My first exposure to the Women’s Suffragette Movement (sorry, Suffragists, the former term was coined by men to belittle their female efforts) was Glynis Johns as Mrs. Banks in Mary Poppins, the first movie my mother ever took me to in the theatres. Of course all I remember from that viewing was the glorious Julie Andrews and Dick Van Dyke, and “Chim Chim Cheree” and “Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious”, but when I saw the classic movie again on the Disney Sunday Night Movie in college, I paid more attention to the B plot of the British Women’s Movement, just one of many things that was threatening Mr. Banks’ comfortable domestic serenity. And yes, her song “Sister Suffragette” was written by men, albeit the fabulous Sherman Brothers, but…
Cut to this week at the Hippodrome Theatre and the National Tour of Shaina Taub’s Tony Winning (Best Book, Best Score) musical Suffs. (In an impressive trifecta, Taub is one of the few artists to write the book, music, and lyrics for a show while simultaneously starring in its Broadway company.) This is the odd instance where the musical won both the two big artistic awards but lost the Best Musical Award to audience favorite The Outsiders. This is somewhat ironic in retrospect to watch a smart, intelligent, well-executed, well-performed musical about women’s issues lose to a cast of cute boys singing rockabilly music recreating a beloved young adult movie/book. It seems unlikely yet extremely viable in today’s political climate.
I can honestly say Suffs is the surprise hit of the 2025-26 Hippodrome season, and takes a hard look at the progress women have had to make within the 20th Century, told with a catchy score highlighting colorful characters and a smart dash of humor. From the minute early Suffragist Carrie Chapman Catt (Marya Grandy) takes the platform to deliver an opening plea, “Let Mother Vote”, a fun Dixieland jazz number that works on many levels, Taub shows her musical understanding. Dixieland is the most upbeat, non-threatening American musical form in our repertoire, an easy way to make their message more palatable to the all-male legislators they need to pass their legislation. But on a subliminal level, it also, in casting, costume, and tone—at least for this critic—harkens back to the look, style, and feel of Glynnis Johns taking up her banner and her cause in Mary Poppins, adding an additional layer of non-threatening comfort to the song, a little “Spoonful of Sugar” if you will, rooted in our collective musical psyche.
I overheard a nearby audience member explaining to her party, “This show is like a cross between Hamilton and the all-female 1776,” which, although it may be a bit reductive in description, actually is also more accurate than it seems on the surface. Both Suffs and Hamilton were one creator’s vision from top to bottom (two time Tony Winner Lin-Manuel Miranda for the first, Tony Winner Taub here; neither taking home the acting award) with starring roles written for themselves. It’s parallels to 1776 are the obvious all-female cast, although the majority of those actors were playing all the initial founding fathers. Suffs has the benefit of women mostly playing women, but it gives us some entertaining and amusing supporting work from Jenny Ashman as President Woodrow Wilson and Brandi Porter as his Chief of Staff Dudley Malone. Beyond those obvious parallels, I will give a hot take that Taub’s score, which employs a wide variety of well-utilized styles and tunes, is more audience friendly than Miranda’s always rap heavy compositions (the guy couldn’t even write for the ill-fated Mary Poppins sequel without falling back on his old rap crutch in a story that couldn’t have called for it less). The music of 1776 has always seemed unnecessary, its success being its surprisingly riveting book. But in the end, to this critic, this apparent hybrid succeeds better than both on its own merits.
The bulk of the story concerns the clash of old school Catt, head of the National American Woman Suffrage Association and a protégée of OG activist Susan B. Anthony, selling her cause with politeness, gentility, and respect, as her generation found best, and the angrier, more militant style of the younger generation, embodied in brash new upstart Alice Paul (Maya Keleher, in the role Taub wrote for herself). From the start, the energized, dynamic Paul wishes to go straight to the top and pressure President Woodrow Wilson to support the cause, while Catt and her supporters insist on sticking with their state-by-state conversion plan. Not to be deterred, Paul recruits a band of fellow progressives including former collegiate friend and loyal second Lucy Burns (Gwynne Wood), outspoken socialite and fundraiser Inez Milholland (Monica Tulia Ramirez), Polish labor agitator Ruza Wenclawska (Joyce Meimei Zheng), and an enthusiastic young supporter from Nebraska, Doris Stevens (Livvy Marcus).
As philosophies and missions conflict, Catt eventually bans Paul and her colorful band from the NAWSA and they decide to break off and, under the sponsorship of the wealthy socialite Alva Belmont (Laura Stracko, memorable in a double track cameo role), form the more aggressive new age National Women’s Party committed to petitioning the President himself or voting him out of office.
Keleher as the voice of a new generation Alice Paul is strong, assertive, and carries the show well, saluting both the legendary feminist she is portraying and the award-winning creator who originated the role. It’s Alice’s adventures that are primarily followed, and she gets all the heavy lifting, going from enthusiastic activist to exhausted agitator to abused prisoner where she organizes a hunger strike from jail to keep her cause alive with Wilson. Keleher is a solid actress to build the show around and gives a winning performance from her introduction to a fun but moving epilogue that extends into her work on the early days of the ERA that beautifully bookends the story.
Taub also takes a side venture into the plight of black women activists Ida B. Wells (Danyel Fulton) and Mary Church Terrell (Trisha Jeffrey). Wells, when Southern delegations ask the black activists be moved to the back of the march, criticizes Alice for acquiescing to their racist demands “for the cause”, with a powerful anthem “Wait My Turn”. She simultaneously raises the issue that black women have two strikes against their ability to vote, asking what good is a black citizen’s vote if they’re lynched and can’t use it. Her friend Terrell sets up a similar dichotomy in the black faction where Terrell prefers to “work within the system with dignified agitation” where Wells prefers a more direct fight, but they compromise for the cause.
The entire cast gives strong, memorable performances of characters that will be etched into our memory after learning of their fight. Starting at the very top of the show, from lights up, Grandy as Catt is a gentle force in battle but a strong force to be battled with. Watching her growth from the lady-like activist with the uplifting theme song “Let Mother Vote” to the resentful leader who watches her beloved movement shift out from under her in the seething “This Girl” to the mature endgame player who sees that maybe a good cause needs both approaches.
Ramirez as Inez Milholland is the most memorable performer portraying the boldest character of the show, a rousing, grandstanding leader when the cause requires one. In her memorable “The March (We Demand Equality)”, she rides a horse down Pennsylvania Avenue in Warrior Goddess attire, becoming the virtual mascot of the NWP. More importantly, her inspiration lingers long after that defining event.
Wood as the seemingly mousey Lucy Burns shines in a random showdown with Porter as Wilson’s chief of staff Dudley Malone. In their duet “If We Were Married”, a bouncy musical battle of the sexes reminiscent of Irving Berlin’s “Anything You Can Do, I Can Do Better”, she educates him how for every way he would benefit as a man from gaining a wife, she would lose virtually every right she has as a single woman (the definitive phrase is Lucy retorting “If we were married…economically speaking, I die by becoming your wife,” followed by a well-placed musical pause to let that sink in.).
Zheng as immigrant activist Ruza Wenclawski is funny and feisty as the fire within the organization, not having been hampered by being raised with American standards of good girl femininity. When Doris is traumatized for being called a bitch at the rally, Zheng is the funniest in the group who encourage her to embrace the label as a sign of fear from the sexist American men. “My boss tried to fondle me under my skirt/I kicked him like this in the crotch, where it hurt”, she proudly relates in the most memorable number form the show, “Great American Bitch”. (Which, I might add, was the motto T-shirt flying off the shelf at intermission and after the show at the merch booth at an astronomically disproportionate rate.)
In a high profile double cameo role, Laura Stracko is showstopping in each act. Stealing the stage in the first act as wealthy new money socialite and socialist Alva Belmont (no easy feat considering the strength of the supporting cast) with her flamboyant self-titled torch song. Stracko then returns to once again stop the second act as Phoebe Burn, mother of a critical Tennessee Congressman, with her stirring 11 o’clock ballad “A Letter From Harry’s Mother”. Stracko leaves two entirely different but equally strong impressions with each character.
On the technical side, Tour Scenic Designer Christine Peters gives us a perfectly designed set for traveling purposes. It’s elaborate enough to differentiate dozens of different locales without being unnecessarily busy, focusing on lots of wood grains for texture. There is an elegance in the many pieces that gracefully entre and exit the scenes and the changes are poetically fluid.
Costume Designer Paul Tazewell, best know these days for his whimsical Academy Award winning designs for the movie musical extravaganza Wicked, designs many a fetching period style and eye-pleasing palette. While not called on to do anything as visually outstanding or outlandish here, he strikes a perfect historical look throughout. His standouts are the sherbet-colored “Mrs. Banks” ensembles for the opening number and Alva Belmont’s new money extravagance with sequins and feathers and furs that make her stand out from the rest of the cast.
Lighting Designer Lap Chi Chu works fluidly in the pools of light that designate numerous scenes within bigger scenes and stirring silhouettes of the Suffragists in the background, but excels in the eerie beams of light and shadows that play together in the prison scenes. It’s a strong but understated design that is showy without being show-offish.
Jason Crystal’s Sound Design lives up to his name. Occasionally contemporary shows struggle a bit at the Hippodrome, but this was impeccable clear sound and flawless balance from start to finish.
Directed by Leigh Silverman, who has steered this production from its off-Broadway inception through its Tony Award winning Broadway incarnation continues her strong vision on this outstanding tour. Silverman preserves all the historical details and knows how to showcase each actor’s strengths throughout. Her best moves are during the prison scenes, where we see that Wilson was a bit more of a monster than history books portray. She devises ways to depict his torture of the captive Suffragists without being too graphic in her portrayal of the events to the audience. It’s obvious that this third pass at the material is a labor of love for Silverman.
In closing, I must add that I’ve noticed a recurring theme with this season’s shows I have reviewed, and it is that old adage that timing is everything. In today’s volatile political climate, certain shows, both contemporary and classic, are landing differently. The Sound of Music last fall at the Kennedy Center, the first tour to come through after the dictatorial power grab by a deranged leader, felt the incipient arrival of the Nazis seem much more urgent than ever before. My longtime favorite Chess in New York for the first time in its 40+ years of existence with an awkward book made the cold war elements and behind closed doors dealings with Russia infinitely more chilling. Last month’s glorious West Side Story by the Washington National Opera at the Lyric was so much more unnerving in this present day ICE Age in which we live where literally everything is on the line for immigrants (it also made the breakout song lyrics of “I want to be in America” ring incredibly naïve to completely delusional).
Likewise, this show, from when it was conceived a mere two years ago in the interim administration, now delivers a significantly more powerful message about women fighting for women’s rights in this regressing, backwards, sexist era we live in now where we are slowly watching outdated male career politicians strip women of the very innate human rights that Carrie Chapman Catt, Alice Paul, and women from Susan B. Anthony to Gloria Steinem to today have fought their entire lives to earn. An even deeper message, if one chooses to look, is how these revolutionary women gained those basic human rights: by activism and protests and rallies and making their presence undeniably known. Today, social activism is pretty much relegated to social media rants and rage and name calling which, by the original Suffragists’ standards amounts to basically shouting in your living room. We need to take a page from Alice Paul’s playbook and actively fight for what we deserve. Call—no, harass—your representatives. Demonstrate. Actively lobby to vote out politicians that support the shitty agendas of a dictatorial, self-serving leader. Stop your useless rants that serve no purpose other than making you more excitable and angry.
In the meantime, if you want a blueprint of how to make an impact, march down to the Hippodrome and enjoy a well-needed history lesson on how to best achieve your cause.
Photos courtesy of Joan Marcus
The show runs 2 hours and 30 minutes with a 15 minute intermission.
Suffs runs through Mat 31, 2026, at the Hippodrome Theatre in the France-Merrick Performing Arts Center at 12 N. Eutaw Street. For tickets call the box office at 410.752.7444. or purchase them online