‘Suffs’ Review: Epic New Musical Portrays the Blood, Sweat and Tears Behind the Fight for Women’s Suffrage
variety.comMarilyn Stasio Theater CriticOh, what mean and nasty things men said about women who dared to fight for the right to vote in America.
Here are some of those choice insults, taken from the very first song (“Watch Out for the Suffragette”) of “Suffs,” the remarkable, epic new musical by Shaina Taub now premiering at the Public Theater.
Coming from a bunch of men portrayed as vaudeville clowns (but played by women in this all-female cast), the smears run from “she can’t take a joke” and “she sure as hell won’t shut up” to the enduring insult that “she can’t get a man, so she’s a suffragette.”That word, by the way, is anathema to these courageous and dedicated suffragists, who resent the diminutive form that patronizes them and diminishes their cause of securing for women the right to vote.
This scrupulousness about language isn’t nitpicking, because Taub has written the smart lyrics as well as the stirring music for the high-powered, sung-through score that has been entrusted to music director Andrea Grody and the full-bodied orchestra she oversees.
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