Welcome back to my 'And the Tony Almost Went to...' series, where I take a deep dive into a show that was the (likely) runner-up in the Best Musical race of any previous Tony Awards year. This year's telecast will be airing on CBS tonight. So today, we'll be talking about last year's ceremony, 2024.
Suffs is a biographical musical set in 1913 during the women’s suffrage movement in the United States. The story primarily focuses on the historical events leading up to the ratification of the Nineteenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution in 1920 that gave some women the right to vote. The idea of a suffragist musical came about when producer Rachel Sussman conceived of it while she was in middle school. Years later, she gave a young theatre artist by the name of Shaina Taub a copy of Doris Stevens' 1920 non-fiction book, Jailed for Freedom. After reading it, she began work on creating the show.
Originally titled Suffragist, it was set to premiere at the Public Theatre Off-Broadway in fall of 2020, but got delayed due to the COVID-19 shutdown. At first, it was rescheduled open at the Delacorte Theater as part of the return of the Public's Shakespeare in the Park season in the following summer, but then it was decided to delay it into 2022. Following its run at the Public, Taub went back to make some revisions to the material before the show eventually graced the stage again.
Suffs opened on April 18th, 2024 at the Music Box Theatre on Broadway. The original cast included Shaina Taub as Alice Paul, Jenn Colella as Carrie Chapman Catt, Nikki M. James as Ida B. Wells, Ally Bonino as Lucy Burns, Nadia Dandashi as Doris Stevens, Kim Blanck as Ruza Wenclawska, Hannah Cruz as Inez Milholland, Anastaćia McCleskey as Mary Church Terrell, Tsilala Brock as Dudley Malone, Grace McLean as Woodrow Wilson, Laila Erica Drew as Robin/Mollie Hay, Emily Skinner as Alva Belmont/Phoebe Burn, Jenna Bainbridge as Harry T. Burn, and Ada Westfall as Mrs. Herndon. In fact, Taub became the second woman in history star in her own Broadway musical that she also wrote the book, music, and lyrics for following Micki Grant with Don't Bother Me, I Can't Cope way back in 1972.
The production received 6 Tony Award nominations for Best Musical, Best Featured Actress in a Musical (Nikki M. James), Best Direction of a Musical (Leigh Silverman), Best Book of a Musical (Shaina Taub)*, Best Original Score (Shaina Taub)*, and Best Costume Design of a Musical (Paul Tazewell).
*denotes an award it won.
Suffs actually became the ninth show in history to win Book and Score, but lost Best Musical. The previous show that pulled that off was The Drowsy Chaperone in 2006, which lost to Jersey Boys. In this scenario, the prize went to the underdog hit of the season.
Originally titled Suffragist, it was set to premiere at the Public Theatre Off-Broadway in fall of 2020, but got delayed due to the COVID-19 shutdown. At first, it was rescheduled open at the Delacorte Theater as part of the return of the Public's Shakespeare in the Park season in the following summer, but then it was decided to delay it into 2022. Following its run at the Public, Taub went back to make some revisions to the material before the show eventually graced the stage again.
Suffs opened on April 18th, 2024 at the Music Box Theatre on Broadway. The original cast included Shaina Taub as Alice Paul, Jenn Colella as Carrie Chapman Catt, Nikki M. James as Ida B. Wells, Ally Bonino as Lucy Burns, Nadia Dandashi as Doris Stevens, Kim Blanck as Ruza Wenclawska, Hannah Cruz as Inez Milholland, Anastaćia McCleskey as Mary Church Terrell, Tsilala Brock as Dudley Malone, Grace McLean as Woodrow Wilson, Laila Erica Drew as Robin/Mollie Hay, Emily Skinner as Alva Belmont/Phoebe Burn, Jenna Bainbridge as Harry T. Burn, and Ada Westfall as Mrs. Herndon. In fact, Taub became the second woman in history star in her own Broadway musical that she also wrote the book, music, and lyrics for following Micki Grant with Don't Bother Me, I Can't Cope way back in 1972.
The production received 6 Tony Award nominations for Best Musical, Best Featured Actress in a Musical (Nikki M. James), Best Direction of a Musical (Leigh Silverman), Best Book of a Musical (Shaina Taub)*, Best Original Score (Shaina Taub)*, and Best Costume Design of a Musical (Paul Tazewell).
*denotes an award it won.
Suffs actually became the ninth show in history to win Book and Score, but lost Best Musical. The previous show that pulled that off was The Drowsy Chaperone in 2006, which lost to Jersey Boys. In this scenario, the prize went to the underdog hit of the season.
Why Didn't Suffs Win?: The 2023-24 Broadway season was a real interesting one. About 15 new musicals opened, yet there wasn't really much enthusiasm surrounding a single one of them. The New York Times suggested in their Tony voter survey that this race was coming down to The Outsiders, Suffs, even Hell's Kitchen, while Illinoise and Water for Elephants weren't considered factors. Despite mixed critical reviews, the former proved to be an underdog among those surveyed. While it didn't get a lot of love for its score, there was more passion for its vivid violence and gritty physical production. The Times also mentioned that The Outsiders was ahead in the race.
I purposefully waited until the last minute to make my predictions. When I did, I settled on The Outsiders winning 3 awards for Best Musical, Best Book of a Musical, and Best Lighting Design of a Musical. In fact, one Gold Derby user, who knew the show was winning big from the moment he saw it in previews, almost agreed with me. The only difference was that they predicted the third win would be for Best Sound Design of a Musical instead of Book. In response to that, I told them that it would be odd for a Best Musical winner to not take home any major above the line awards. Fosse was the last show to pull that off way back in 1999.
When The Tony Awards: Act One began on Pluto TV, Book was the very first category presented, which went to Suffs. Later on, The Outsiders won both design awards the aforementioned Gold Derby user expected it would take. During the main telecast on CBS, Renée Elise Goldsberry and Ashley Park presented both directing categories together. For Best Direction of a Musical, pretty much everyone expected Maria Friedman to take that in a cakewalk for finally figuring out how to present Stephen Sondheim & George Furth's Merrily We Roll Along properly. Yet along came the biggest shocker of the night,...Danya Taymor won.
When that happened, the aforementioned Gold Derby user messaged me saying "Wow! I guess there's your above the line win for The Outsiders to suggest that it's winning Best Musical." Although after Shaina Taub won Best Score for Suffs, it kind of left me in even more suspense throughout the rest of the night. In the end, The Outsiders won 4 Tonys for Best Musical, Best Direction of a Musical (Danya Taymor), Best Sound Design of a Musical (Cody Spencer), and Best Lighting Design of a Musical (Brian MacDevitt & Hana S. Kim).
After the Tonys, both shows had different fates that were complete opposite from one another. Suffs didn't do well in the long run. The Broadway production closed on January 5th of this year after 301 performances. Luckily, it was captured just the month before for future release on PBS' Great Performances series. Meanwhile, it will be launching a national tour in Seattle this September. As for The Outsiders, it's still going strong on Broadway, making over $1,000,000 a week. It too will be launching a national tour this September, and it'll be in Tulsa, Oklahoma, which happens to be where the story takes place.
For those wondering, Hell's Kitchen will be the subject for 'How Close Were They?' when I eventually cover this race for that series. I don't know when exactly, but it'll definitely be coming.
I purposefully waited until the last minute to make my predictions. When I did, I settled on The Outsiders winning 3 awards for Best Musical, Best Book of a Musical, and Best Lighting Design of a Musical. In fact, one Gold Derby user, who knew the show was winning big from the moment he saw it in previews, almost agreed with me. The only difference was that they predicted the third win would be for Best Sound Design of a Musical instead of Book. In response to that, I told them that it would be odd for a Best Musical winner to not take home any major above the line awards. Fosse was the last show to pull that off way back in 1999.
When The Tony Awards: Act One began on Pluto TV, Book was the very first category presented, which went to Suffs. Later on, The Outsiders won both design awards the aforementioned Gold Derby user expected it would take. During the main telecast on CBS, Renée Elise Goldsberry and Ashley Park presented both directing categories together. For Best Direction of a Musical, pretty much everyone expected Maria Friedman to take that in a cakewalk for finally figuring out how to present Stephen Sondheim & George Furth's Merrily We Roll Along properly. Yet along came the biggest shocker of the night,...Danya Taymor won.
When that happened, the aforementioned Gold Derby user messaged me saying "Wow! I guess there's your above the line win for The Outsiders to suggest that it's winning Best Musical." Although after Shaina Taub won Best Score for Suffs, it kind of left me in even more suspense throughout the rest of the night. In the end, The Outsiders won 4 Tonys for Best Musical, Best Direction of a Musical (Danya Taymor), Best Sound Design of a Musical (Cody Spencer), and Best Lighting Design of a Musical (Brian MacDevitt & Hana S. Kim).
After the Tonys, both shows had different fates that were complete opposite from one another. Suffs didn't do well in the long run. The Broadway production closed on January 5th of this year after 301 performances. Luckily, it was captured just the month before for future release on PBS' Great Performances series. Meanwhile, it will be launching a national tour in Seattle this September. As for The Outsiders, it's still going strong on Broadway, making over $1,000,000 a week. It too will be launching a national tour this September, and it'll be in Tulsa, Oklahoma, which happens to be where the story takes place.
For those wondering, Hell's Kitchen will be the subject for 'How Close Were They?' when I eventually cover this race for that series. I don't know when exactly, but it'll definitely be coming.