Review: Powerful ‘Suffs’ musical premieres in San Diego

Fresh from Broadway, the national tour of the musical Suffs is in San Diego through Sunday at the Civic Theatre, giving smart, humanizing and entertaining insight into women’s fight for the right to vote.

It kicks off Broadway San Diego’s 48th season with an intimate look at the people who made up the women’s suffrage movement, who called themselves suffs, not the condescending suffragettes, for short.

The tour has been embraced by the San Diego community. Cast members were given a tour of the Women’s Museum of California, inside Balboa Park’s San Diego History Center, where they learned about California’s suffrage movement.

The state passed voting rights for women in 1911, nine years before the 19th amendment was ratified by the nation in 1920. The show takes place in the intervening years as activists gave their all to convince men in power to extend the right to vote to them. Their methods? Marches, national tours, presidential meetings, silent pickets at the White House, hunger strikes and state lobbying.

In addition, Carlsbad-based vegan dip company Bitchin’ Sauce released a special edition “Great American Bitch” dip, in stores now. Proceeds benefit the Sister League of San Diego.

The name stems from the song “G.A.B.” in the show when young author Doris Stevens (Livvy Marcus) is rattled after being called the slur while marching down Pennsylvania Avenue ahead of the inauguration of President Woodrow Wilson (regularly Jenny Ashman, but played by Marissa Hecker in the reviewed performance).

The older women tell her to embrace the insult and unladylike behavior. It’s a lens into the radical movement led by young Alice Paul (Maya Keleher), founder of the National Women’s Party that is juxtaposed against elder Carrie Chapman Catt (Marya Grandy), who cultivated a conservative feminine image for decades while leading the National American Woman Suffrage Association.

The fractious relationship between a young Paul and aging Catt is not the only conflict within the movement depicted in the show, written by Shaina Taub. Anti-lynching activist and suffragist Ida B. Wells (Danyel Fulton) sings throughout about the difficulty of being told by white suffragists to focus only on sisterhood, not race in “Wait My Turn.”

Wells had her own tactics contrasted against another Black woman, Mary Church Terrell (Trisha Jeffrey), who was knowingly tokenized by the women’s movement for the sake of raising African American issues. Despite strategic differences, the two remained friends.

These complex relationships, divided by age, politics, race, nationality, class and sexuality, underpin the show. The coalition building gives the show its heart as the women try to find a way to reach a shared goal even as their ideas on how that can be achieved differ.

Taub’s book, lyrics and music are engrossing, providing both a history lesson and threading a tough conversation on activism that is still relevant today.

Should activists set aside a laundry list of demands for one central achievable goal? Must Black women set aside their race for the sake of women? Must family life be set aside to have time to fight? Must older activists step aside for the passions of the young to shine? Must rage be set aside for more effective methods?

Characters stumble through, maintaining hope while enduring tribulation. They triumphed on the right to vote for white women, with fights for other rights ahead.

Taub’s show is a triumph, with an enthralling plot, moving emotional moments and exceptional music and lyricism. The cast and crew carried her vision, with impeccable vocals all around.

Even minor characters pulled from a deep bench of talent. A hip-cocking Polish socialist Ruza Wenclawska (Joyce Meimei Zheng) and tender Dudley Malone (Brandi Porter) stood out. Laura Stracko played socialite Alva Belmont for much of the show only to emerge unrecognizable as farm mother Phoebe Burn, singing a missive to her son that convinced a Tennessee lawmaker to vote in favor of suffrage. His changed vote ensured the passage of the 19th amendment and Stracko’s country accent delivered the gravity and fragility of the moment.

Tickets for Suffs can be found at broadwaysd.com.