“Keep Marching” Suffs and The Art of Historization

Suffs The Musical by Shaina Taub was developed at The Public Theatre in 2020, premiered there in 2022 and made its Broadway debut at the Shubert Organization’s Music Box Theatre in 2024. This show was not only notable for telling the story of the suffragette movement, but for casting Jenna Bainbridge as Major Sylvester/ Senator Burn/ Ensemble, making her the first wheelchair user to originate a role in a Broadway musical and the second wheelchair user to appear in a Broadway musical (Taub; Moore 2024). It also featured both Hillary Clinton and Malala Yousafzai as producers (Playbill 2024). In 2024, it won the Tony Award for Best Book and Best Score and was nominated for four other awards: Best Direction of a Musical, Best Costume Design of a Musical, Best Featured Actress in a Musical for Nikki M. James’ portrayal of Ida B. Wells, and Best Musical (Playbill 2024).

This show is the perfect example of the concept of “the art of historization” as referred to in the framework. While Suffs is about the suffragette movement, it makes a point to highlight the ways that these struggles mirror our own in the present day. The most obvious example of this is at the end of the show, after the Suffs win the vote and Alice Paul proposes that they try to get the Equal Rights Amendment passed. This amendment would guarantee equality of rights under the law for all persons regardless of sex and was officially proposed in 1923. Finally, in January of 2020, it satisfied the requirements set by Article V of the Constitution and constitutional scholars have long agreed that it is a part of the Constitution, but the “Archivist of the United States has not yet taken the final ministerial step of publishing the ERA in the Federal Register with certification of its ratification as the 28th Amendment” (EqualRightsAdmendment 2020). Therefore, while activists have done their due diligence to make sure that the Equal Rights Amendment passed in each house of Congress and was approved by three-fourths of the states, it cannot be put into practice and enforced because of this last step. This problem is still going on to this day.

Speaking of topical issues, in the song, “If We Were Married (Reprise)” (Taub p.161) on, Carrie Chapman Catt joins the song along with Mollie Hay:

CARRIE:

If we were married, I’d promise to put down my work

When you need me to tend to your heart

DORIS:

When we are married, I’ll love you

Although it will render me legally dead

MOLLIE:

If we were married, you’d always exhaust me

But God, how I wish we could really be wed

CARRIE AND MOLLIE:

If we were married

DORIS AND DUDLEY:

When we are married

Historians theorize that Carrie and Mollie were historically very close and they may have been more than just political allies. They lived together after Carrie’s husband died, they were “friends” for thirty-eight years, and when Carrie died in 1947, she chose to be buried next to Molly, not her husband (American Experience 2020). They are shown in this moment of the production as a queer couple wishing to have the right to be married, which wouldn’t be a possibility until 2015 (68 years after Carrie’s death) in the Obergefell v. Hodges Supreme Court case. Now, ten years later, many queer people are worried that politicians might try to overturn this ruling, making gay marriage illegal again, due to the increase in anti-LGBTQ legislation. There are currently 616 anti-LGBTQ bills that are being tracked across the U.S. by the ACLU just for 2025. The Human Rights Campaign declared a “State of Emergency” for LGBTQ+ Americans in 2023 due to the unprecedented number of anti-LGBTQ+ bills that were signed into law that year, a warning that has yet to be lifted.

All of this isn’t even taking into account the mentions of reproductive rights in “If We Were Married” when Doris sings “‘cause contraception’s a federal crime” (Taub 78). With the overturning of Roe V. Wade in 2022, leaving abortion rights up to the states and Project 2025 promoting restrictive access to birth control and information about it, this statement hits way too close to home for many Americans. If we don’t keep fighting for reproductive rights, this statement might become a reality again.

The people are tired of fighting. Our own frustration at this uphill battle is perfectly echoed back to us with lines like “Will we ever win this fight? Will the country ever learn? Will I ever live to see it?” and “How long must women wait for liberty?” Instead of backing down, Suffs encourages us to fight for civil rights. Because, as they say over and over again in the show ,“Now is the next time”.

The actress Jenna Bainbridge is the perfect example of the new generation fighting. Bainbridge is an ambulatory wheelchair user who is a New York City-based actor, singer, and disability rights advocate. Her involvement in Suffs led to accessibility measures being taken to ensure she could get around the theatre safely. This included a ramp being built by the crew so she could get in the stage door and onto the deck level on the days that she was using her wheelchair, as well as building a dressing room and bathroom on the deck level so that she could access it. As noted in an article by New Mobility, the ramp was so steep that she doubted that “most wheelchair users without significant strength could get up that ramp,” (Denkensohn-Trott, 2024) but was still grateful that the building was able to be modified in that way to increase accessibility. The show itself was also made accessible to her by factoring in her wheelchair into the construction of the set and her blocking. Disappointingly, though not surprisingly, all of the accessibility elements were removed, besides the ground-floor dressing room, as the show had to return the theatre to the original state that they found it (Bainbridge 2025). Now, if another show wants to hire a disabled actor, they’re going to have to spend the money to put in these elements again, which will actively discourage producers from wanting to do so. What message does this send to other disabled theatre artists? Not only is this space not for you, but we will only make it accessible to you if you’re “one of the good ones”. And if not, you don’t deserve to even be able to get in the door.

Bainbridge is helping lead this fight for accessibility in the theatre through her firm ConsultAbility. The mission is “to advance holistic access in the arts, expanding beyond what is required and helping organizations enact fully inclusive practices for disabled artists, employees, and audiences through education, consultation, and community building.” I got to meet with her husband, Paul Behrhorst, over Zoom, who spoke about the changes after Suffs moved out. The dressing room that was left was not only useful for wheelchair users, but was also used for The Picture of Dorian Grey (2025) when the sole actor had numerous quick changes. He also pointed out that sometimes just putting the idea of making things more accessible into the space gets the conversation going and can lead to broader change.

There was criticism surrounding Suffs, specifically with the way they handled the intersection of the suffragette movement with the fight for racial equality. Many critics say that the characterization of Ida B Wells and Mary Church Terrell was overall “a missed opportunity for deeper conflict and layered characters”. (Graham) These characters only appear a handful of times and only directly interact with the Suffs once, during Ida B Wells’ “Wait My Turn”. While they do quote the National Association of Colored Women’s (NACW) motto of “lifting as we climb,” it is never properly cited. It wasn’t until I started my research that I realised this was even a historical quote, and if I did know that it was a quote, I would have thought that the full version would be “lifting as we climb, onwards and upwards we go”, since that’s how it's always said in the show. Apart from “Wait My Turn” and its reprise, the focus is rarely on racial issues. However, Suffs is trying to put the entirety of the suffragette movement into a two-and-a-half-hour-long musical. This topic could be an entire show in and of itself, so some it doesn’t quite have the time or scope to go in depth into these topics without sacrificing the overall story.

While Suffs is in no way perfect, it still can give the audience hope. If the suffs can get the vote at a time when women had no political power and when marrying a man gave him essentially complete control over her life, then maybe we have a chance to change the world for good.