KPFA Theatre Critic Richard Wolinsky reviews the national touring company of “Suffs,” now at BroadwaySF Orpheum Theatre through November 9,, 2025.

REVIEW TEXT:

Imagine a political movement that seems to be on the ropes. Demonstrations aren’t doing it, talks with political leaders fall on deaf ears. There’s no elected way forward, and the only thing going is hope and perseverance.

Sound familiar. But we’re talking here about women’s suffrage, and the movement that led to the passage of the Nineteenth Amendment giving women the right to vote – and which is dramatized in the national tour of the musical Suffs, now at the Orpheum Theatre through November 9th.

The play opens at a 1913 rally in which suffragist Carrie Chapman Catt, in her mid-fifties and a leader of the movement for thirty years is accosted by the young firebrand Alice Paul, tired of the slow and tedious path forward. Alice wants direct action, and she wants it now.

From here, Suffs focuses on Alice and her group of activists who will do what it takes to get the nineteenth amendment passed, including marches, vigils, hunger strikes, and of course, playing the political game.

Despite some lovely music and hummable tunes — Shaina Taub’s score and librettos won a pair of Tonys, Suffs only lasted nine months on Broadway. Perhaps it was the times, or perhaps it’s that Suffs sometimes feels more like a docudrama than a play. While honing in specifically on Alice Paul, a superb Maya Kelleher in the touring production) and a handful of other characters, it only sporadically takes us into their hearts. The audience is kept at a distance as anthems too often replace feelings.

Still, Suffs is a triumph as a history lesson made real – and is not afraid to delve into the overt racism of the white women’s suffrage movement. With Ida B. Wells, the great black journalist, as more than just a walk-on. The show also asks an important question, perhaps more important than when it first premiered three short years ago: how do you handle what seems to be a lost cause? Do you go slowly, compromise until there’s a way forward, or do you simply fight with all you’ve got, ignoring possible blowback. Was it Alice or Carrie who won the vote, was it both? And what does that say about today?

From acting to production values, this is Broadway at its finest, and while Suffs comes just short of being a classic, it’s still a major serious musical, and worth seeing.

The national touring company of Suffs plays at the Orpheum Theatre through November 9th. For more information, you can go to broadwaysf.com. I’m Richard Wolinsky on Bay Area Theatre for KPFA.

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