Overall I liked the show, but man there was SUCH a disparity between the acts for me. Act 1 I thought felt plodding and mediocre, and if it had continued through the rest of the show I would've written this off as completely overhyped. Talking to my friend at intermission, we were saying how it really felt like they wanted to get through a lot of history, but that part of history wasn't really them doing much besides the same thing over and over (raising money, speaking at rallies, etc), which wasn't very interesting to watch, and we wanted some more character work. I also thought the songs were a lot better when they only had one character singing or didn't try to move the plot too much (though I wasn't a huge fan of Alice Paul's first song), and it felt like this show didn't really need to be sung through.
Act 2 started off well and I don't necessarily know what it was but everything just clicked for me. The story seemed more interesting at this point, the songs seemed more diverse and distinctive, and the characters seemed more vibrant. I think it was also just a more interesting part of the suffrage movement, as anticipation for the 19th amendment grew, though I'll admit I was expecting to see more of Ida B. Wells in the second act than what we got. The ending was quite lovely as well and I liked the message that we were left with.
Phillipa Soo was absolutely magnetic in every scene she was in and I was always looking forward to another appearance by Grace McLean, so those were probably the two standouts for me, though I agree that the rest of the cast does quite well in their roles too. I thought the set was surprisingly clever in how it was used in different scenes, but the overall lighting of the show felt a bit dark and monochrome.
