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Video: SUFFS Company Is Marching Towards Broadway
Mar 1, 2024
Suffs is a new musical that demands to be heard, and lucky for theatregoers, they can hear it starting this spring on Broadway at the Music Box Theatre. In this video, Shaina Taub and the cast of Suffs hit the stage at the historic the Great Hall at Cooper Union to give a very special sneak peek.
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as the world can be changed. We've done it before, so keep marching, keep marching, keep marching
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We're always behind you, so bang down the door and keep marching, keep marching, keep marching
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Hello, I'm Richard Ridge for Broadway World. Following a sold-out run at the Public Theatre
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Shaina Taub's new musical, SUPS, is coming to Broadway. It begins previews on March 26th at the Music Box Theatre, and we drop by the Great Hall at
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Cooper Union to bring you a sneak peek and to meet the company
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Come on, keep marching, marching, marching. Come on, keep marching, marching, marching
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Come on, keep marching, marching, marching. Come on, keep marching, marching, marching
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Come on, keep marching, marching, marching. Keep marching on! What this girl, this Alice Paul, what gall to call me an old fogey
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Since when am I an old fogey? She thinks I'm obsolete. She ought to kiss my feet
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I lit the way for her, but now she thinks she knows better
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What did it mean for you to be here today? I'm so glad we got to perform as a Broadway company for the first time in such a historic
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location and somewhere that Alice Paul and Ida B. Wells actually spoke. I think you can feel that
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energy in spaces. It's why I love Broadway theatre so much. You sort of feel all the ghosts that have
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been there, and it felt right to kind of like be in this place that has always been a clearinghouse
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for new ideas and for community gathering and free expression and freedom of the press
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and to kind of like celebrate this story in that context felt really right
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What was it like for you two to like to perform in this room where some of these ladies actually gave speeches
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Amazing, amazing. The historical precedence of being here where Ida B. Wells spoke, I mean
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it's thrilling. Yeah, it's exciting to know that the vibration of their sound is thick within these walls
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in this particular moment. I thought about it as I walked into the building. It feels extraordinary
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Just sharing the stage with all of you up there, watching you all perform and the love you give to each other
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must be amazing to work on and work with. It's exciting, isn't it? It's exciting to see a stage full of badass women
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Yeah, absolutely. Scrapping in your face and loving each other. We have such respect for
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each other. It can be a serious topic at times, but we have a real, real good time
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and we know that the love and admiration that we have for one another is something that's
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going to be the fuel for the fire of this particular show. Oh my gosh, it was wild to be on the same stage that Alice Paul and Ida B. Wells actually
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spoke on and to sing these words was like a massively brain-altering experience
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Yeah, I think that's the magic of this show. It's like reaching through time and
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finding the moments where if time is a flat circle, we're all standing in the same spot
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It's just very special to be here. In 2014, I went to see Shaina. I had just done Violent on Broadway
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and I got taken to see Shaina Tau perform at Joe's Pub. And I turned to Rachel Sussman
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who was the person who took me, and I said, somebody should commission her to write a musical. And she said, I just did
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What do you know about the women's suffrage movement? And I was like, not that much. But I know I'm going to attach myself to this person. And 10 years later
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here we are. I can't believe it. These songs have been a comfort to me. They've been an inspiration to me. They've been a guide
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for how to be in the world now. When I want to make change and I don't know what to do
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Shaina's music has told me how to be a better person, how to be a better citizen
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And I'm so excited to share this show with the world, so other people also
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have that inspiration with them as they go through the times that we live in now. You've all worked on wonderful shows. What's made this one so special for each of you
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Oh my gosh. Well, Shaina Taub is probably it. I will do anything that she asks me to do. You know
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I've known her since college, and it's been a privilege to witness her drive and her
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determination and her talent continue to solidify and hone itself. And I'm always learning from her
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and I'm so proud of her. It's lucky and rare to be in a show where everyone feels a sense of
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purpose. So that sort of drives us when we come into the room to do our best work and to challenge
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ourselves even further. But I also co-sign what Grace is saying about the people in the room that
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we're getting to absorb their craft and their standard of excellence, which includes Grace
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McLean, I will say. Thank you so much. And it includes all of these people that we've seen them
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be great storytellers and now getting to do a story that has a sense of purpose in the time
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that we're doing it in. It just feels, it feels, you know, I said this the other day, I said
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I now understand the quote that every no is God's protection, because right at this moment
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I know I'm exactly where I'm meant to be. I'm held so well by the creative team, by my
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cast mates. It's lucky. Yeah. The thing that really makes this special is the unbelievable
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drive of Shaina Taub. She is so bold. You know, she's been writing musicals for a long time
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performing musicals for a long time. She's an unbelievable songwriter. And when she read that
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book, Jailed for Freedom, she just felt like, you know what, I'm the one not me and not me
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And maybe with the help of she said, I'm going to do it. And to be standing beside this woman who
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is so already massive and knowing that she's just going to get better and richer. That's like one of
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the big, big thrills. And that's like at the top of a very long list of why the show is special
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Yeah. So many main things. Wow. So many things make this special. But Nikki has brought this
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up in a few past interviews. There are a lot of Broadway debuts. And I love to learn from other
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artists. And a lot of these people making their Broadway debuts are some of the yummiest actors
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I've ever worked with. They're so gracious and giving, but they are giantly talented. And so
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learning from them, watching them step into their truth and be empowered by the people that they're
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playing, it makes it very special for me. It reminds me of why we got into storytelling in
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the first place. What unlocked it for you to tell this story? Well, I wanted to take, it's a period
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piece. And I was like, but it's a, like I just said, it's a relevant piece. It's now. And I'm
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like, I'm going to bring like a contemporary feel to it. I'm going to, what if, how would these
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women move if they could do what they wanted? Right. Like, how could they break? If they
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if they broke out of their corsets, they would be big and they would be low to the ground and
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it'd be muscular and they'd be sexy. So to me, the movement is very like circular and grounded and
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like has a contemporary, like under, undercurrent that's happening. And then like, there's a lot of
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Jaina's music has like a big pulse, a lot of the songs is about marching. So there's a lot of
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driving energy, a lot of like walking and marching motifs in there too. So I'm having a great time
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Now what you're hoping audiences take away Uptown on Broadway, what you hope they leave with
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I hope they leave feeling re-energized and hopeful in the deep sense of the word
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not just in a superficial way that we can take action and make things better in our
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not just, I mean, in the country, but in our communities and our families and our churches, wherever, synagogue, wherever you spend your time, whatever you're passionate about, that people leave
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feeling, feeling like a new, a new sense of inspiration. Cause I think people are really
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down right now and I get it. You know, I'm down too. It's just, things are so rough and the news every day. So I hope that we can just like lift people up
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