for equality continues to face crushing setbacks today, but Taub wants us to remember what can happen when people stand united for a just cause.<\/p>\n

Alice (a winning Maya Keleher) doesn\u2019t seem like a rabble-rouser. A bright, well-educated woman with a polite demeanor, she looks like a future teacher of the year more than a radical organizer. But she has an activist\u2019s most essential quality: She won\u2019t take no for an answer. (Keleher lends alluring warmth to the role Taub made her Broadway debut in.). <\/p>\n

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<\/picture>\n
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Marya Grandy and the company of the national tour of \u201cSuffs.\u201d<\/p>\n

(Joan Marcus)<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/figure><\/div>\n

She\u2019s rebuffed by Carrie Chapman Catt (Marya Grandy), the president of the National American Woman Suffrage Association, whose motto (\u201cLet your all-American mother vote\u201d) is the basis for the show\u2019s opening number, \u201cLet Mother Vote\u201d \u2014 a distillation of the old-guard approach that has yet to yield women the vote. <\/p>\n

Alice wants to organize a march in Washington D.C. to force the president\u2019s reluctant hand, but Carrie prefers a more genteel strategy. \u201cMiss Paul, if my late great mentor Susan B. Anthony taught me anything, it\u2019s that men are only willing to consider our cause if we present it in a lady-like fashion.<\/p>\n

\u201cState by state, slow and steady, until the country\u2019s ready\u201d is, after all, NAWSA\u2019s fundamental creed. But Alice points out that if they continue at this glacial pace they\u2019ll be dead before they can ever cast a vote. <\/p>\n

Swinging into action, Alice teams up with her friend Lucy Burns (Gwynne Wood), who worries that they haven\u2019t the experience to take on such a momentous mission. \u201cWe\u2019ve never planned a national action before,\u201d she objects at the start of their duet \u201cFind a Way.\u201d But undaunted Alice has the bold idea of recruiting Inez Milholland (played at the opening night performance by Amanda K. Lopez), and a way forward miraculously materializes.<\/p>\n

Inez has just the right glamorous public image that Alice thinks will give their march the publicity boost it needs. Studying for the bar exam, Inez is initially reluctant but agrees if she can lead the march on horseback.<\/p>\n

This image of Inez on a steed becomes central both to the movement and to director Leigh Silverman\u2019s production, which finds simple yet striking ways of bringing revolutionary change to life. A chorus line of activists wearing suffragist white (kudos to the luminous tact of costume designer Paul Tazewell) eloquently communicates what solidarity can pull off. <\/p>\n

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\"Brandi <\/picture>\n
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Brandi Porter, left, and Jenny Ashman as President Woodrow Wilson in \u2018Suffs.\u201d <\/p>\n

(Joan Marcus)<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/figure><\/div>\n

An all-female cast dramatizes this inspiring American story. Taub takes some fictional license with the characters but largely sticks to the record.<\/p>\n

Notable allies in Alice\u2019s organization include Ruza Wenclawska (Joyce Meimei Zheng) a Polish-born trade union organizer with a no-nonsense grassroots style, and Doris Stevens (Livvy Marcus), a shy yet undeterred student from Nebraska who becomes the group\u2019s secret weapon secretary.<\/p>\n

Ida B. Wells (Danyel Fulton), an early leader in the civil rights movement, takes part in the march but resists being used as a prop in what she calls NAWSA\u2019s \u201cwhite women convention.\u201d Mary Church Terrell (Trisha Jeffrey), a fellow Black activist, by contrast believes that it\u2019s only through participation that representation can move forward.<\/p>\n

President Woodrow Wilson (Jenny Ashman), who makes promises to the suffragists he is hesitant to keep, is a crucial target of Alice\u2019s pressure campaign. Her group\u2019s access to him is aided by Dudley Malone (Brandi Porter), Wilson\u2019s right-hand man, who becomes smitten with Doris.<\/p>\n

The score marches ahead in a manner that makes progress seem, if not inevitable, relentless in its pursuit of justice. The songs combine the patriotic exuberance of John Philip Sousa and the American breadth of Broadway composer Stephen Flaherty (\u201cRagtime\u201d). The note of pop accessibility in Taub\u2019s music and the satiric humor of her lyrics add to the buoyancy. You won\u2019t leave humming a tune, but the overall effect (while ephemeral) is pleasing in the theater.<\/p>\n

With the history already determined, the book can\u2019t help resembling at times a civics exhibition. Dramatic tension is hard to come by. Alice and her cohorts suffer grave disappointments and indignities (including a harrowing stint in prison), but the eventual outcome of their struggles is known.<\/p>\n

\u201cSuffs\u201d sometimes feels like a history lesson neatly compartmentalized into Important Episodes. There\u2019s a whiff of PBS to the way the musical unfolds. This is cultural programming that\u2019s good for you. <\/p>\n

But the teamwork of the performers honors the messy yet undeniably effective cooperation of Alice and her freedom fighters \u2014 women who changed the world by not staying silent in their prescribed place. <\/p>\n

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‘Suffs’<\/p>\n

Where:<\/b> Hollywood Pantages Theatre, 6233 Hollywood Blvd., L.A.<\/p>\n

When:<\/b> 7:30 p.m. Tuesday-Thursdays, 8 p.m. Fridays, 2 and 8 p.m. Saturdays, 1 and 6:30 p.m. Sundays. (Check for exceptions.) Ends Dec. 7.<\/p>\n

Tickets:<\/b> Start at $57 (subject to change)<\/p>\n

Contact:<\/b> BroadwayInHollywood.com<\/a> or Ticketmaster.com<\/a> <\/p>\n

Running time:<\/b> 2 hours, 30 minutes (one intermission)<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div><\/div><\/div>\n

\u2018 The preceding article may include information circulated by third parties \u2019 <\/em><\/p>\n

\u2018 Some details of this article were extracted from the following source www.latimes.com \u2019 <\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u2018Suffs,\u2019 Shaina Taub\u2019s musical about how women finally secured the right to vote in America, won Tony Awards for its book and score. It lost the best musical race to \u201cThe Outsiders,\u201d but the respect it earned when it opened last spring on Broadway made it an unequivocal winner. The show is having its Los […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":2170246,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":[],"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_social_meta":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[25172],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2170245","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-entertainment"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/Suffs-review-How-women-won-the-vote-the-musical.com2F242F622F73ada3ba466b9c58605cc90e.jpeg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2170245","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2170245"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2170245\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2170247,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2170245\/revisions\/2170247"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2170246"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2170245"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2170245"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2170245"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}