Suffs, the two-time Tony award-winning musical about the fight that led to the constitutional right of women to vote, comes to the Smith Center as both voting rights and the performing arts face strong headwinds.
Earlier this year, the Author’s Guild declared that the Trump administration is “undoing 250 years of freedom of expression in the arts and humanities” through defunding, mass deportation and bullying. Not long after, the ACLU warned that the far right’s efforts to suppress the vote in swing states could result in a “patchwork of democracy where your rights depend on your ZIP code and your skin color.”
Suffs has more heavy lifting to do than Shaina Taub, the author of its music, lyrics and book, probably intended when she penned a musical inspired by suffragist Doris Stevens’ 1920 memoir Jailed for Freedom, which was given to her by show producer Rachel Sussman. But Victoria Pekel, who portrays both Black suffragist Phyllis Terrell and a young activist named Robin, says that the show has shoulders strong enough to bear the load.
“One of the things that I love about Shaina Taub’s writing is these songs are never like, ‘We did it!’ It’s always about carrying the movement forward and being on the path of progress,” Pekel says.
Beginning at the 1913 National American Woman Suffrage Association convention and continuing into the Equal Rights Amendment of the 1970s, Suffs follows both the fight and its suffragist fighters—Terrell, Stevens, Alice Paul, Carrie Chapman Catt, Ida B. Wells, Lucy Burns, Ruza Wenclawska, Inez Milholland, Mollie Hay, Alva Belmont—through setbacks, internecine conflicts and personal struggle. Taub’s award-winning songs keep the show steadily on the march.
Suffs is personal to everyone it touches. Pekel, who recently graduated from Yale with majors in political science and theater studies, is excited to see this history so widely and popularly shared.
“The details of the suffrage movement weren’t really taught in elementary and middle school history classes,” she says, adding that cast members formed a “Suffs book club” to further their understanding of the time period covered in the show: “We share some of the biographies and autobiographies of the characters that we’re playing, so that we can all really hear their words straight from them.
“These women know that they are not the enemy of each other, and they want the same things, though they have different ideas about how to get there,” Pekel continues. “That is so relevant right now—finding common ground with each other, feeling a sense of community and understanding that there’s power in uniting with people who are different than you.”
Sadly, that message grows more relevant by the day. But Pekel says that Suffs’ ideas are finding receptive ears at every turn. It’s giving her hope.
“People are shocked by how relevant the show feels,” she says. “They can’t believe some of these debates were happening 100 years ago and that we’re still having them today. Younger audiences, especially young women and girls … I’ve seen so many people have an emotional reaction to seeing the people who fought and sacrificed for their lives, which is really beautiful.”
SUFFS October 7-12, times vary, $35-$184. Reynolds Hall, thesmithcenter.com.
Click HERE to subscribe for free to the Weekly Fix, the digital edition of Las Vegas Weekly! Stay up to date with the latest on Las Vegas concerts, shows, restaurants, bars and more, sent directly to your inbox!
