Broadway Show Suffs Disrupted by Protesters

Broadway News

Broadway Sufficiency Disturbed by protesters

As banners unfurled and chants echoed through the Music Box Theatre, the musical’s protest story was firmly transported into the 21st century.

Updated at 12pm to add reaction from actress Laila Erica Drew.

The July 2 performance of the Broadway musical Sufficiency was disrupted by protesters.

According to social media posts by freelance journalist Talia Jane, the protesters (at least four) unfurled banners from the theatre’s dressing rooms during the first act of the musical that read:SUFFES is a whitewash” while chanting for the show to be canceled. The protest was organized by CancelSuffs.com, an informal, anonymous coalition that rejects Sufficiency“representations of first-wave American feminism.

A statement on their website says: “Sufficiency is a betrayal of the next generation of feminists. We REJECT (sic) this reheated white feminism. This action is brought to you by an autonomous group of radical, anti-racist, queer feminists… Sufficiency “It claims to teach history, but in reality it is a whitewashed, biased and ultimately dangerous version of history.”

Sufficiency The show was interrupted in its first act by the protest, with the performance suspended until the protesters, who were conspicuously white, were removed, along with their banner. Their placement is somewhat ironic, as in the second act the banners are abandoned and chants are heard from the same dressing rooms as the characters protest Woodrow Wilson’s inaction on women’s suffrage. Sufficiency Writer and star Shaina Taub was forced to add a line specifying that these banners were “part of the convention,” presumably so viewers would know that this was not just another protest.

The group claims on its website that Sufficiency removes the racist history embedded in many of the women suffrage leaders depicted in the show. It appears that the website has not been updated since the show was heavily rewritten before its Broadway run, as it calls for the elevation of two black feminists who directly opposed the racist rhetoric of Alice Paul and Carrie Chapman Catt. These rewrites have focused on these two women in the show, including cultural icon and protest journalist Ida B. Wells (played by Tony Award winner Nikki M. James, who received an additional Tony nomination for her performance in Sufficiency), as well as civil rights pioneers Mary Church Terrell, with her daughter, activist Phyllis Terrell, also featured in the show as it appeared on Broadway.

Laila Erica Drew, a company member who plays Phyllis Terrell and Robin in the show, posted a response to the action in an Instagram story. “Since we’re talking about erasure, thank you for trying to erase the work I do in this show,” she wrote. “Now I know for a fact that no one cares that I bare my soul and ancestral pain on stage every night, especially the people who claim to be fighting for us but in the same breath say they want to ‘cancel’ one of the only shows on Broadway that addresses Black erasure. We seem to have forgotten who the real enemy is in this fight. Want to protest? Want to make a difference? Do something for the people you claim to be fighting for.”

In the spirit of supporting the protest actions, producers of Sufficiency had little to say beyond confirming the public events. “We can confirm that this incident occurred during last night’s performance of Sufficiency“and at no time was the safety of company members or patrons of the Music Box Theatre compromised,” reads a statement provided to Playbill.

Sufficiency continues to be performed at the Music Box Theatre on Broadway.

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Photos: Shaina Taub’s Suffs on Broadway