‘SUFFS’ is Made of All the Right Stuff at PPAC
The award-winning musical comedy about the women’s suffrage movement is playing now through Sunday, January 25.
Monica Tulia Ramirez (Inez Milholland) and company in the First National Touring Company of SUFFS. Photo by Joan Marcus, 2025 / Courtesy of the Providence performing Arts Center
My favorite line from the musical comedy, SUFFS, comes during one of its final numbers.
Normally I would put a spoiler warning, but seeing as Shaina Taub’s six-time Tony Award-winning musical is based on the very true story of how women fought for and earned the right to vote more than 100 years ago, I think we’re past that point.
The line is spoken by secretary of the National Women’s Party Doris Stevens, played by Livvy Marcus. When asked about the book she plans to write about hers and her fellow campaigners’ journey during the performance of “August 26th, 1920” (a.k.a. the day the 19th Amendment was certified), she sings, “So girls will grow up learning what we did…So they can learn how hard it was and know it can be done.”
It’s a message could be a tagline for the musical itself, which spotlights not only the more famous historical figures like Alice Paul and Ida B. Wells, but also those whose names are lesser known yet just as important to the Women’s Suffrage Movement.
“[In school] I read like six, seven paragraphs in my history textbook about Boss Tweed,” Marcus quips. “Why didn’t I know who Inez Millholland was?”
Millholland’s portrayer in the National Tour of SUFFS, Monica Tulia Ramirez, was equally unfamiliar with the pivotal activist (who was quite literally the face of the movement) until she landed an ensemble role in the original Broadway version of the show.
“But getting to know [once I moved into her role] her instilled so much confidence in me,” she says. “I think learning about these people enlightened me so much and made me a stronger, more active person — in theater, in my community, in all relationships and as a human being in general because [the Suffragists] did so much. It made me think: what am I doing with my life? Why can’t I be more?”
Throughout the show, it’s easy to wonder how or why Millholland‘s and Stevens’s inspirational stories — which I won’t get into here because I fear it will be a spoiler and I think you should experience them for yourself — have not been more widely shared. In fact, the all-female and nonbinary cast of SUFFS does a superb job of embodying and representing the various voices and contributions that propelled movement, from the Old Guard opinions of the National American Woman Suffrage Association to the resilient nature of the National Association of Colored Women.
Joyce Meimei Zheng (Ruza Wenclawska) and company in the First National Touring Company of SUFFS. Photo by Joan Marcus, 2025 / Courtesy of the Providence performing Arts Center
“I don’t sing in this song now — I did sing in it on Broadway because I was in the ensemble — but I love “How Long,’” Tulia Ramirez says of one of her favorite moments from the show. “I’m going to get emotional thinking about it; it was a very cathartic moment every night. ‘With her voice ringing out, the centuries seemed like repetitions of an ancient song…’ It’s just such a beautiful quote that melodically rings out in what [SUFFS choreographer] Mayte Natalio did with the movement as well. It’s like this reaching moment, and they’re sitting and they’re just reaching towards this meaning for each character and what it means to the audience.”
Even male-allies like Dudley Malone, President Wilson’s aide turned Suffrage supporter, gets his due.
“He’s one of my favorite characters,” says Marcus. “Brandi [Porter, who plays Malone] is a gift to the American theater. And my favorite song is Dudley’s song because it’s a really cool moment that I don’t think people expect at the jump when they meet Dudley. It’s classy and it’s fierce and it’s real. And Shayna did such an incredible job making a song out of what is a real letter that the real Dudley wrote back in the day.”
The moment is she’s referring to is just one of many references in the show that are derived from historical happenings.
“Even smaller moments, like the “he really said that” Doris line, or Ruja saying that she acted on Broadway — it’s a real thing. The Music Box Theater, where the show debuted, is across the street from The Court Theater where she performed. These are things that you can look up when you go home. [SUFFS] is a touchstone for a lot of people.”
But if you’re reading this thinking that history isn’t your thing, or that you (or your intended plus-one) won’t relate to the story or the characters, think again. In today’s world, this show has more relevance than you might realize.
“I think as a person who’s in a long-term relationship with a man, he’s, you know, the best of us: he’s an ally and a lovely, wonderful person. Yet he is terrible at absorbing women’s media. It’s a huge blind spot for some men. But one thing that has worked for me has been engaging with things that he’s interested in and saying, ‘do you see how much the world caters to your interests? Can you please take two hours out of your day to participate in this with me together to talk about it?’” Marcus says. “I make a list every year of all the movies I want to see and I try so hard to include ones with non-male directors, but in a list of forty-five films I’ll only have five. You can’t be passive about seeing art not being made by men, you have to be really intentional because the world doesn’t always want you to see it.”
Meanwhile, Milholland, urges audiences to consider the impact a show like SUFFS can have on future generations.
“I think about my mine and my fiancee’s niece and nephew: What do you want them to learn? What do you want them to know about and what do you want the new history to be?” she says. “Let’s write it together, and let’s be a community together. And we have to be a team. It can’t just be about male-led stories anymore. It’s just not the way that the world needs to look; it’s just not what it is anymore.”
Plus, while SUFFS does have its heavy moments, it’s pretty heartwarming, and even downright funny. I know I, for one, was chuckling the whole way through.
“Yes there’s so much laughter!” Tulia Ramirez adds. “There’s so much laughter and there’s so much joy in this show,”
To see for yourself, SUFFS is now playing nightly at the Providence Performing Arts Center now through Sunday, January 25. Tickets are still available at ppacri.org/events/detail/suffs
