HCA Healthcare/Tristar Health
Broadway at TPAC
— presents —
Suffs
Book, Music and Lyrics by Shaina Taub
Through Sunday, March 8
Ages 10 and older
Tennessee Performing Arts Center (TPAC)
TICKETS
Directed by Leigh Silverman
Music Supervision by Andrea Grody
Choreography by Mayte Natalio
“How will we do it when it’s never been done?” That’s the question posed by a group of early 20th-century American suffragists working to earn women’s right to vote in Suffs, now playing at TPAC. This new historical musical lost the Tony for Best Musical in 2024 (The Outsiders won). But musician/composer Shaina Taub DID win Best Original Score and Best Book of a Musical (the first woman to ever do so!). And Taub turns out a remarkable history lesson blending narrative storytelling with music and lyrics in similar fashion to world-wide phenomenon Hamilton.
Focusing primarily on the decade leading to the ratification of the 19th Amendment in 1920, the show finds its narrative in two opposing suffragists. Carrie Chapman Catt (a fantastic Marya Grandy), the veteran head of the National American Woman Suffrage Association. And energetic activist Alice Paul (an equally fantastic Maya Keleher).
The beginnings of Alice Paul’s National Women’s Party in “Suffs.”
Underlying Tension
Catt has been in a decades-long charm offensive to convince the political establishment of men that women should have the right to vote (“Let Mother Vote”). Paul wants confrontational action immediately t0 force President Woodrow Wilson (Jenny Ashman) to respond — and she’s willing to be imprisoned for it.
Unable to compromise, Paul launches the National Woman’s Party. She enlists captivating public speaker Inez Milholland (Monica Tulia Ramirez) in addition to Lucy Burns (Gwynne Wood), Doris Stevens (Livvy Marcus) and the fiery Polish-American activist Ruza Wenclawska (Joyce Meimei Zheng). This dynamic mix of real-life characters provide a plentiful amount of comic relief.
The underlying tension throughout the show? How do you reconcile the gains of an important female victory with the reality of its shortcomings? In truth, the 19th Amendment was essentially a victory for white women only. This is explicitly acknowledged with the inclusion of Black civil rights activists Ida B. Wells (Danyel Fulton) and Mary Church Terrell (Trisha Jeffrey).
Danyel Fulton as Ida B. Wells in “Suffs.”
A Proud Tennessee Moment
Taub’s score uses an all-female cast to build to the penultimate scene, where the state of Tennessee plays quite the role.
Here’s a refresher for those in need of a history lesson (I was): Tennessee became the 36th and final state needed to ratify the 19th Amendment for the women’s right to vote. This came about after 24-year-old Representative Harry T. Burn voted “yes” after receiving a persuasive letter from his mother — a teacher, farmer and widow from McMinn County.
The irony of watching this musical in Nashville — literally yards away from the state capitol where it actually happened — was not lost on the audience and plenty of applause erupted along with proud “woo’s.”
The Silent Sentinels portrayed in “Suffs.”
A History Lesson Made Real
As a born-and bred Tennessean, I was shocked at all the things I didn’t know. I found myself wondering why my grade school’s Tennessee history curriculum didn’t cover this historical event like it did Daniel Boone or Davy Crockett. Also, you might think this musical would be so packed with facts that momentum would grind to a halt. Nope. This show marches on at a surprising pace for its two-hour-and-30-minute runtime.
And Suffs is much more than a civics lesson. Vocal talents? Its cup runneth over. The entire cast shined with tight harmonies and heartfelt charisma. The goosebump-giving finale, “Keep Marching,” underlines the nonlinear path of social change and leaves you pondering its declaration: “Progress is possible, not guaranteed.”
