BULLET REVIEW: SUFFS- THE MUSICAL
Now in previews at the Music Box Theater
As Woodrow Wilson, played by Grace McLean, in Suffs, the Broadway musical, now in previews, said something particularly dishonest and indifferent to the imprisoned and hungerstriking Suffragists in 1917, the young woman next to me, took a break from looking down at her phone, made a fist and whispered to her friend of about the same age, “Ooh I just want to hurt him”. It was a reminder of a recurring theme as I approach my 72 birthday that I’m not the target demographic for this show.
Before I get to my opinion that the play was too heavy handed and pedantic, the striking roster of talent and star power behind this production must be acknowledged.
Director Leigh Silverman’s won an Obie in 2011 and in 2019 for Sustained Excellence. Shaina Taub, who wrote the music and lyrics and plays the lead is also a songwriter, and performer with a deep resume including her work at Joe’s Pub, and the Public’s Shakespeare in the Park production of Twelfth Night.
Her song “Huddled Masses” written and performed at the peak of Trump’s war on refugees is memorable.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M0PHsz-C1Sk
Both women are generational talents, each having an impact on contemporary American theater. According to a note in the Playbill, “ Taub and Silverman have been collaborating on the show for close to a decade, both driven by a passion for combining entertainment with advocacy”.
It’s been awhile since I’ve seen a Brecht play but this production reminded me of Brecht’s heavy handed messaging. The NYTimes review of a 2022 Brooklyn production of Mother Courage “ informs that, “Brecht pioneered the Lehrstück, or “learning play,” his aim wasn’t just to educate but to incite audiences to make change in their society”.
https://www.nytrch imes.com/2022/05/25/theater/mother-courage-and-her-children-review.html
Even before entering the theater you know from the title and the lead producers that this is a serious play intended to educate about an important piece of women’s history. Producers Hillary Clinton, former First Lady, Secretary of State and US Senator and Malala Yousafzai, survivor of a Taliban attack on her girls school in Afghanistan and winner of the Nobel peace prize, would not have signed on to back “Harry Potter and the Cursed Child”.
We learn that Alice Paul, played by Shaina Taub, was the leader of the movement to get the 19th Amendment passed granting women the right to vote. Paul also authored the Equal Rights Amendment in 1923 which has yet to be adopted. Underscoring the importance of this play as history lesson I confess to never having never heard of her.
This is a musical with something to say about women’s history, democracy and equality at a moment when American democracy and everyone’s right to vote faces a real and present danger of being flushed down a gold plated toilet in November.
During the passionate and rousing finale the entire all female cast, including Jenna Bainbridge, performing with grace and elegance in a wheelchair, marches while urging the audience of cheering women to “Finish the Fight and Keep Marching”. It evoked memories of the 2017 Women’s March on Washington and gave this old white guy goosebumps.
