Broadway at TPAC
Suffs: The Musical
How much do you know about suffrage? The concept that all adult citizens have the right to vote is taken for granted by most of the modern world (even if that doesn’t happen in practice). Like many legal rights and cultural assumptions, it’s easy to forget that it wasn’t always the case. Here’s a quick overview: at our country’s start, only 6% of the population could vote: white male landowners who fit religious requirements. It was only by 1856 that all white men could vote. In 1870, African American men could vote too. Women didn’t get the right to vote until 1920, when the 19th amendment was passed. 1965 finally abolished voting taxes and literacy tests designed to suppress Black votes.
Suffs is by songwriter, musician, and performer Shaina Taub, and won the 2024 Tony awards for Best Book and Best Score. Suffs is fun, and I learned a lot, including that “suffragette” was a derogatory term, and that in the UK, “suffragist” and “suffragette” actually referred to two very different groups.
The tension in the show is not whether they succeed (we already know that bit), but how these women managed to make that happen. While the show is around two-and-a-half hours, it feels short. The second act moves especially quickly, part of it taking place here in Nashville. As a Southerner, it’s delightful to have a historical event that we can actually be proud of, and the wild applause made it clear that we all felt that. There’s a strong sense of humor throughout the show, and characters are made memorable, filling in what had previously been for me only vaguely recognizable names. Since it’s based on history, all the emotional moments have the added weight of having actually happened. Even the funny ones: suffragist and lawyer Inez Milholland actually did lead the Woman Suffrage Parade through Washington on a white horse.
The start of the musical is hilarious: Carrie Chapman Catt, president of the National Woman Suffrage Association, sings “Let Mother Vote,” pushing for the right to vote while still playing to the female stereotypes of the day. Her goal is to normalize the concept to make it less frightening for complacent men, but Alice Paul, a young suffragist, wants to adopt a more radical and demanding tone, and organizes the first march on Washington. Eventually she forms her own suffragist group, and while aiming at the same goal, she and Catt clash over methods. By the end of the play, Suffs makes the audience feel that both women’s tactics were necessary for success.
Suffs balances giving honor to the women who got the suffrage movement to succeed, while showing how black suffragists were treated differently by society and the movement in general. The 19th amendment gave new freedom to white women that black women weren’t able to make proper use of for decades more. In order to appease racist sponsors, black suffragists were asked to march at the back of the line for the protest march on Washington. In “Wait my Turn” Ida B. Wells (suffragist, reporter, and co-founder of the NAACP) sings “you want me to wait my turn, to simply put my sex before my race.” This conflict over the complex moral struggle is a major theme of the show: what is the best strategy to solve injustice, and which issues take priority?
Shaina Taub’s music is great, and the harmonies are very satisfying. In “If We Were Married,” one of the suffragists hilariously explains to a male character what would happen to her legal rights upon marriage. “Wait My Turn” is heartbreaking, and the final song, “Keep Marching” is gorgeous and deeply moving. It’s rare to hear a large chorus of only female voices (especially in contemporary music), and it is beautiful. All the cast are fantastic singers, especially Danyel Fulton as Ida B. Wells, who has a world-weary regalness further showcasing the injustices endured. Maya Keleher as Alice Paul has energetic charm and idealist enthusiasm, and each other member of the cast fulfills their roles with delightful aplomb, and in gorgeous costumes.
I attended the March 3rd performance. The audience was full and on the older side. That surprised me at first, given that it’s a recent musical, until I remembered that older people vote more than any segment of the population. During intermission the older man sitting to my left googled the suffragists. The musical gave me a new context and appreciation for history I hadn’t paid much attention to previously, taking my right to vote for granted. I will be making use of the tour’s excellent resources.
Suffs is a lot of fun, and gave me a whole new interest in the history of suffrage, as well as a deeper thankfulness for the women who earned me the right to vote. 2026 is an election year, so be sure to make time to vote; if you don’t vote, you don’t have the right to complain about politics. And see Suffs! The tour is at TPAC through March 8.
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A Nashville native and MTSU graduate, Grace Krenz is a reader, a writer, and an arts enthusiast. She lives in Nashville with her husband and two children.
