Director Leigh Silverman says the musical about the women's suffrage movement feels timely and relatable, with a Tony-winning score by Shaina Taub.
Danyel Fulton and company in the first national touring company of " Suffs ," coming to the Connor Palace in Playhouse Square Feb. 3-22. CLEVELAND, Ohio -- There’s a Tony-winning musical coming to Playhouse Square that explores a little-known but important chapter in the evolution of the United States Constitution, using contemporary music to take audiences into the room where it happened.
Feb. 3-22, is the Broadway hit about the women’s suffrage movement and the long fight that led to the ratification of the 19th Amendment in 1920. “It’s a story about a group of people who didn’t like what was happening and wanted to make change,” said Leigh Silverman, the show’s director. Silverman’s involvement goes back to 2014, when Broadway producer Rachel Sussman brought her to see singer-songwriter Shaina Taub perform in New York City.As fate — or intention — would have it, Sussman had just given Taub a copy of Doris Stevens’ book “Jailed for Freedom” to adapt for the stage. After nearly a decade in development — and a lengthy delay due to the COVID-19 pandemic — the show premiered at The Public Theater in 2022 before moving to Broadway two years later. For Silverman, the wait was worth it. “I just felt absolutely passionate about Shaina’s talent and the extraordinary story that I had never been taught,” she recalled. “This was the kind of story I was desperate for growing up.” In “Suffs,” which some have described as a spiritual sequel to “Hamilton,” Alice Paul is the revolutionary who isn’t going to throw away her shot. It’s 1913 and Paul, frustrated by the slow progress of the movement championed by Susan B. Anthony some 60 years earlier, proposes a radical idea: a march on Washington, D.C., the day before President Woodrow Wilson’s inauguration. Her tactics are met with resistance from suffrage leader Carrie Chapman Catt and criticism from Black journalist and activist Ida B. Wells . “You have a group of people who all want the same thing, and everyone disagrees about how to get there,” Silverman said. “To me, that feels very relatable today.” The story tells of both the triumphs and internal conflicts of the movement, including intergenerational and racial tensions. And while Paul drives the story, it was important for Silverman and Taub to surround her with characters who were just as “interesting, complex, fallible and impressive,” the director said. “I wish there was a musical about every single Suff in our show. I think it would be more entertaining than the Marvel universe, frankly.”Indeed, Silverman and Taub wanted to make sure the show was entertaining and not a dusty civics lesson. But it wasn’t only about the singing and dancing. The director said they leaned on the story’s inherent drama. Many actual events depicted can feel fictional, with audiences often surprised to learn they’re all true. “It’s like suspense,” Silverman said. “You know that eventually women get the right to vote, but how they did it — you can’t believe it." The current news cycle suggests that “Suffs” arrives in Cleveland just in time. The musical is a reminder that the American ideal wasn’t simply handed down. It was fought for and requires constant effort to evolve and protect. “The story is inherently relatable,” Silverman said. “No matter what your politics are, people like to have a voice in their government. They like to be able to stand, I think, in equality with each other.” “Suffs” is both timeless and timely. Silverman saw it twice in Philadelphia recently and said the two performances didn’t land the same way. “The show stopped with applause at different times than it had two weeks earlier because of what had changed in the world in those two weeks.” She added, “People said they couldn’t imagine feeling re-energized to go back out into the community. And yet this show activated them in a way they never expected.” Credit Taub’s folk-pop-forward score for a lot of the heavy lifting. Silverman describes the music as “heart-forward and soulful,” with songs that envelop audiences and pull them into the story and characters almost immediately. “Keep Marching,” the show’s central anthem, sums up the central message: that progress is possible, not guaranteed. “I think it really encompasses the struggle and the necessity of continuing on and making your voice heard,” the director said. Another distinctive element of “Suffs” is its all-female and nonbinary cast. It includes Jenny Ashman, who plays President Woodrow Wilson and sings the condescending number “Ladies.” For Silverman, the choice felt right. “To have a female-identifying person sing that song brought something different to it — more sophisticated and potentially more fun and entertaining,” she said. Put it all together and the result is a show Silverman hopes audiences leave feeling changed, along with a call to, well, keep marching “There’s nothing like ‘Suffs,’” she said. “It’s such a singular piece of musical theater. It will fill your heart and really, truly give back to you when you see it.”Joey Morona is an entertainment reporter and occasional film, TV and theater reviewer for cleveland.com and The Plain Dealer. Born and raised in Cleveland, Ohio, the University of Central...
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