Hillary Clinton and musician Shaina Taub received a call during band rehearsal last summer that would alter her life. When Taub answered the phone, she discovered that Suffs, her musical on the struggle for women’s suffrage from 1913 to 1920, was officially going to Broadway this spring. “I can’t believe it, but we were rehearsing my song ‘She Persisted,'” Taub explains. “I collapsed onto the ground,” recounts Taub. Finding producers to assist in bringing this frequently untold aspect of American history to life was the next step.
For Taub, moving to Broadway will fulfill a childhood goal in addition to providing the largest platform for highlighting women’s suffrage in theater. “We saw Beauty and the Beast in 1996, which was my first Broadway show,” she remembers. “I thought, I’m in.” Now that she is 35 years old, Taub is creating history of her own. Not only is she starring in Suffs on Broadway for the first time, but she also wrote the book, the music, and the lyrics. I wear a lot of caps because I want a little girl to see me and think, ‘Oh, I could do that,'” she explains.
Taub will portray Alice Paul, the National Woman’s Party’s radical leader who is adamant on granting women the right to vote, even at the expense of marginalizing women of color in the process. The conflict between younger, impatient suffragists—like Paul—who want change immediately and more experienced ones—like Carrie Chapman Catt—who realize that change frequently takes time—is a major subject in Suffs. Any politician or activist will be familiar with this dynamic. But Clinton and Yousafzai may have a better understanding of that road to advancement than anybody else.
Legends in their own right, Hillary Clinton left an enduring impression on American politics as the person who came closest to becoming president, and Yousafzai, the recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize, has battled for fair access to education for girls ever since the Taliban forbade girls in her Pakistani village from attending school in 2008. The 26-year-old Yousafzai states, “I have been doing this work for as long as I can remember.” Will this ever change, you wonder? One of the triumphs is the suffrage movement.Regarding the future of education for girls, I wish to maintain my optimism and positivity. And I got that hope from Suffs
Art—particularly narrative art—truly has the power to change minds. And art has always been a part of every successful social movement.”—Hillary Clinton
Yousafzai and Hillary Clinton both started production firms, Hidden Light and Extracurricular, and have produced for the big screen. Yousafzai states, “At the age of eleven, all I had was my story when I started my activism.” “I think that the core of activism for gender equality or girls’ rights is storytelling.” However, this is the first Broadway production that the theater enthusiasts have created. Hillary Clinton asserts that “art, especially narrative art, truly has the power to change minds.” Additionally, every successful social movement has always included art. Suffs is therefore activism in a very deep sense.
Taub started writing Suffs while a volunteer for Hillary Clinton’s 2016 campaign. It will now be released in another election year, in a divided nation where millions of women lack access to abortion care. This narrative, in her words, “is significant to me because it shows we can overcome insurmountable obstacles.” As Clinton continues, “Suffs reminds us that progress is possible, but not guaranteed. People live in a world where people increasingly expect change to happen overnight and get discouraged when it doesn’t.”
When November rolls around, Suffs and the women who created it are also here to remind us that we have one very important tool at our disposal: “Everyone who is eligible has the right to vote,” as Hillary Clinton states. “Make no waste of it. The suffragists put up such a valiant and protracted fight for this.
