SUFFS
(Triggering vs Earning—Part 3)
Book, Music and Lyrics by Shaina Taub
Directed by Leigh Silverman
Music Box Theatre
Official Website
Reviewed by David Spencer
Suffs is about the fight for women to vote in America, book-music-lyrics by Shaina Taub—who, shades of Lin-Manuel Miranda, has also written herself the leading role of suffragette Alice Paul. I didn’t much care for it last season at the Public (despite its acclaim and several extensions); but a change of support creative team—not including director Leigh Silverman, still at the helm—has made a significant difference. I still think Ms Taub’s narrative is a lesser 1776: it lacks the urgency of a ticking clock (though it compensates somewhat with the urgency of the issue)…and its desire to educate remains too transparent, like a Theatreworks/USA show for adults; or a really accomplished college thesis production.
But the new physical design (sets, costumes, lighting, etc) has done a good deal to revise the feel of it all…and most importantly, the new orchestrations by Michael Starobin have been transformative. At the Public, the score sounded rhythmically repetitive, with a disproportionate amount of push-beat pulsing (dotted quarter, dotted quarter, quarter); a musical motor which, a fresh sound in its mid-1960s youth, has become the hoary old cliché that one drags out when trying to affect energy rather than achieve it organically. I don’t know if Ms. Taub reassessed some of her arrangements, or worked with Mr. Starobin on revision; if Mr. Starobin found exploitable elements of Ms. Taub’s composition that the first orchestrator missed or proposed new treatments that Ms Taub approved—or if all those things obtained in tandem. Probably a few of them did. But whatever the case, Ms. Taub’s score has a richer, more varied sound to it now…and in general Suffs is now smoother and less scrappy. (There are some who might argue that the scrappiness of its heroines and all-female cast—playing male as well as female roles—were properly reflected with the previous production, but not so. The production—the environment—has to counterpoint that, by reflecting the dignity of the crusade.) Commensurately, the staging eschews high-tech bells and whistles; it helps make the case honestly. And in spite of everything, Suffs pulls off what some call “the 1776 trick”: It keeps you in suspense when you know the historical ending.
But be warned, it ends about three times. My female companion of the afternoon said, “Well. They had to include getting to the ERA.” To which my reply was, “No they didn’t. That’s like saying 1776 couldn’t end until the Constitution being ratified. The Declaration was plenty.” Happily, my companion laughed. I mean: the title tells it, right? That one was 1776, this one is Suffs. Ms. Taub, you lived up to it. Take the win, ditch the epilogue.
And there’s a lot of triggering going on here. But to be fair, it’s triggering born of the times in which we live, and the desire of decent people to see justice prevail, the good girls win, and the repressive patriarchy bow to what we all want to think is inevitability.
If my good review of Suffs sounds somewhat grudging…to some degree it is, per my lead paragraph about it.
But it seems the current landscape is better for having it around than not.
Triggering vs Earning
(More parts to follow)