Suffs Enough, Give Everyone Equal Rights Now!

Danyel Fulton as Ida B. Wells and SUFFS Company Photo by Joan Marcus, 2025

I first saw Shaina Taub’s musical Suffs on Broadway on November 3, 2024, two days before the last presidential election. It felt like the perfect show to close out our first trip to New York City, almost uncannily timely. A year and a half later, it hasn’t aged, it’s escalated.

As Republicans once again float efforts to create “legal” pathways to disqualify female voters, under the now-standard excuse of rampant voter fraud that stubbornly refuses to exist in any meaningful, evidence-based way, the story of the 19th Amendment lands with renewed force. It took nearly 140 years after the Constitution was adopted for women to secure the right to vote in 1920. Apparently, it doesn’t take quite as long to start chipping away at it.

Suffs is a passionate and frequently powerful musical, despite its deceptively light title. If you’re expecting something breezy, maybe a number called “Wassup, Suffs?”, you’re in the wrong theater. What you get instead is one of the most musically satisfying new shows in recent years. While it doesn’t chase the pop-cultural sheen of Hamilton, it doesn’t need to. The score leans more traditional, but it’s packed with sharp, witty songs and genuinely stirring anthems. And this all-female cast doesn’t just perform them, they deliver them with purpose.

The show centers on Alice Paul and her efforts to drag the suffrage movement forward, often in direct conflict with the more measured approach of Carrie Chapman Catt. Paul and her fellow suffragists organize a march on Washington the day before Woodrow Wilson’s inauguration, pushing him to support a federal amendment. When that predictably fails, they escalate, protesting, picketing, and ultimately holding a silent vigil outside the White House. For this, they are arrested.

Once the U.S. enters World War I, Wilson effectively frames dissent as disloyalty, because nothing says “defending democracy” like silencing it. This was of course a violation of their first amendment rights. which is of course illegal,as the constitution gives citizens the right of free speech. Or it least it did, I’m not sure much in the constitution other than the right to bear arms is still in effect. I think they call them alternative rights now. The suffragists are imprisoned, subjected to forced feedings and abuse, while the administration lies to the public about their treatment. It’s the kind of history that would feel exaggerated if it weren’t so well documented.

And that’s where Suffs hits hardest. It doesn’t need to twist itself into relevance, the parallels are already doing the work. The show is inspiring, yes, but it’s also quietly infuriating. It reminds you not just of how hard these women fought, but how fragile those victories can be.

It also doesn’t shy away from the movement’s limitations. As the show makes clear, the passage of the 19th Amendment did not mean equal access to the ballot for Black women. Even in victory, there were compromises, and people left behind.

So yes, Suffs is uplifting. It’s also a pointed reminder that progress is neither permanent nor guaranteed. Rights are won, eroded, defended, and, if history is any indication, fought for all over again.

Suffs runs through April 12 at the Orpheum Theatre in downtown Minneapolis. If you’re paying attention to the world around you, it’s not just worth seeing, it feels necessary. For more information and tickets, visit:
https://hennepinarts.org/events/suffs

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The Stages of MN YouTube channel is home to the Stages of MN Show. You can watch it by clicking here. Be sure to check out the latest episodes and subscribe so you’ll always know when a new one drops. Not sure you agree with one of my takes? I’m also part of the Twin Cities Theater Bloggers (TCTB), where you can find review roundups from my colleagues and me. Follow us on Facebook at @TwinCitiesTheaterBloggers.

Conscience at Theatre in the Round is a Powerful Yet Entertaining Reminder of How Far We Have Fallen

Mary Lofreddo, Ron Lamprecht, and Alison Anderson Photo by Tom Taintor

You can’t spell conscience without science. Perhaps that’s why so many MAGA supporters seem to lack one, because they reject the other. Scientific truths become “alternative facts,” and when elected Republicans stayed silent as that phrase was first trotted out, they effectively endorsed it.

Conscience, by award-winning playwright Joe DiPietro, tells the true story of the first woman to serve in both houses of the U.S. Congress. In 1950, as a Republican senator from Maine, she delivered a speech on the Senate floor known as the “Declaration of Conscience,” openly condemning the tactics of fellow Republican Senator Joseph McCarthy. This came at a time when Congress was paralyzed by fear, fear of crossing McCarthy and becoming the next target of his reckless accusations.

In that speech, she warned that such tactics would debase the Senate to “a forum of hate and character assassination,” while defending every American’s “right to criticize… the right to hold unpopular beliefs… the right to protest; the right of independent thought.” She also made clear that while she wanted Republican success, “I don’t want to see the Republican Party ride to political victory on the four horsemen of calumny—fear, ignorance, bigotry, and smear.” Sound familiar?

The play does an excellent job dramatizing Margaret Chase Smith’s campaign to stand up to one of the most dangerous figures in American political history. It doesn’t need to force modern parallels, they are sitting in plain sight. By remaining firmly rooted in its historical setting, the play becomes even more chilling. We’re often told we study history so we don’t repeat it. If that’s true, the present moment suggests we haven’t been paying attention.

The play features four characters, all portrayed by excellent performers. Alison Anderson brings intelligence and quiet moral authority to Margaret Chase Smith, while Ron Lamprecht captures the bluster, buffoonery, and menace of Joseph McCarthy. Despite the gravity of the subject matter, the play is often surprisingly light and frequently funny, again, trusting the audience to draw its own connections rather than forcing them.

The remaining roles are equally strong. Mary Lofreddo plays Jean Kerr, McCarthy’s assistant and eventual wife, while Tim Wollman portrays William Lewis Jr., Smith’s loyal advisor, who is also a closeted gay man, another group targeted during McCarthy’s crusade. The strength of these performances is a major reason the show succeeds not only as a history lesson, but as compelling entertainment.

Directed by Sophie Peyton, the production runs just under two hours with an intermission. I’ll admit, I’m often skeptical of intermissions in shows that could run straight through, but in this case I welcomed it. I actually spent much of the break jotting down thoughts from the first act. I also want to highlight Sadie Ward’s set design, which features elements resembling torn fragments of the Constitution, an evocative visual metaphor that complements the play’s themes.

Near the end, the play recalls Joseph Welch’s famous rebuke to McCarthy: “Have you no sense of decency, sir, at long last? Have you left no sense of decency?” It’s a line that still resonates, perhaps now more than ever. It’s hard not to think of how rarely that standard seems to apply today. For instance, consider a recent Truth Social post from Donald Trump about Bruce Springsteen:

“Bad, and very boring singer, Bruce Springsteen, who looks like a dried-up prune… has long had a horrible and incurable case of Trump Derangement Syndrome… The guy is a total loser… MAGA SHOULD BOYCOTT HIS OVERPRICED CONCERTS, WHICH SUCK. SAVE YOUR HARD EARNED MONEY. AMERICA IS BACK!!! President DJT”

Those are the words of a sitting president, expressed while the country faces far more serious concerns. The lack of decorum is striking, and it’s difficult not to draw comparisons to McCarthy’s own crass and reckless rhetoric. It’s hard to imagine many other presidents speaking this way with such frequency. Which brings to mind Mike Judge’s film Idiocracy. When it was released in 2006, it felt wildly over-the-top, a broad, absurd comedy. Nearly twenty years later, it doesn’t seem quite so far-fetched. What once felt like satire now lands a little too close to reality.

I’ll leave you with one final quote from Smith’s “Declaration of Conscience”: “It is high time that we all stopped being tools and victims of totalitarian techniques—techniques that, if continued here unchecked, will surely end what we have come to cherish as the American way of life.”

Conscience is the kind of production that feels essential. Theatre in the Round has been having an exceptional season, and this is another strong entry that deserves a wide audience. Conscience runs through April 19th at Theatre in the Round in Minneapolis. For more information and to purchase tickets go to https://www.theatreintheround.org/conscience/

The Mountaintop is Funny, Moving, and a Call to Action at Artistry in Bloomington

Mikell Sapp and Tyler Susan Jennings Photo by Dan Norman

In something that has become almost as common as in the post-pandemic era, The Mountaintop at Artistry was rescheduled from its original Friday opening to Sunday. I’m grateful I was able to reschedule and attend that first performance, because this is a production worth making time for. It runs through March 1st, and I encourage audiences to see it while they can.

Written by Katori Hall, The Mountaintop imagines what might have transpired in the motel room of Martin Luther King Jr. on the night before his assassination in Memphis. Dr. King, exhausted after a long day of meetings and speeches, calls down for coffee. The maid who delivers it, Camae, doesn’t simply drop off the tray and leave. She lingers. She shares her cigarettes. A conversation begins.

King flirts a little; Camae swiftly and humorously rebuffs him. She doesn’t judge him, but neither does she indulge him. Instead, she redirects the exchange with wit and confidence. What Hall does so skillfully in the script is to humanize King. His legacy and the magnitude of his work are never diminished, but we are allowed to see the man behind the icon, the fatigue, the doubts, the human impulses. By grounding him in recognizable humanity, Hall makes his accomplishments feel even more extraordinary. We connect not just to the legend, but to the person.

That connection is deepened by the wonderfully nuanced performances of Mikell Sapp as King and Tyler Susan Jennings as Camae. Much of the play’s humor, which serves as a necessary counterbalance to the ever-present awareness of what history holds, comes from Jennings’ spirited, knowing delivery and Sapp’s impeccably timed, subtly modulated reactions. Their chemistry keeps the dialogue lively and authentic, preventing the production from becoming overly reverent or heavy-handed. Guiding it all is the assured direction of Warren C. Bowles, whose steady hand maintains both intimacy and tension throughout the evening.

The Mountaintop is more than a speculative account of King’s final night, it is a call to action. It reminds us that while we are “just” men and women, so was he, and look at what he accomplished. The production closes with a montage of images from the years since his death. It acknowledges progress, but it also underscores how much work remains. The Mountaintop is not just a play about the final night in the life of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. but it is a call to action. A reminder that while we are just men and women so was he, and look at all he accomplished. The show ends with the montage of what has come since his death it’s a reminder of progress but also of how much work there is yet to do. It ends with two particularly impactful images that are meant to stir us out of our complacency, and to view the message not from a historical perspective but from the present, from today. They are especially effective and well chosen, and best experienced firsthand.

The Mountaintop runs through March 1st at Artistry in Bloomington. From more information and to purchase tickets go to https://artistrymn.org/themountaintop

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The Stages of MN YouTube channel is home to the weekly Stages of MN Show. You can watch it by clicking here. Be sure to check out the latest episodes and subscribe so you’ll always know when a new one drops. Not sure you agree with one of my takes? I’m also part of the Twin Cities Theater Bloggers (TCTB), where you can find review roundups from my colleagues and me. Follow us on Facebook at @TwinCitiesTheaterBloggers.

The Resistible Rise of Arturo Ui Plays Like a Comicstrip Allegory for Authoritarianism Told Through the Lens of the Godfather

Gary Briggle and David Beukema Photo by Tony Nelson

The Resistible Rise of Arturo Ui is a 2½-hour play written in 1941 by Bertolt Brecht about the rise of Nazism, told through the lens of Chicago gangsters. Brecht. The rise of Nazism. Two and a half hours. Sounds like heavy stuff, right? Perfect material for a Sunday afternoon nap at the theater. But while the show deals with dark, all-too-topical themes, it’s entertaining as hell.

I’ll admit it, I’ve caught myself almost nodding off at more shows than I’d care to confess lately. Luckily, I’m the type who jolts himself awake the second his head tips forward, so I rarely miss anything. It’s never a reflection of the show, I’m just exhausted most of the time. Despite that tendency, I still refuse to give up my favorite seat: the front row. And I’m proud to say there wasn’t a single moment of head nodding during this performance. Partly because the room was a crisp (and probably only to me, comfortable) 65 degrees, but mostly because the show is completely engaging.

The play is an allegory for the rise of Adolf Hitler, reimagined through the story of Arturo Ui, a Chicago gangster who takes control of the cauliflower market and runs protection rackets on local grocers. The tone is distinct, a product of Brecht’s epic theatre philosophy. Brecht wanted audiences to remember they were watching a play, not reality, so actors occasionally break the fourth wall and address the audience directly. The makeup is stylized, almost a subtler Kabuki style, and the performances are broad without being cartoonish. Everything about it, from the make up to the costuming, evokes the visual world of the old Dick Tracy comicstrips. It’s not laugh-out-loud funny, but it’s not strictly dramatic either, “entertaining” really is the best word for it.

The cast is terrific. David Beukema shines in multiple roles, starting as the announcer who humorously introduces the major players and later in a great scene as a washed up Shakespearian actor brought in to give Arturo tips on how to come off more polished to the everyman. Jim Ramlet is sympathetic as a politician seduced into corruption in a moment of weakness. E.J. Subkoviak stands out as Ernesto Roma, Ui’s right-hand man, exuding both dry humor and menace. But the undeniable star of the show is Gary Briggle as Arturo Ui. His performance feels like a cross between two Al Pacino roles from 1990, The Godfather Part III’s Michael Corleone and Dick Tracy’s Big Boy Caprice. Yet it’s entirely his own creation, filled with menace, manipulation, weariness, and a darkly comic edge. Briggle commands the stage with equal parts charm and danger.

Frank Theatre’s The Resistible Rise of Arturo Ui runs through November 23 at the Ivy Building for the Arts in South Minneapolis. For more information and tickets, visit franktheatre.org.

Groucho Marx Meets T.S. Eliot Has its World Premiere at Illusion Theater

Jim Cunningham and John Middleton Photo by Lauren B Photography

Groucho Marx Meets T.S. Eliot is a play by local playwright Jeffrey Hatcher that dramatizes a dinner between pen pals Groucho Marx and T.S. Eliot. Although that sounds way more straight forward than this play actually is. What we get is multiple versions of the evening in which they try it as Groucho’s game show You Bet Your Life, or as a scene from one of the Marx Brothers movies. Like a Marx Brothers film you are never sure where this play will go next. The topics range from old Groucho routines to a debate about whether T.S. Eliot was antisemitic. There is discussion about breaking the fourth wall and then there is breaking the fourth wall. There are a couple of short songs performed and we even get appearances from the You Bet Your Life ducks. It’s laugh out loud funny at times and actually raises some interesting thoughts about issues such as copyright law and happiness. Hatcher crams an awful lot into a brisk 75 minute runtime which flies by but also seems like the perfect length.

The cast consists of Jim Cunningham as Groucho Marx and John Middleton as T.S. Eliot. Let me start with Eliot because I know next to nothing about him and certainly had no idea what he looked or sounded like. I have seen Cats and was aware it was based on his poetry and I seem to have some recollection of his poem The Waste Land coming up in connection with The Great Gatsby. I’ve no idea if that connection is real or imagined to be honest, it’s a memory from about 40 years ago. So Middleton had a lot of leeway to do what he wanted and if the narrative is accurate in terms of his character, he played it superbly. Middleton does a fantastic Chico Marx impression when he and Groucho reimagine the evening as the trial from Duck Soup.

Cunningham has an uphill battle against decades of familiarity with Groucho. I’ve seen all of the films, I’ve watched many YouTube videos of Groucho on talk shows, I used to watch rebroadcasts of his You Bet Your Life with my Dad as a teenager. I was in my twenties but my Dad like to pretend he was a teenager when we watched. It’s hard not to wish that Cunningham had gone a little further towards capturing the Groucho we all know. In every other respect he does a fine job, there are flashes of Groucho, which is a reasonable choice. He presents Groucho as a man who has come to meet someone and have dinner at their house, he gives a flash of performance to please Eliot and the audience but doesn’t want to play the “Groucho character” in his personal life. It’s a valid choice, but it’s not the one the audience is hoping for. Though perhaps the play doesn’t work if he goes the full Groucho?

Fans of either of these two 20th century legends will get a kick out of this what might have happened play. Groucho Marx Meets T.S. Eliot runs through March 15th at the Center for Performing Arts in South Minneapolis. For more information and to purchase tickets go to https://www.illusiontheater.org/groucho-meets-ts-eliot

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