How much can really be accomplished in a two-and-a-half-hour runtime?
Oh, yeah,andtheres the shows chillingly relevant message about social progress.
The answer was…not much, Taub told me over email earlier this week.
Suffsproducer Hillary Clinton and Shaina Taub, who wrote and stars in the show.
I knew instantly it had to be a musical because the movement was so inherently theatrical, Taub continued.
It immediately sang to me.
Four years ago,she hintedthat she might be interested in leveling up from mere superfandom.
“I knew instantly it had to be a musical because the movement was so inherently theatrical,” Taub says ofSuffs’ historical origins.
The opportunity presented itself last summer.
I wrote her a letter expressing how her campaign had inspired the early days of writingSuffs.
It turned out thatSuffswas the production Clinton had unwittingly been holding out for.
Shaina Taub as Alice Paul inSuffs
So she joined the production as a producer.
Much ofSuffs power and relatability is derived from its narrative approach.
Wells and Terrell push back while also arguing privately about tokenization and bigotry.
Anastacia McCleskey (as Mary Church Terrell), Laila Erica Drew (as Phyllis Terrell), and Nikki M. James (as Ida B. Wells)
I found it so compelling.
How does change get made, who gets to make it, and when?
Should I have instead brought my 20-something sister, who learned about the suffragists in elementary school?
Tsilala Brock (Dudley Malone) and Grace McLean (as President Woodrow Wilson)
One of my female friends who marched with me whenRoewas overturned?
At first Clinton had similar misgivings.
(Clinton attended with her husband and a gaggle of mixed-gender staffers.)
Hannah Cruz as Inez Milholland and the company ofSuffs
But I thought, this is part of American history.
It is not just about women, it is about the men who helped them.
So I want men to see it, as well as women.
Photographed by Stefan Ruiz
So be a Dudley.
Clinton had a similar experience.
Everybody was affected, she says.
There were tears in the eyes of men and women at some of the struggles that were depicted.
Of her debut as a Broadway producer, Clinton says the process wasnt entirely foreign.
I really could relate to that persistent professional process they were engaged in.
On a core level, there is also more overlap between stumping and storytelling than one might realize.
These narratives can function as warningsbut they can also inspire.
