well this was disappointing, although it has its moments and is certainly a worthwhile effort despite its flaws. this is one i was most looking fwd to, given the subject matter and type of historical tale being so up my alley.
what a story to tell, and im so glad shaina is telling it. she is the opposite of Lin Manuel Miranda: she acts and sounds great (it seems insane, now that ive seen her, that she wouldnt play this role) BUT her score is monotonous (all blends together into one pleasant mush) and the lyrics are totally predictable in that cringey "are they gonna rhyme head with bed...yup they just did" kinda way. and whereas hamilton performed a story, Suffs tells it to us, and instead of packing five textbooks worth into 2.5 hours, it feels like Suffs does the opposite. it focus on the same, uncomplicated tale for 2.5 hours. so many missed opportunities.
we of course take for granted that the notion of women not being able to vote is patently insane, but we are never SHOWN it. the Black women powerfully remind us that the hard-won rights here weren't nearly enough...by saying so. Everyone falls apart at a tragedy in act 1, but it was lost on me what was so special about that person until then. also, its a shoddy production. and by that i mean there are some purely amateur moments that were staged in a way that would be more appropriate for a fancy high school. those prison scenes? the stretching and "dancing" around fire surrounding the President up on a bizarre platform? and while its perfectly fine to have a minimalist set or otherwise require us to use our imagination, but this production does a halfway job of it, which is so much worse: the same wooden walls slide in/out every few seconds, a tiny table and chairs pop up and down nonstop.
and yet. at times the show takes off, or punches you in the gut. Great American Bitch is a hoot and brings the show to life after a slower start. Ida B Wells has some moments in Act 2 that broke my heart. Emily Skinner's Act 2 song is a stunner, a show stopper, everything you could want. And the Woodrow Wilson shtick is hilarious. A great ending and I love what Taub is trying to say about generational protests, about the push/pull of social movements. I wanted to like this so much more....
the cast is uniformly excellent- Taub being a real surprise, but of course Jenn Collella is doing great work too, and Nikki James is doing some subtly fine work here like I have never seen from her before. Grace McLean is hilarious, Emily Skinner eats the two scenes shes given, Hannah Cruz sounds fantastic (based on what she did tonight, it feels like Soo would be totally miscast in this role...) Tsilala Brock stuck out to me as the only awkward, false note here- her performance is timid and unconvincing (in a role that should be stir us up), and in a show that pointedly focuses on race i cannot fathom why they'd cast a Black actor as the Irish chief of staff to the President in 1915.
because the staging is so unoriginal (walk on, walk off, curtain up, everyone step forward) there are no bad seats at all, and i wish i hadn't spent $$ on front mezzanine. there was some sort of medical incident in the front right mezz tonight towards the end of act 1- i thought they might call to stop the show, but the staff seemed to resolve it during intermission. third medical incident in a bway theater in the past week.
Updated On: 4/17/24 at 11:43 PM
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