00:00There's a new musical coming to the Pantages, direct from Broadway, the acclaimed Tony Award-winning musical, Suffs.
00:07And I hear it is truly unique. Friends who have seen it cannot stop talking about it.
00:14Joining us is one of the stars, Jenny Ashman. Welcome, Jenny.
00:18Thank you. Thank you for having me.
00:19So tell us about Suffs, without giving away too much, and about your character.
00:25Well, Suffs, the musical, is about the suffrage movement and women getting the right to vote.
00:30It takes place from about 1913 to 1920, when the 19th Amendment was ratified and women got the right to vote.
00:37So it's about the sort of last leg of the movement, which had already been going on for about 65 years at that point.
00:43And about sort of the old guard and the new guard, the more revolutionary thinkers, and how they were able to push it over the finish line.
00:50And I play President Woodrow Wilson.
00:52Yes. Oh, yes.
00:55It's all it's all women and non-binary actors in the in the show playing all of the roles.
01:00So we have two two main male characters, President Woodrow Wilson and my chief of staff, Dudley Malone.
01:07And Wilson, Wilson has a complicated relationship with suffrage, which I won't I don't want to give too much away.
01:14He gets there, you know, but he's a bit of an obstacle for the ladies.
01:18OK, I've heard people who have seen it talk about experiencing it in a shared moment of community with fellow audience members.
01:28What makes it different from another musical?
01:31You know, I mean, it's our history, which I think is so powerful.
01:34And it's a part of our history that we don't know that much about, because suffrage is so often a paragraph in a chapter.
01:42You know, you read a couple sentences.
01:43Women got the right to vote.
01:45The end.
01:46And there's so much to it.
01:48There's decades of work and blood, sweat and tears and hundreds and thousands of women who showed up and had to make this happen.
01:54And it's such an important part of our history.
01:57And no one knows these women's names for the most part.
02:00No one knows these stories.
02:02And because of it, half of the population gets to vote.
02:05And I think that if you don't know the history, if you don't know the work that went into it, it's very easy to take that right for granted.
02:13That's such a good point.
02:15Why do you think this musical is so important at this time in history?
02:19I mean, we're at a complicated time in history where there's a lot of division.
02:25There's a lot that feels insurmountable.
02:27And I think it's really powerful to look at a time where it feels like everything was against us.
02:32And it feels like the answer is so clear of what is right and wrong and seeing how much work it takes.
02:38And that progress, one of my favorite lyrics in the show is, progress is possible, not guaranteed.
02:43And that in order for this to keep moving, in order to get the things that we want and deserve, we have to keep fighting.
02:50We have to keep marching.
02:51We have to keep showing up.
02:52And that it does work.
02:53It does mean something.
02:55Did you know a lot about this history before you did this play, or did you learn a lot?
02:59No, I learned so much.
03:01I had heard of Ida B. Wells.
03:03And I've heard of Susan B. Anthony, who was dead by the time the show starts.
03:06I didn't know who Carrie Chapman-Catt was.
03:08I didn't know who Alice Paul was or Doris Stevens.
03:10And, you know, the person everyone has heard of from the show is President Woodrow Wilson.
03:15But they don't know this part.
03:17They don't know his involvement.
03:18People are shocked.
03:20And these women did extraordinary things.
03:24Dangerous, heartbreaking things.
03:25Women died.
03:26Women put their bodies in the way.
03:28And it was also a movement where we really, women started showing up in the streets and marching in a way that we hadn't seen before.
03:36It was a whole new way to protest and a whole new way to fight for something.
03:39But it's been fascinating to learn about.
03:42Yeah, I bet.
03:43You bring up a good point that, like, we really don't know that much about it.
03:46And why?
03:47Well, we know why.
03:48Who wrote that?
03:49Well, I know why.
03:51But it is pretty amazing.
03:53So I'm sure as, in addition to being entertaining, it's probably going to be very informative.
04:00In fact, the creator has made some history.
04:03Tell us about that.
04:04Shana Taub.
04:05I mean, she is incredible.
04:06If you don't know her, look her up, go to Spotify, listen to some of her music.
04:10But she was the first woman to win Best Score and Best Book of a Musical for the Tony Awards because she wrote both.
04:17She wrote the whole thing.
04:19And she's just extraordinary.
04:20She's so smart.
04:21Her music is so beautiful.
04:24That's one of the things that people walk away with is just the voices and just listening to this storytelling is extraordinary.
04:31I have to say, not since Hamilton have I heard so many people rave about the music and the soundtrack, if you will, of this musical.
04:38A lot of people are just listening to it over and over and over, which is very cool.
04:43That does not happen that often.
04:45No, it does not.
04:48So what would you like people, the audiences, to take away from this, from SUFS?
04:53Oh, I think the biggest message is that change is possible and that we have to show up and that we have to be together.
05:00I think one of the things that's been most impactful is seeing mothers and daughters, grandmothers, aunts, nieces, seeing not just women.
05:07A lot of men are coming and also having profound experiences.
05:10My husband came and saw the show and got so emotional at the end in a way that surprised him because it's so hopeful and it's so sad, which so much of history is.
05:22But I think it is being together in a space and hearing these stories and being reminded that if we work together and that as community, we can really pass a lot of amazing change.
05:32Well, that is very encouraging.
05:34And one of my friends said she left sobbing, sobbing.
05:38And I'm like, you did?
05:39But I didn't want her to tell me anything about it because I like to go and not know.
05:43Oh, well, I hope you will come see us.
05:45I absolutely will.
05:46And it's running from November 18th through December 7th.
05:50Thank you so much for joining us, Jenny.
05:51We cannot wait to see you as Woodrow Wilson.
05:56Again, if you'd like to find out more or get tickets, you can go to BroadwayinHollywood.com.
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