‘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.

The post ‘Suffs’: The women’s right-to-vote musical appeared first on StageZine.

‘COME FROM AWAY’: The cast. Photo: Matthew Murphy

COME FROM AWAY
Book, music & lyrics by Irene Sankoff & David Hein
Directed by Christopher Ashley
Gerald Schoenfeld Theatre
236 West 45th Street
(212-335-1873), http://comefromaway.com/

By Scott Harrah

The inherent goodwill in humanity and the kindness of strangers during a global crisis are both ongoing themes in this brilliant sleeper hit musical.  A musical about what happened when nearly 7,000 people from 38 transatlantic jets were forced to land and stranded in tiny Gander, Newfoundland, Canada on September 11, 2001 may not sound like “feel good” material to fill one hour and 45 minutes. “A 9/11 Broadway musical? Really?” one first thinks. However, it is this show’s ability to surprise and touch even the most cynical, jaded New York theatergoer that makes it so unusual and emotionally powerful.

Most of us probably forgot about or never paid attention to the little human interest story (overshadowed in the press by the grisly articles dispatched from Ground Zero in Manhattan, the Pentagon in DC and Shanksville in PA) about how a remote town in Maritime Canada opened its homes and hearts to thousands unable to return to the USA when planes were grounded as U.S. airspace closed on 9/11.

Beowulf Borritt’s barren set of weather-beaten trees and little else vividly depicts Newfoundland.  The show opens with the rousing number “Welcome to the Rock” (a reference to the fact that Newfoundland looks like a giant rock in the North Atlantic “between there and here”), and the cast sings in twangy, hard-to-decipher Newfie brogues (a strange hybrid of Canadian and Irish dialects).

The cast’s frenetic energy and the Celtic-themed music command our attention.  Broadway rarely gets original shows that are not adaptations of a film or book, and this one is based on real-life events and has a docudrama feel to it.  On paper it sounds like it shouldn’t work at all, but the fact that it does beautifully makes Come From Away all the more trenchant.  Based on interviews with the people of Gander, Canadian book and songwriters Irene Sankoff and David Hein (a married songwriting duo) have assembled a pop opera that simply tells the stories of the diverse characters stuck in Gander without being trite or sentimental.

There are the “come from aways” (Newfoundland slang for outsiders): Texans, Brits, a Jew, Muslims, Germans, a female American Airlines pilot (Jenn Colella), as well as the townspeople, ranging from a teacher to an animal rescue worker. The actors play many dual roles. Caesar Samayoa, for example, alternates between a gay man and a Muslim Egyptian (with cogent conviction). Other subplots include a budding romance between an older Texas woman (Sharon Wheatley) and an Englishman (Lee MacDougal), and the experiences of a neophyte TV reporter (Kendra Kassebaum).

There are jokes about Newfoundland and Canada in general (complete with Tim Hortons gags), and odd local customs like kissing a codfish (don’t ask). Amazingly, for such a short show, there is also plenty of depth here, and the people aren’t portrayed as cartoons or stereotypes

Songs like “28 Hours/Wherever We Are,” ”On the Edge” and “Me and the Sky” (Ms. Colella’s showstopper about being the first woman pilot of a commercial jet) and more jump out at us with the melodic, emotional force we used to experience in old show standards.

It is easy to see why this show went from a workshop at a small Ontario college to mountings in Seattle, La Jolla, Washington, DC, a major Toronto production and now Broadway.  Although the story is set in Canada, it pays tribute to one of the darkest periods in modern American history.

In addition to the outstanding cast, expertly directed by Christopher Ashley, there is innovative choreography by Kelly Devine, which contains bits of country and lots of Irish-style Riverdance moves. The narrative is expertly woven through nonstop movement and song.

Come From Away is unlike anything we’ve seen on Broadway, a musical that celebrates and glorifies humanity, understanding and the reasons to embrace the differences of people we don’t know, while showing how no one is really that different—without coming off hokey or contrived. This is a musical with a simplistic yet sobering message of unity for the divided, dark America of 2017, making the show relevant, topical, and fun. It’s a new type of never-before-seen, uncharted musical territory much like Hamilton was, and should also make musical-theater history.

Edited by Scott Harrah
Published March 12, 2017
Reviewed at press preview performance on March 11, 2017

‘COME FROM AWAY’: The cast. Photo: Matthew Murphy

‘COME FROM AWAY’: Kendra Kassebaum. Photo: Matthew Murphy

‘COME FROM AWAY’: Jenn Colella & cast. Photo: Matthew Murphy

Clip from Come From Away, ‘Heave Away’

The post ‘Come From Away’: 9/11 musical a surprise hit appeared first on StageZine.