Looking for a little inspiration in troubling times? Then make your way to SUFFS at PPAC this week. I promise you’ll feel better - at least for a few hours.
The award-winning musical by writer, lyricist, and actor Shaina Taub is running at the Providence Performing Arts Center through Sunday, January 24. Winner of the 2024 Tony Awards for “Best Book of a Musical” and “Best Original Score,” SUFFS is the uplifting true story of the American women’s suffrage movement - a decades-long struggle that culminated with the passage of the Nineteenth Amendment in 1920. Based on real events, the show will have many in the audience googling historical figures like “Alice Paul” and “Inez Milholland” on the ride home. (No doubt, there needs to be more about these sheroes in middle and high school history books!)
The greatest strength of SUFFS lies in its narrative: a portrait of courageous women coming together to drive social change, even as they clash over strategy, ideology, and identity. The show captures the full scope of the suffrage movement, including its internal rifts. The old guard, led by Carrie Chapman Catt (well played by Marya Grandy), has spent decades pursuing the vote state by state, running in place with little momentum. Their slogan, “Let Mother Vote,” feels outdated and uninspiring to a younger generation of single, college-educated, and working-class women demanding “Equality Now.” These activists are willing to employ bold, previously unthinkable tactics, including mass marches, White House protests, and hunger strikes to force change.
The story doesn’t shy away from uncomfortable truths. Alongside the infighting among white suffrage leaders, SUFFS confronts the racism embedded within the movement itself. African American women - who had long been organizing and advocating for voting rights and racial justice - are sidelined when white Southern women object to their participation in the historic 1913 Washington, D.C. march. Journalist and activist Ida B. Wells (played brilliantly by Danyel Fulton) embodies this injustice, as Black women are told to “Wait My Turn” half a century after Black men were formally granted the right to vote.
Throughout the show, political leaders and other bigoted types attempt to belittle and dismiss the suffragists -sometimes politely, sometimes not - until political realities force President Woodrow Wilson (played with dry humor by Jenny Ashman) to officially endorse suffrage. That endorsement comes only after several movement leaders endure imprisonment and near-fatal hunger strikes, underscoring the physical and emotional toll of the fight.
The story of the suffragists who fought for women’s right to vote is, of course, inspiring yet, 100 years later, too familiar. Do we really still live in a world where women like the late activist Renee Good are shamed for exercising political rights and not being at home with her children? Suffragist leaders faced similar disdain, scorned for not following the traditional path and bearing children. The lesson is clear. We’ve still got a long way to go.
The fight for suffrage spanned generations and continues in new forms today. Courageous women still stand up, still protest, still demand justice, often at great personal cost. SUFFS carries that torch with conviction and grace. With strong individual performances and a powerful ensemble, this show succeeds not only as a historical musical, but as a resonant, timely reminder of how hard-won - and how fragile - progress can be. Forgive the cliché, but this story feels more relevant now than ever. Don’t miss it!
Click here for tickets to SUFFS at PPAC.
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