"The production features some of the finest musical theatre performers currently working, and director Leigh Silverman and choreographer Raja Feather Kelly give each woman in the 20-member company a chance to shine. Ultimately, though, this is a show that seems to try too hard, and although perhaps appropriate for the material, there is a relentlessness about the musical. In its breadth and expansiveness (here emphasized by Mimi Lien's grand scenic design, featuring an imposing Federal-style government building), there is not a chance to get to know the women as much more than mouthpieces and types. Tellingly, when a major character dies in the first act, it is hard to feel moved because she seems more of a device than a fully drawn character."
Read more

Leaning heavily on rhetorical flourishes, Taub's score is filled with lots of well-meaning exhortations to "finish the fight," earnest appeals that quickly lose emotional resonance through a lack of lyrical variance and depth. The only song that strikes a deeper chord is the late-show "I Wasn't There," a plaintive rejoinder to Lin-Manual Miranda's "The Room Where It Happens'' from Hamilton, which acknowledges with bitter irony that none of the extraordinary women responsible for the 19th amendment were present when it was signed into law.
Read more

"Shaina Taub displays a sweeping virtuosity that is as satisfying as it is exciting. Satisfying in that a piece of history that has been largely glossed over is finally getting the attention it is due, and exciting because Taub has created a dazzling piece of theater through which to tell that story"
Read more

extraordinary women, portrayed by first-rate actresses in an inspiring, instructive and entertaining sing-through musical.. …After the leak of the draft of the ruling overturning Roe … it felt more urgent and relevant now. Even Mimi Lien’s set design hits harder: The steps and Corinthian columns look like the exterior of the Supreme Court, except it’s (appropriately?) painted black.
Read more

"“Suffs” has a hefty two-hour-and-45-minute running time, after all, and though the musical isn’t guilty of scolding, it is guilty of stifling an impressive — though exhausting — breadth of U.S. history through its contemporary lens."
Read more

"4/5 stars! An artful and inspiring historical epic...'Suffs' is remarkably easy to follow as it presents its sheroes in all their imperfect glory, exploring the ideological, generational and racial divides that persist to this day in feminist politics. Although the show is nearly three hours long, not every pioneering woman gets her due...Yet there's much to admire and enjoy."
Read more

"In entertainment, there is the assumption that women’s stories are small, while men’s stories are universal. Just as the suffragists broke down the doors of the patriarchy, Suffs breaks down the doors of musical theatre, showing that a cast and creative team of mostly women can tell a story that is important, powerful, and about all of us. With Taub leading it, the future of musical theatre is female, and it’s about time."
Read more

"She’s worked out a ruthless equation: What the women are doing is serious, and what the men are doing is absurd. For the apotheosis of Suffs, we would need to feel both the gravity and the buffoonery, and right now, the production contains too little of the latter."
Read more