SUFFS Opening Night Critics' Reviews

[jacobsnchz14]

Posted: 4/17/24 at 1:12pm

Following a sold-out, extended run at The Public Theater, Suffs arrives on Broadway this spring — and not a moment too soon. From the singular mind of Shaina Taub, this “remarkable, epic new musical” (Variety), boldly explores the victories and failures of a struggle for equality that’s far from over.

It’s 1913 and the women’s movement is heating up in America, anchored by the suffragists — “Suffs,” as they call themselves — and their relentless pursuit of the right to vote. Reaching across and against generational, racial, and class divides, these brilliant, flawed women entertain and inspire us with the story of their hard-won victory in an ongoing fight. So much has changed since the passing of the Nineteenth Amendment over a century ago, and yet we’re reminded sometimes we need to look back, in order to march fearlessly into the future.

The Broadway production opens on April 18, 2024 at the Music Box Theatre following previews that began on March 26, 2024.

[Dylan Smith4]

Posted: 4/17/24 at 2:47pm

I hope this show can find the audience it deserves. It really has potential! Like I said before, it's not necessarily Hamilton 2.0 but it has a very important message with songs I can remember. 

[bwayphreak234]

Posted: 4/17/24 at 5:01pm

Fingers crossed for some great reviews! I really loved this. Biggest surprise of the season for me thus far.

Updated On: 4/17/24 at 05:01 PM

[Mitch101]

Posted: 4/17/24 at 5:12pm

At least Lempicka has energy. Suffs commits the biggest crime of all…boredom.

[Jordan Catalano]

Posted: 4/17/24 at 5:19pm

I’ve seen this show 4 times and have never once been bored. Absolutely it’s one of my favorite musicals this season. 

[BETTY22]

Posted: 4/17/24 at 5:35pm

I so wanted to love it - but....it like reading Wikipedia. 

I cannot believe such an interesting and still relevant chapter of history is so dull in this show.

It's like they tried to make the most boring show possible...and succeeded. 

[ErmengardeStopSniveling]

Posted: 4/17/24 at 5:37pm

I was bored at the Public but not on Broadway. The more I sit with it, the more I like it, and it is one of the better musicals of an incredibly weak year. 

[Shubert Alley Cat]

Posted: 4/17/24 at 6:05pm

I was never once bored but I do think the pacing in the middle of Act 2 slowed a bit - but that was during the first week of previews.  I have seen all the new musicals except heart of rock and roll and SUFFS by far was my favorite.  I have been humming the opening and closing songs ever since the performance I saw and cannot wait for the cast recording.  I hope their reviews are favorable.

[sppunk]

Posted: 4/17/24 at 9:43pm

I wanted to love it but felt wanted more and let down. I expect mostly all mixed reviews. 

Updated On: 4/18/24 at 09:43 PM

[Falsettolands]

Posted: 4/17/24 at 9:46pm

I've made my feelings well-known on the preview thread (found the show utterly dreadful)

But I imagine the reviews for this will be mixed, leaning more positive.

[TaffyDavenport]

Posted: 4/18/24 at 8:26pm

David Gordon of Theatermania often tweets right after he sees shows, mostly just the positive reactions, and, if he's reviewing Suffs, it's going to be a rave. 

[MemorableUserName]

Posted: 4/18/24 at 9:28pm

NY Stage Review:

Suffs: Shaina Taub Wins By a Landslide

By Steven Suskin

★★★★★ Nikki M. James, Grace McLean, Jenn Colella, Emily Skinner, and an exceptional cast spark this new musical about the battle for equal voting rights in America, circa 1915

https://nystagereview.com/2024/04/18/suffs-shaina-taub-wins-by-a-landslide/

 

Suffs: The Brilliant New Musical That Demands to be Heard

By Roma Torre

★★★★★ Shaina Taub’s suffs are young, scrappy and hungry in their heroic battle to win the vote.

https://nystagereview.com/2024/04/18/suffs-the-brilliant-new-musical-that-demands-to-be-heard/

[MemorableUserName]

Posted: 4/18/24 at 9:33pm

Chicago Tribune:

Review: ‘Suffs’ on Broadway explores the history of women’s suffrage in the United States

https://www.chicagotribune.com/2024/04/18/review-suffs-on-broadway-explores-the-history-of-womens-suffrage-in-the-united-states/

"in the end, “Suffs” does what all of the best Broadway musicals do: it humanizes and empowers, and it entertains and moves an audience.

Taub’s enormous talent — she is arguably the first woman to compose, write and star in the same Broadway musical — is the biggest single reason. She’s a fresh, relatively youthful musical voice and an assertive, empathetic and vulnerable star who, with the gentle help of director Leigh Silverman, brings just enough of contemporary womanhood into the story to take the musical out of the realm of class project or Wikipedia trot and more toward the center of why people pay big bucks for Broadway shows."

[MemorableUserName]

Posted: 4/18/24 at 9:37pm

NYT: Green is mixed-to-positive. Not a Critics' Pick

Review: In ‘Suffs,’ the Thrill of the Vote and How She Got It

Shaina Taub’s new Broadway musical about Alice Paul and the fight for women’s suffrage is smart and noble and a bit like a rally.

https://www.nytimes.com/2024/04/18/theater/suffs-review-broadway-shaina-taub.html?searchResultPosition=1

"By the end, it feels like a rally, complete with mottos and banners — which, depending on what you want from a musical, isn’t necessarily a criticism. Certainly it explains why the show has attracted the support of notable feminists like Malala Yousafzai and Hillary Clinton, who rightly see it as an opportunity to buoy the politically discouraged. “Progress is possible, not guaranteed,” sings Paul, in a pithy, Obama-esque formulation.

I’m on board for that. And there are some fine performances: Colella as Catt, Nikki M. James as Wells, Ally Bonino as the resourceful Lucy Burns, and the ever-enjoyable Emily Skinner blowing in as a moneybags. Silverman’s staging, except for the anemic protest scenes, is exemplary.

But considered narrowly as drama, “Suffs” feels insufficient. Its scenes often come off as educational skits — an effect accentuated, at times, by their resemblance to handsome dioramas, with the women lined up in silhouette. (The sets are by Riccardo Hernández; the sharply profiled costumes by Paul Tazewell.) And Taub, especially in writing her own role, has prioritized intelligence over expressiveness, making Paul seem not just driven but robotic. She frequently says canned things like “Governments derive their just powers from the consent of the governed,” a paraphrase of the Declaration of Independence."

[MemorableUserName]

Posted: 4/18/24 at 9:39pm

Theatermania's review is from Rachel Graham

Review: Shaina Taub’s Suffs on Broadway Sacrifices the Personal for the Political

Taub’s 2022 musical moves to the Music Box, with a cast that includes Jenn Colella and Nikki M. James.

https://www.theatermania.com/news/review-shaina-taubs-suffs-on-broadway-sacrifices-the-personal-for-the-political_1737608/

[MemorableUserName]

Posted: 4/18/24 at 9:40pm

Deadline:

https://deadline.com/feature/broadway-show-reviews-spring-2024-1235866317/

"Suffs is enthralling, a smart, funny and beautifully sung musical that brings its chosen moment in history to life just as surely and confidently as Hamilton did for its. That the Suffs era is female-focused — and so less known, in its details, to the general public than the doings of the Founding Fathers — makes Shaina Taub’s creation all the more potent."

[Fordham2015]

Posted: 4/18/24 at 9:40pm

I like Green's conclusion:

“Suffs” is already good, in both senses — a good show and good for the world. I even shed a few political tears. But to be great, a musical (like a great movement) must grab you by the throat. “Suffs” too often settles for holding up signs."

[MemorableUserName]

Posted: 4/18/24 at 9:41pm

NY Post: 2 1/2 stars

‘Suffs’ review: A moving musical march that’s not quite there yet

https://nypost.com/2024/04/18/entertainment/suffs-review-a-moving-musical-march-thats-not-quite-there-yet/

"That finale exemplifies how tricky women’s suffrage is to turn into a musical.

On one hand, the song sounds inspiring like any good Broadway send-off is supposed to. On the other, it leaves us walking out on a sad note: the more things change, the more they stay the same.

And mixed feelings are exactly what “Suffs” left me with. "

[MemorableUserName]

Posted: 4/18/24 at 9:43pm

Vincentelli in Washington Post:

A spirited musical about suffragists is not a triumph, but much improved

Hillary Clinton is one of the producers of Broadway’s ‘Suffs,’ which was plagued by covid in its premiere two years ago

https://www.washingtonpost.com/entertainment/theater/2024/04/18/suffs-broadway-review/

"When the Shaina Taub musical “Suffs” premiered at the Public Theatre two years ago, covid plagued the company and even led to the cancellation of opening night. But those weren’t really the problem. Rather, the show, about the American suffragists’ fight to win the right to vote for women, suffered from self-inflicted wounds: It was a didactic, dull, overstuffed mess.

That “Suffs” would come back, and on Broadway, too, wasn’t a thrilling prospect. And while it did not magically morph into a great show, Version 2.0 is tighter, more confident, often rousing and downright entertaining. We can only rejoice that the creative team, led by Taub, who wrote the book and score, and director Leigh Silverman, did not back down."

[MemorableUserName]

Posted: 4/18/24 at 9:44pm

Theatrely:

SUFFS Storms Broadway — Review

https://www.theatrely.com/post/suffs-storms-broadway-review

"The new musical, which opens tonight at the Music Box Theatre following a run at the Public downtown, is at its most invigorating when Taub hits on these collisions of the political and personal. But such moments are few and far between in this sprawling historical work, with book, music and lyrics by Taub, which traces the suffragist movement and the battle for a woman’s right to vote in the United States. The show is overburdened by too many characters and too much historical ground to cover, and Taub’s score often falls back on generic inspirational anthems instead of emotional specificity. "

[MemorableUserName]

Posted: 4/18/24 at 9:46pm

The Wrap:

‘Suffs’ Broadway Review: The Right, if Not Perfect, Show for Where We Are Now

Shaina Taub’s new musical about early feminists grabs the political zeitgeist and runs with it at full speed

https://www.thewrap.com/suffs-broadway-review-shaina-taub/

[MemorableUserName]

Posted: 4/18/24 at 9:49pm

Isherwood in WSJ:

‘Suffs’ Review: A Musical of Marching Women

Produced by Hillary Clinton, writer-composer-actor Shaina Taub’s Broadway show is a generally rousing if occasionally heavy-handed history of the fight for the 19th Amendment.

https://www.wsj.com/articles/suffs-review-a-musical-of-marching-women-shaina-taub-hillary-clinton-fe175dc0

“Suffs” largely succeeds in showcasing the accomplishments of its creators and performers, particularly with regard to Ms. Taub’s rich and often rousing score and the terrific cast, all radiating vivid engagement in the history unfolding before us. Nevertheless, at times the musical comes across as a bright but exhaustingly busy historical pageant, with a dizzyingly broad cast of characters and manifold triumphs and setbacks—mostly the latter, in truth—to unfold.

[MemorableUserName]

Posted: 4/18/24 at 9:54pm

New York Theater:

https://newyorktheater.me/2024/04/18/suffs-broadway-review/

"I found Shaina Taub’s musical inspiring, instructive and entertaining when I saw it two years ago Off Broadway.

...

But much has changed in “Suffs,” almost all for the better: The show is more streamlined, more focused. At the same time, with the transfer to Broadway, my assessment has changed somewhat. “Suffs” on Broadway is likely to be sought out more for its inspiration and enlightenment than its entertainment."

[MemorableUserName]

Posted: 4/18/24 at 10:12pm

Variety:

‘Suffs’ Review: Broadway Musical About Women’s Fight for the Vote Gets Thrilling and Entertaining Musicalization

https://variety.com/2024/legit/reviews/suffs-review-musical-broadway-1235974881/

[EDSOSLO858]

Posted: 4/18/24 at 10:12pm

DTLI Consensus: Though streamlined and much improved from the solid Off-Broadway incarnation, Suffs has still not yet marched its way to a great product.

5 positive, 5 mixed (including the NYT). 

https://didtheylikeit.com/shows/suffs-bway/