‘SUFFS’: Jenn Colella & cast. Photo: Joan Marcus.

SUFFS
Book, music & lyrics by Shaina Taub
Directed by Leigh Silverman
Choreography by Mayte Natalio
Music Box Theatre
239 West 45th Street
(212-239-6200), www.suffsmusical.com

By David NouNou

Suffs by Shaina Taub is one of this season’s more ambitious musicals, if for no other reason the subject matter it tackles.

Starting out in 1913, the women’s movement for the right to vote in America is being spearheaded by the suffragists or “suffs,” as they call themselves. Headed by Alice Paul (Shaina Taub) and joined by activist Lucy Burns (Ally Bonino), lawyer and peace activist Inez Milholland (Hannah Cruz), Polish-American factory inspector Ruza Wenclawska (Kim Blanck) and women’s rights activist Doris Stevens (Nadia Dandashi), they are the new generation that is pushing to get enough states to pass the 19^th Amendment to the Constitution, giving women the right to vote. On the more temperate and established side, the National American Woman Suffrage Association (NAWSA) is headed by Carrie Chapman Catt (Jenn Colella).  Ms. Chapman Catt and NAWSA  want to help pass the 19^th Amendment, but believe women must persuade men in softer, less aggressive ways, such as saying “allow Mother to vote.”

Alice Paul has more radical ideas about getting the 19^th Amendment passed, and she soon breaks away from NAWSA and creates the Congressional Union for Woman Suffrage, later known as the National Woman’s Party in 1916. Alice Paul’s group uses more aggressive types of civil disobedience to encourage President Woodrow Wilson (Grace McLean) to support women’s right to vote.

As with any movement, it is ongoing, with endless problems. The women mentioned earlier are fighting for the white women’s right to vote. Matters are further complicated when the Black women, headed by Ida B. Wells (Nikki M. James), want women of color to be able to vote as well, and how well that would work down South. Also, where in the parades will they be placed? This is all under the term of President Woodrow Wilson. President Wilson wanted the whole movement to go away by throwing the marchers or agitators into prison and torturing them.

The subject matter is heady and historical, but not always satisfying. Instead of a flowing narrative, it seems more like episodic scenes attached one after another to make a complete musical. The book is repetitious at times. However, the score by Ms. Taub is remarkable. The score propels the story forward more clearly than the convoluted book and is very enjoyable.

Being a large ensemble but headed by Ms. Taub as Alice Paul, there are some exceptional performances, including Kim Blanck, Ally Bonino, Jenn Colella, Hannah Cruz, Nadia Dandashi, and Nikki M. James. Most have beautiful singing voices and wonderful stage presences.

Director Leigh Silverman certainly had her hands full with such serious subject matter and an extraordinarily large cast, and she often makes it work, but some of the less necessary scenes could have been trimmed.

There is a wonderful touch at the end when the new generation steps in and starts to take over while Alice Paul watches. It is awe-inspiring seeing what those women achieved, but one can’t help but watch in horror thinking how Roe vs. Wade has been overturned or considering what recently happened in Arizona with the strictest abortion bans, with a law from the 1800s now being enforced after a controversial ruling by the Arizona Supreme Court. What would the women in Suffs have thought and done today? Suffs shows that, no matter how far women have come, there is still a long way to go for women’s equality in modern-day America.

Edited by Scott Harrah
Published April 22, 2024
Reviewed at April 21, 2024 press performance

‘SUFFS’: Hannah Cruz (center, on horse) & cast. Photo: Joan Marcus.

‘SUFFS’: Nikki M. James (center) & cast. Photo: Joan Marcus.

‘SUFFS’: Anastacia McCleskey, Laila Erica Drew & Nikki M. James. Photo: Joan Marcus.

‘SUFFS’: Shaina Taub. Photo: Joan Marcus.

‘SUFFS’: Tsilala Brock & Grace McLean. Photo: Joan Marcus.

‘SUFFS’: Hannah Cruz. Photo: Joan Marcus.

‘SUFFS’: Emily Skinner. Photo: Joan Marcus.

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 Performances And Special Appearances By: Julia Roberts, Lin-Manuel Miranda, Hugh Jackman, Sarah Jessica Parker, Matthew Broderick, Emily Blunt, , Anne Hathaway, Josh Groban, Angela Bassett, Neil Patrick Harris, Helen Mirren, Sienna Miller, Bernadette Peters, Cynthia Erivo, Renée Elise Goldsberry, Rebecca Naomi Jones, Sarah Jones, Andrea McArdle, Ayodele Casel and more.

 Produced By: Jordan Roth and Richie Jackson, Stephen Schwartz and Harvey Weinstein

Musical Direction By: Seth Rudetsky | Script Consultant: John Guare | Directed By: Michael Mayer | Special Consultant: Diane Paulus

Monday, October 17 at (timing to be announced – evening)

St. James Theatre

246 West 44th Street

New York, NY 10036

Individual tickets are available from $45 for young professionals to $10,000.

For more information on the event and tickets – https://www.hillaryclinton.com/events/tickets/6ITMQCPG6RD2COEE/

The post ‘Stronger Together’ Broadway for Hillary Benefit Oct. 17 appeared first on StageZine.

OVAL OFFICE PARTY: The cast of ‘Clinton The Musical.’ Photo: Russ Rowland

CLINTON THE MUSICAL
Book by Paul Hodge & Michael Hodge
Music & lyrics by Paul Hodge
Directed & choreographed by Dan Knechtges
New World Stages
340 West 50th Street
212-239-6200
http://clintonthemusical.com/

By Scott Harrah

Some would say former President Bill Clinton and Hillary Clinton are long overdue for an Off-Broadway political satire, and it’s certainly the right time for this scathingly funny show by Australian brothers Paul and Michael Hodge. In roughly 95 minutes, the musical tells the entire Bill and Hillary Clinton saga. There is plenty of material that will get laughs from Republicans, Democrats and people of all political parties.

What’s most remarkable about Clinton the Musical is its objectivity (well, sort of) because audiences never know which side the show is on, but we know most of what we’re seeing is sophomoric and hysterical simultaneously. The simple fact that the play’s creators aren’t Americans gives the narrative an unbiased, incisive edge as we see the people from both political parties that made the Clinton Administration and Republicans in Congress in the 1990s so infamous.

The former president from Arkansas is portrayed, literally and figuratively, as two different men: There is WJ Clinton (Tom Galantich), the serious, charismatic leader of the free world; and Billy Clinton (Duke Lafoon), the sex-crazed, fast-food-eating bad boy (often nibbling on McDonald’s fries). Watching President Clinton and his misbehaving alter ego is fun indeed. Mr. Galantich and Mr. Lafoon’s give solid performances as Bill Clinton and his sleazy doppelganger, but both could have been more over-the-top because there is so much to parody about “Bubba.”.

All the key players, from Hillary Clinton (Broadway veteran Kerry Butler) to Monica Lewisnky (Veronica J. Kuehn) to Newt Gingrich (John Treacy Egan) to Linda Tripp (Judy Gold) and Kenneth Starr (Kevin Zak), are here. Al Gore is portrayed by a cardboard cutout. Ms. Butler has all of Hillary’s mannerisms down well and has a pleasant singing voice, and she’s especially potent when delivering timely bon mots about Hillary’s e-mail, but a few of the supporting performances are actually more satisfying.

The songs, ranging from “Lie to You” to “That Woman Miss Lewinsky,” have their moments (and the lyrics are too raunchy to quote). Although the obvious jokes wear thin quickly, it’s all in good fun.

Mr. Zak, as “special prosecutor” Kenneth Starr, is depicted here as a bitchy gay man. Just try to keep from laughing as he jumps across the stage, clad in a leather harness and see-through undies, making Bob Fosse-style Chicago moves in his rousing, ultra-campy solo number “A Starr is Born.” Mr. Egan’s Newt Gingrich is a whiny, ineffectual buffoon who, like Billy Clinton, always craves junk food. Both Mr. Zak and Mr. Egan portray gleefully grotesque caricatures of two villains in the Clinton Administration soap opera.

Comedienne Judy Gold is a delight when playing Monica’s “friend” Linda Tripp, the conniving, devious woman who helped uncover the whole Clinton-Lewinsky scandal. However, she’s less effective in numerous scenes as Eleanor Roosevelt (Hillary’s idol), delivering epigrams about women, power and duty to one’s country that become rather hit and miss by the second act.

All the iconic highlights of the Clinton presidency—from Paula Jones and the Whitewater scandal to the failed attempt to impeach him, and the rabid manner in which things were chronicled by the news media—breeze by with cheeky zeal under Dan Knechtges’ fluid direction.

Hillary Clinton had not officially announced her candidacy for the 2016 presidential race as of press time, and this show won’t win her any points from undecided “swing” voters. So, is the show simply capitalizing on the Republicans who want to dig up every bit of old dirt about Bill and Hillary? Not really. Political satire can be many things, but it is never supposed to be nice. Both Democrats and Republicans are given “equal time” in terms of mockery. No matter which side you’re on, Clinton The Musical will get your vote as one of the spring’s best spoofs of Washington politics.

LINDA TRIPP & MONICA LEWINSKY: Judy Gold & Veronica J. Kuehn. Photo: Russ Rowland

NEWT GINGRICH & KENNETH STARR: John Treachy Egan & Kevin Zak. Photo: Russ Rowland

Edited by Scott Harrah
Published April 9, 2015
Reviewed at press performance on April 5, 2015

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