History can harden into myth if you let it. One of the most striking things about SUFFS, the Tony Award-winning musical now heading to Chicago’s CIBC Theatre, is that it refuses that temptation. The show honors the women who fought for the right to vote, but it also insists on their contradictions, their clashes, and the unfinished nature of the work they began. For Gwynne Wood, who plays Lucy Burns on the first national tour, that honesty is exactly what gives the production its force.
“It takes the idea of the conflict of women’s suffrage and breaks it down to a much more human, relatable level,” Wood told GoPride. “There is so much information packed into this musical about the historical movement, but it also gives more context into who all of these people were as people first.” That, she said, is the difference between reading about a movement and feeling its urgency. “These women were the same as us, and they enacted change, and so can we.”
Wood’s relationship with SUFFS goes back to 2021, when she was cast in a workshop of the musical before its Broadway life began. It was also her first project after the pandemic, a moment that sharpened her emotional connection to the material. “The feeling of true collaboration amongst the actors and the creative team, and this beautiful music that was about community, especially after the pandemic,” she said, stayed with her immediately. “I remember going home from rehearsal and crying joyful tears because it is so beautiful.”
That sense of togetherness sits alongside a more difficult truth that SUFFS does not avoid. The musical is not simply a triumphalist account of the suffrage movement. It is also a story about ego, fracture, racism, and the cost of coalition. Wood believes that complexity is one of the show’s greatest strengths, especially now.
“I think that a lot of times the truth lies in the sort of messy middle, and this show really delves into that messy middle,” she said. In an era that rewards flattened narratives and hot takes, SUFFS makes room for a harder and more honest conversation. “No one comes out as a complete flawless hero,” Wood said, pointing in particular to the musical’s treatment of racism within the movement and the way Ida B. Wells’ presence disrupts easy audience admiration. The result is not a takedown of history, but a more mature engagement with it. “We can appreciate what people have brought to the movement while also holding them accountable for their mistakes.”
Company in the First National Touring Company of SUFFS; credit: Joan Marcus
That tension also shapes Wood’s approach to Lucy Burns, one of the movement’s most formidable figures. In the musical, Burns is often seen in relationship to Alice Paul, but Wood is acutely aware of the historical Lucy’s own stature. “In reality she was the co-chair of the National Woman’s Party and was a leader in her own right,” Wood said. As a performer, she feels a “push and pull” between serving the character as written and honoring Burns’ larger legacy. She describes the real woman as “this absolute firecracker,” “brave as hell,” and “so charismatic,” a figure whose physical presence alone carried power.
That power is landing with audiences across the country. Wood said one of the most rewarding parts of the tour has been feeling how directly people connect the show’s themes to the present moment. “There is lots of applause that happens mid-scene or mid-song because things resonate so heavily,” she said. More than that, she loves hearing from audience members who start researching the historical figures before the show is even over. “The biggest compliment is when people come see the show and they are like, ‘Oh my gosh, I looked up stuff about Lucy Burns at intermission.’”
Touring has only deepened Wood’s faith in what audiences are ready for. “Audiences are smarter than some people give them credit for,” she said. For her, theater works best when it trusts people to sit with nuance and when it leads with human relationships instead of lectures. “If the material is entertaining and educational, people will forget, in a good way, that it is educational.” She has seen that firsthand at stage doors around the country, where activists, lobbyists, and members of League of Women Voters chapters have shown up not just to celebrate the show, but to connect it to work still being done now.
Company in the First National Touring Company of SUFFS; credit: Joan Marcus
As a queer theater artist, Wood also feels a personal connection to SUFFS and its themes of visibility, representation, and collective struggle. She is careful not to impose certainty on historical figures where the record does not provide it, but she does see the suffrage movement as a space where many people outside rigid heteronormative expectations found purpose and belonging. She notes that the show explicitly includes Carrie Chapman Catt and Molly Hay as a queer couple, and she also speaks movingly about the emotional intensity of Lucy’s connection to Alice. “My portrayal of Lucy and her love and dedication for Alice and for the movement, there is something that is not entirely straight going on,” she said. For Wood, that layered feeling is part of what makes performance alive. “You want to be your most human version of yourself, and I want to honor all parts of myself when I am on stage.”
Chicago, of course, offers its own resonance for a production like this. Wood said she is especially excited to bring SUFFS to a city so strongly linked to Ida B. Wells, whose legacy gives one of the musical’s most bracing threads a particular charge here. If Washington, D.C. has felt immediate because the politics of the show seem to live just outside the theater doors, she expects Chicago to carry its own kind of historic electricity.
Company in the First National Touring Company of SUFFS; credit: Joan Marcus
In the end, Wood hopes audiences leave with more than admiration for a movement or a score. She hopes they leave with permission. “You do not need to be some sort of superhero,” she said. “Change is possible if we all take little steps and lean on each other.” It is a simple idea, but in SUFFS it lands with uncommon clarity: progress is made by people, not legends, and by communities willing to keep going.
The Tony Award-winning musical SUFFS plays Broadway In Chicago’s CIBC Theatre, 18 W. Monroe St., from July 7 through July 19. Created by Shaina Taub, with book, music, and lyrics by the Tony winner, the acclaimed production explores the friendships, fractures, and determination behind the fight for women’s suffrage.
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Individual tickets for SUFFS are on sale now and range from $37.00 - $147.00 with a select number of premium tickets available. Ticket price listed is when purchased in person at the box office. Additional fees apply for online purchases. Tickets are available now for groups of 10 or more by calling Broadway In Chicago Group Sales at (312) 977-1710. For more information, visit BroadwayInChicago.com.
Broadway In Chicago was created in July 2000 and over the past 26 years has grown to be one of the largest commercial touring homes in the country. A Nederlander Presentation, Broadway In Chicago lights up the Chicago Theater District entertaining up to 1.7 million people annually in five theatres. Broadway In Chicago presents a full range of entertainment, including musicals and plays, on the stages of five of the finest theatres in Chicago’s Loop including the Cadillac Palace Theatre, CIBC Theatre, James M. Nederlander Theatre, The Auditorium, and just off the Magnificent Mile, the Broadway Playhouse at Water Tower Place.