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[0:00] Jeff Malone: Welcome to Half Hour with Jeff and Richie, the podcast where we explore the latest shows we see, sharing our insights and opinions on the performances, storylines, and everything in between.

[0:09] Richie Grasso: In today's episode, we discussed the new Broadway musical SUFFS.

[0:12] Jeff Malone: Whether you cannot catch the show in person or want to expand your thoughts after seeing it, this episode is for you.

[0:17] Richie Grasso: And as always, we want to inform you that this episode will contain spoilers.

[0:21] Jeff Malone: So if you're ready to dive into this production, stick around with us.

[0:23] Jeff Malone: I'm Jeff.

[0:24] Richie Grasso: And I'm Richie.

[0:25] Jeff Malone: We're thrilled to be your hosts for today's episode.

[0:27] Richie Grasso: So let's start the conversation today about SUFFS on Broadway.

[0:34] Jeff Malone: Half hour.

[0:39] Richie Grasso: Welcome everyone to a new episode of Half Hour with Jeff and Richie.

[0:43] Jeff Malone: Today we're discussing the new musical SUFFS.

[0:46] Richie Grasso: It's 1913, and the women's movement is heating up in America, anchored by suffragists, suffs, as they call themselves, and the relentless pursuit of the right to vote.

[0:55] Jeff Malone: Reaching across and against generational, racial, and class divides, these brilliant, flawed women entertain and inspire us with the story of their hard-won victory in an ongoing fight.

[1:04] Richie Grasso: So much has changed since the passing of the 19th Amendment over a century ago, and yet we're reminded sometimes we need to look back in order to march fearlessly into the future.

[1:12] Jeff Malone: Following a sold-out, extended run at the Public Theater, SUFFS arrives on Broadway and not a moment too soon.

[1:19] Richie Grasso: Thanks for those details, Richie.

[1:21] Jeff Malone: So as always, let's start with our bold statement about the piece and then see how that unfolds into our discussion.

[1:26] Richie Grasso: So I'm gonna go first with my bold statement. I feel that SUFFS is a real game changer this season.

[1:33] Jeff Malone: And it's for three reasons. Because it has really great storytelling, it has top-notch direction by Lee Silverman, and it has standout performances by an amazing cast.

[1:46] Richie Grasso: Amazing. I was gonna say something very similar. I was gonna say that SUFFS is a definite standout this season.

[1:52] Jeff Malone: It is important theater, and it is well executed.

[1:58] Richie Grasso: And all aspects of this show come together really, really well. Kind of like a perfectly baked cake.

[2:04] Jeff Malone: It all got blended together so nicely and totally has this strong message that is very, very, very enjoyable.

[2:12] Richie Grasso: So we liked it. So let's get into it.

[2:16] Jeff Malone: So talking just about overall thought and plot concept. You know, I said this to you when we were leaving the theater. I said, why has it taken us so long to have a stage show like this about this important topic?

[2:28] Richie Grasso: Because I think what's interesting is we've learned about this in history classes, kind of. Kind of like with Hamilton. We learned about Hamilton kind of.

[2:34] Jeff Malone: And I remember leaving Hamilton and saying, I learned more about Alexander Hamilton in these two and a half hours than I did in a textbook in high school history class.

[2:43] Richie Grasso: And the same thing I'll say here, Jeff, I feel like in history, it's like, oh, there was a women's suffrage movement. Okay, cool. And that was it. We didn't learn about these specific people's names, the issues they were dealing with, Woodrow Wilson and all this.

[2:55] Jeff Malone: So I was just really educated in general about this whole story in the best way. I feel like sometimes with political musicals, it's not that like why did it take so long?

[3:09] Richie Grasso: I just feel like it's the moment through time of us actually getting there. And like this was not that long ago in the grand scheme of things.

[3:18] Jeff Malone: You know, Hamilton was much earlier than this, and like 1776, like those things were a lot earlier.

[3:27] Richie Grasso: And we only just recently got those, like not that long ago in the musical space, either.

[3:32] Jeff Malone: So I feel like moving through this timeline, it doesn't seem like why did we not have it sooner?

[3:39] Richie Grasso: It just felt like I feel with the political musicals, they take a little bit longer to work out.

[3:47] Jeff Malone: We have to make sure that we're getting the actual timeline correct, the names correct, what actually happened correct, because you can go back and actually see what happened.

[3:57] Richie Grasso: Yeah. Does it make sense?

[3:59] Jeff Malone: And well, and it's I think in general, it's important to see a show like this and use the specific names of the specific people and tell their specific stories, not just oh, let's tell a story about women's suffrage movement and let's just like name random people.

[4:14] Richie Grasso: No, it was the real people, and let's musicalize it on top of it. And listen, could this have been a play? Sure.

[4:19] Jeff Malone: But there was something about the music of this that added these a lot of the music was written in the style of music heard in the early 1900s, which worked really well.

[4:31] Richie Grasso: Um, and in the musical theater twist with the musical theater twist. And I want to say Shana Taub, who did the book, music and lyrics, and is starring as Alice in this.

[4:42] Jeff Malone: So she's quite busy right now doing this. She wrote something that is clearly full of heart, yeah, and the emotions of the music are there.

[4:51] Richie Grasso: I feel it. How many shows, Jeff? Have I left this season? I'm like, not feeling anything there, not feeling anything there.

[4:56] Jeff Malone: The majority of the music in this show, I am feeling the emotions of. I'm understanding the plot.

[5:03] Richie Grasso: The plot is moving. We're guided through, as you said earlier, the direction of this, we'll talk about that in a little bit, is seamless.

[5:10] Jeff Malone: We're flowing from locale to locale. It's choreographed in the right ways.

[5:14] Richie Grasso: I had said, Oh, I liked the Hamilton choreography aspect of it, but then I said, No, this had the right amount of choreography.

[5:21] Jeff Malone: I thought about it a little more. I said, I would have liked a little bit more choreography, but I think it had enough for what it was.

[5:26] Richie Grasso: I didn't, I don't, I think more choreography could have caused this piece to have been a little bit more hokey or a little bit more danced through it.

[5:33] Jeff Malone: It wasn't quite a dance piece. It didn't need to be.

[5:35] Richie Grasso: Well, I feel like this is gonna get compared a lot to Hamilton. I even think some of the themes and sounds in the music felt very Hamilton-esque.

[5:44] Jeff Malone: It's it is what it is, it's political, so people are gonna immediately go there.

[5:49] Richie Grasso: And Hamilton's still running, and it was a groundbreaking thing for its time.

[5:54] Jeff Malone: I do think they're very different in their own way, because where Hamilton I feel is almost escapism musical theater.

[6:02] Richie Grasso: It's like it pulls a lot of the reality away. This is more reality driven.

[6:09] Jeff Malone: This is more, we're gonna tell you in the real way, in the real style that this musical was happening.

[6:16] Richie Grasso: So it's I feel like it's kind of hard to compare them at the same time.

[6:20] Jeff Malone: Yeah, but I do feel like a lot of people are gonna compare them. It's like, oh, it's the women's Hamilton, or it's like it doesn't deserve that.

[6:28] Richie Grasso: No, exactly. It deserves its own piece.

[6:31] Jeff Malone: Like that. I think what's fascinating is, you know, we have Hillary Rodham Clinton as one of the producers on this.

[6:37] Richie Grasso: We have Malala Yousafzai, I believe that's how you say her last name.

[6:40] Jeff Malone: Malala.

[6:41] Richie Grasso: I mean Hillary Clinton and Malala here putting their names on this, supporting this.

[6:45] Jeff Malone: It was groundbreaking at the Public Theater. We're sitting in the audience and people are enjoying this, and this story is important because of what women's rights are today.

[6:56] Richie Grasso: And when you look at 100 years and you say it's one of those, I'll say the famous, we've come so far, but we still have so far to go, because we are literally dealing with Roe v. Wade and issues with women's reproductive rights in this country right now, as we speak.

[7:11] Jeff Malone: And so are the women's voting rights different than that? Yes, but also we're talking about women's rights in general, and we're talking about the struggles that women went through.

[7:20] Richie Grasso: This was our grandparents, our great grandparents' stories, people in America and the world, people who are dealing with the women's suffrage movement in the world.

[7:27] Jeff Malone: This is obviously just focusing on America. But we're hearing actual stories of people, how they died, how they lived, what they did, and how they rallied together in America.

[7:39] Richie Grasso: And like you said, it was only a little over 100 years ago. We're not talking about two, three, four hundred years ago.

[7:44] Jeff Malone: This was not that long ago.

[7:46] Richie Grasso: And then when you hear women's voting rights, but also men of color voting rights and women of color's voting rights coming at different times.

[7:56] Jeff Malone: It is astonishing to sit here and say, wow, yeah, there was truly a time where not every single American adult citizen could vote in this country.

[8:04] Richie Grasso: And it wasn't that long ago.

[8:06] Jeff Malone: Right. It really wasn't.

[8:08] Richie Grasso: And why I think Shana did a really great job in writing that portion of this was because, and then we say this a lot on our podcast, take one thing and really master that.

[8:20] Jeff Malone: So she took the one thing first and really mastered like women getting the right to vote, okay?

[8:28] Richie Grasso: Right there. So that was like the big thing.

[8:33] Jeff Malone: But she knew how to weave in every other thing that the fight was going to continue on with throughout America.

[8:41] Richie Grasso: But it wasn't like, okay, now let's try to tackle this and try to tackle this and try to tackle this.

[8:45] Jeff Malone: But we know because we know what happens in the future, you know.

[8:48] Richie Grasso: When do men of color get the right to vote? When do women of color get to right get the right to vote?

[8:53] Jeff Malone: Which they were the last to get the right. And we jump farther in the future, but it was still about that moment that Shana made this whole musical about, which was women getting the right to vote.

[9:05] Richie Grasso: So I just think she knew what she was doing there.

[9:08] Jeff Malone: Totally.

[9:09] Richie Grasso: You know, totally.

[9:09] Jeff Malone: It wasn't like, oh wow, this is messy because now she's talking about a million different things.

[9:14] Richie Grasso: And there was highlighted elements of marriage equalities. There was highlighted elements of things that were like, oh, what's to come for women in the future?

[9:22] Jeff Malone: And it was lightly touched upon in the most appropriate way.

[9:25] Richie Grasso: So it wasn't like, oh, let's talk about all these other issues at the end of the play, quick.

[9:29] Jeff Malone: Like, no, no, no, it wasn't that at all.

[9:30] Richie Grasso: And it was very smartly written and polished this piece.

[9:34] Jeff Malone: Right.

[9:34] Richie Grasso: And that's why I want to transition a little bit into some of the direction character performances design here.

[9:41] Jeff Malone: We'll be right back.

[9:45] Richie Grasso: Welcome back. I will say we've had Lee Silverman on our podcast before.

[9:49] Jeff Malone: So for the you want to hear more about Lee's life, we can go back and listen to a past podcast about her.

[9:54] Richie Grasso: Um, Lee Silverman directed this. This is extremely well directed.

[9:56] Jeff Malone: Extremely very well polished, and it is flowing and flowing and flowing.

[10:04] Richie Grasso: I actually really loved how in almost every song, especially the solo ballads, there was something in the song.

[10:13] Jeff Malone: Halfway through the song, the wall would open, you saw the silhouettes, we had a moment.

[10:18] Richie Grasso: I love journeys and songs. There's listen, there is something very powerful about just stand and sing a song for four minutes.

[10:24] Jeff Malone: Don't get me wrong.

[10:25] Richie Grasso: But when you're adding the theatricality of people coming in and out, the ghost of um uh Hannah Cruz, we're gonna talk about her in a second.

[10:32] Jeff Malone: When she comes in and has that whole flashback mode, there's just moments.

[10:36] Richie Grasso: But that is how you wait. That is how you do a flashback.

[10:39] Jeff Malone: Let me tell you, first of all, the flash of light that blinds everyone for two seconds, and then you're like, and then she's on, and then she's on the stage, and you're like, it's a little bit of magic.

[10:49] Richie Grasso: You know, there was a little there was almost like a little bit of a theme in there of like, what do men call women?

[10:56] Jeff Malone: Do they call them witches?

[10:58] Richie Grasso: Or not gonna say the other word because we're explicit rating, yeah.

[11:02] Jeff Malone: But you know, which that song, American B word blank, I'm gonna say um is great.

[11:09] Richie Grasso: What a great. I don't want to say we needed comedic relief throughout this, but that would there was definitely wonderful spots of comedy throughout this, and that was a wonderful, wonderful comedic moment.

[11:21] Jeff Malone: But I don't know if Lee did this on purpose or not, but there was this sense of magic that the women all had.

[11:27] Richie Grasso: So when set pieces were moving, if you looked into the detail, their hands were moving the set pieces.

[11:33] Jeff Malone: So, like when the columns of the building were going off stage, you would see, like I saw Hannah Cruz's hands go like this, and they moved.

[11:44] Richie Grasso: Yeah, that is detail.

[11:46] Jeff Malone: Well, that is detailed. Lee is giving the detail there.

[11:49] Richie Grasso: I am going to praise it because I didn't feel like there was any lag in this musical whatsoever.

[11:57] Jeff Malone: The no and the scenic design, hello.

[12:00] Richie Grasso: This is one of those things where we're gonna give it the whole creative team worked on this show together.

[12:04] Jeff Malone: But how many yes, and how many times have I said take a small scene, pull it downstage?

[12:10] Richie Grasso: I had no problem with bare stage in the ensemble numbers.

[12:13] Jeff Malone: We talked a little about this in Gun and Powder, the big on the um bare stage ensemble numbers, fine.

[12:18] Richie Grasso: But when we had office scenes, when we had small scene, Lee is pulling actors downstage left, downstage right, downstage in the boxes, and we're pulled down, and we bring walls in and we bring things in to center our focus.

[12:32] Jeff Malone: It is direction 101, and I mean that with the most respect because so many directors are right now are bare staging so much direction.

[12:40] Richie Grasso: Right, but when you have us down, and you have these walls closing, and then they're opening again, and you don't see any stage hands moving pieces around, it doesn't take you out of things.

[12:52] Jeff Malone: I mean, we recently saw something else where like the stage hands are coming on the stage, and I'm like, wait, it's totally breaking everything for me.

[12:59] Richie Grasso: It's taking me out of the reality that I need to be in for this piece.

[13:03] Jeff Malone: And you brought up Gun and Powder because we recently just saw it.

[13:07] Richie Grasso: Gun and Powder could really look at this from a direction standpoint and see how to use like the kin folk coming in as the ensemble, the same way that the women came in as the ensemble in every like slow detail here, because it just moved the piece along, which is what I think that's what Gun and Powder was slightly missing.

[13:29] Jeff Malone: Not to mention things like when they were handcuffed and they were jolting each other, we didn't need male or female guards.

[13:36] Richie Grasso: Oh, it made it so much better.

[13:37] Jeff Malone: We understand they're in jail and they're being tossed around, and the woman in the head of the jail would say, Guards got them guards.

[13:43] Richie Grasso: You know, we understood it was a trust your audience moment, as I always say, trust the audience.

[13:47] Jeff Malone: There, there was a lot of that.

[13:48] Richie Grasso: I also want to say from a design perspective, Paul Taswell's costumes.

[13:53] Jeff Malone: This is stunning costume work.

[13:56] Richie Grasso: And I don't know if you even remember that he is the Tony Award-winning Hamilton costume designer.

[14:01] Jeff Malone: So um he clearly knows how to do a period piece.

[14:05] Richie Grasso: And yeah, but gorgeous costumes, I mean.

[14:09] Jeff Malone: But I didn't you notice when there was characters like Emily Skinner, Hannah Cruz, Jen Kalella, Nikki M. James, Shannon, they had multiple costumes every time they came on in another gorgeous hat.

[14:18] Richie Grasso: It was it was also amazing to see like women can look amazing, feel amazing in the clothes they're wearing, and also have this sense of pride in what they're wearing.

[14:30] Jeff Malone: At the time, if you look at photos from this movement, you see women, yes, you see some of the younger women in the more scrappy jacket and scarf thrown on.

[14:39] Richie Grasso: The older women were dressed in the conservative gowns at the time, even though they were fighting.

[14:44] Jeff Malone: So there was wonderful stuff going on there. I and the women playing the male characters, we didn't need male actors in this. I loved that there were women in male wigs in male drag, in male, whatever we want to call it, male costumes playing the president, playing the president's assistant, or those chief of staff.

[15:04] Richie Grasso: It totally worked so well. So the costume wig, hair makeup design, all the design on this, but these costumes are oh my gosh, of course a Tony nomination, maybe even a win because they're just gorgeous gowns.

[15:18] Jeff Malone: The like the dresses, everything is stunning with the costumes. Stunning. And I always get into this cast. Yes, I guess. Because I think there are so many standout performances in this cast. I loved, first of all, the casting of it was just top-notch because we knew how to cast some of the older women to give that a feel that the younger women were actually younger than them.

[15:47] Richie Grasso: So right there, we had the divide set that we needed for the visual eye to realize. So we have Jen Callella playing the lead of the suffrage suffragist movement that's been going on, right? And then we have Shayna playing the younger. And listen, let's talk about something because I've been seeing a lot of chatter and I've been reading a lot like, oh, why is Shayna performing in her own musical? Blah blah blah.

[16:11] Jeff Malone: I loved her in this role. I was torn going in because I said is we know when we see Lynn put himself in his shows, Lin-Manuel Miranda, I mean part of me is like, um and a lot of composers usually don't do that. It worked here. She totally worked here for it. I thought she was great in the role. I was I was hesitant going in like what is it going to be like for the writer going in in their own leading role? Totally worked.

[16:36] Richie Grasso: Like she wasn't directing so not and Lynn wasn't directing either. So you know but listen Lynn did it why can't she do it? Exactly. And I feel like watching her you're you're gonna be like whoa that's a bold statement but in terms of acting I felt like I was watching a young Barbara up there.

[16:57] Jeff Malone: Barbara Streisand oh wow young Barbara when young Barbara was really doing good. Yeah where you found that real raw emotion coming from her you know she didn't feel seasoned over the top like we get from a lot of Broadway people. She gave you every right of like fighting and nitty gritty that you needed from this character. Shayna is really captivating I felt emotion especially in her ballads when she was writing there was a song when she was sitting there writing yes she was really, really a standout.

[17:32] Richie Grasso: Jen Callella, I love. I everyone go listen to her "All Fall Down" from Chaplin because it's one of my favorite musical theater songs. And she I saw her do it. Uh and it was a brilliant 11 o'clock number. Jen is amazing. Um, Nikki M. James, haven't seen her in a while. She is seasoned. She's up there acting through song. I love her. I really do enjoy her energy that she brings.

[17:55] Jeff Malone: There's this whole dynamic of colored women in this movement that they bring to life that she is talking about those struggles and how important that is and how difficult that was. And she was really important for it was which was so important for concept, going back on that, because we needed to see the fighting within the SUFFS movement as well. Because it wasn't rainbows and ponies inside there, it was different groups fighting with each other because they all thought they were more important than the other.

[18:26] Richie Grasso: And we needed to see that. Right. And I also will say Emily Skinner, she's been bopping into shows, and we really I was like, wait, that's we didn't even realize that first. Like Emily, hello, you're giving us something completely different than we normally get. And I love her fabulous one-liners as the rich woman. But in the second act, another Lee moment, when the desk, the voting desk turns around and she's sitting there as the mother of the senator and she's singing her letter.

[18:57] Jeff Malone: That is theater to me. That is the moment and a wonderful moment. And Emily, I I love I liked Emily in New York, New York, but I didn't really quite understand her role much in that. This I'm understanding her role. She must be living. Her wigs, I mean, all the wigs in this were really amazing. Her wig, I don't know. There was something about gorgeous about her wig that I just was blown away by.

[19:17] Richie Grasso: Um, but that moment, going on that moment, because I feel like even sitting here right now, when she turned around and she was there, I didn't know that happened. That that was that last vote. And like, did that actually happen where a telegram was sent to him? I'm sure maybe it could have been a no. Yeah, and like to have that that song was so powerful. She did it in this like country twang accent that you know, blown away there.

[19:42] Jeff Malone: And I'm gonna say my big blown away steal scene stealer is Hannah Cruz. We saw her in the connector a few weeks ago. We saw her in the connector when I saw she was announced for this show. I was like, she is she is going to be a name in the Broadway space for a long time coming, and she's the next generation superstar.

[20:04] Richie Grasso: Yeah, she's her belt at the end of that number before she spoiler alert before her character dies, um, is amazing. Amazing. She's playing a great character, and then I love how we end act one with the actual character on the horse and the photo of that woman, and that is important to see the photo of that person and how they literally died doing this movement. Um we could talk about everyone, but I think I could talk about so many of the they're all standing out in such a way, so many Broadway debuts, which I did want to say this.

[20:37] Jeff Malone: It was my same feeling in the outsiders, so many Broadway debuts, young, hungry, and I'll quote Hamilton scrappy. But it's so different seeing a musical with these new performers owning the stage, loving the stage, putting their all into the stage, and that's what we need on Broadway. More Broadway debuts, more shining stars coming out. Because we're gonna get a different feeling. They're leaving their egos aside and they're performing. And that's what I got from this cast.

[21:15] Richie Grasso: Totally. And it was just so and it was immersive enough. I was feeling the emotions of these people. I wanted to get up there and march with them. I wanted to feel, I wanted to, and I, and and this kind of does go a little bit into our experience of the show. And I also want to talk about what maybe was some of our Tony prediction potentials could be. Yeah. But we'll be right back.

[21:39] Jeff Malone: Let's jump back into things. In the experience of the show, we were sitting in the orchestra. We were surrounded by what's it seemed like a lot of women there. I I there was men there too, but there was a lot of women surrounding us. And at intermission, an older woman had come up to us and said, Oh, um, can I ask you, what do you gentlemen think of this piece? And I was very honest. I said, I'm really immersed in this, I'm enjoying this, I'm learning a lot.

[22:03] Richie Grasso: And she had said, Oh, I it was I just wanted to hear from a man's perspective what you're thinking of this. And it was so nice to hear that she was so interested in what I thought. And I said, And what do you think of this? And she said, and she said, This is wonderful. And the other women that were sitting around her said, Yeah, they they were so moved by this. They understood what was happening. They they realized the women's rights issues of today and what was a hundred years ago.

[22:25] Jeff Malone: So the experience of being there, there was a woman near me who was crying. There was a woman near me who was just smiling the whole time. You know, I think you leave this piece, Jeff. You know how like everyone says, oh, you leave the notebook, you cry. Everyone cries in the notebook. With this, it's like, no, I think you feel what you want to feel. Do you feel empowered leaving this? Do you feel sad? Do you feel happy? Do you feel motivated? What do you feel as a man or a woman? I think that's what's fascinating about this.

[22:53] Richie Grasso: Is this is not beat you over the head with a message. Let me tell you what you're supposed to feel right now. And it's not that. Well, the musical. Yeah. It's it's just, I just felt like good energies leaving there. The energy of leaving that space is really, really strong.

[23:12] Jeff Malone: Well, I feel like this musical is like on Broadway at the right time. We're in a political year where a lot of tensions are rising high. And you know, another comment that she made to us was we worry about this stuff still because things are getting taken away from us. And like that means the fight could keeps continuing. And it made me think a little bit more. It's like, oh yeah, like these are the things that people do have to worry about because we live in this political culture of like you can have this or you can't have this.

[23:49] Richie Grasso: And it's not it's not cool, you know. And that's why I feel like this should do really well. A lot of people should go see this because, like you said, it makes you leave that theater. And I feel like the big word is empowered after to go and continue the fight. People, the women still march on DC, you know, so yeah, you know, bravo for bringing this to the stage.

[24:16] Jeff Malone: And in terms of wrapping up here a few Tony word prediction potentials, I definitely think this could be a best musical nomination potential. I think her score could. I think most of the score was working for me. There's a lot of small songs, so every once in a while I'd get to a song, like, oh, that's all we get, or like, oh, okay, but it wasn't bad. I think I think it was a hybrid though, which in terms of music of not being completely sung through, but there was a lot of missing through moments.

[24:42] Richie Grasso: Keep weaving through the same theme. Uh, we've seen that in musicals before, so it's not like the first time where we haven't had you know repeats of musical themes throughout a song. I I liked it because I actually thought it made it more cohesive. Um highly think that Lee is getting a best director nomination. If she doesn't, that's gonna be my biggest snub of the season.

[25:05] Jeff Malone: Yeah, definitely. I think Paul will get costume design nomination. I think Shayna could get a leading nomination. Jen could get a Nikki, they could all get Tony nominations for sure. Depends what they're considered for. I Shayna would definitely be considered for leading. I do think she could get a nomination in terms of supporting, there's so many. Um Hannah, Emily, they could all be my standout probably would be Hannah getting the nomination for supporting.

[25:32] Richie Grasso: Um, and maybe Nikki, but I feel like her part needed to be a little bit bigger if she was actually gonna get the nomination. But who knows? Because we've seen people come on stage for one song and get a nomination. Right, right. Um, I definitely think it's gonna get scenic design. I definitely think it's gonna get lighting design. The nominations for all these for sure, and and I hope it wins some things. I hope it does well.

[25:54] Jeff Malone: This is a saturated season. There is a lot of theater this season, and there's in any regular season, there's snubs, so you know there are going to be. I mean, I'm just I'm not trying to be a downer here. I just there is going to be a lot of snubs this season, unfortunately. I would be shocked if this gets snubbed from things, though, because I think this musical is in my top three right now.

[26:18] Richie Grasso: Still, Outsiders, Here Lies Love, and this are my top three musicals right now. So if this gets snubbed, I would be shocked. I would say for new musicals, yes, and then for I would throw Tommy and Revival because there's some brilliant stuff happening in Tommy too. Uh, and we're not done yet. I think we have 10 more shows to see uh before Tony Awards. I'm not kidding. So uh we are just rolling through them.

[26:40] Jeff Malone: But I I and actually, as we record this, we don't know yet what the reviews are. I believe opening by the time this is released, we'll have already been opening night. Yeah, so I'm really hoping that this gets good reviews and that people get good talk about the town on the town about this. It has a successful opening, and this runs for a long time. Actually, as we're recording this opening night, is tonight. So we'll check those reviews out later.

[27:00] Richie Grasso: So yeah. Oh my gosh, just about out of time here. Final thoughts on SUFFS, Jeff. Go.

[27:07] Jeff Malone: Like I said, it's in my top this season right now. So I highly recommend people going and seeing this piece. It's so important right now to have a piece like this on Broadway. And I think they're doing a really great job at it.

[27:22] Richie Grasso: Totally. Um I I really enjoyed this. I was immersed the whole time. I learned a lot. I was entertained and educated. And I feel like these women are working really, really hard here on this. And kudos to this whole team for working together as a team and putting this important show up. So I hope it was I hope it goes for a long time.

[27:43] Jeff Malone: I was gonna say. Yeah. And I did want to close on something because this is what um they say in the playbill. But the women of SUFFS try to answer the question they ask themselves. How can we do it if it's never been done? And they want all of us to ask that question to ourselves and ponder about it when you're leaving the theater. So how can we do it if it's never been done? It's a it's a great thing to think about.

[28:05] Richie Grasso: It is, it's tough.

[28:07] Jeff Malone: Yep, for sure.

[28:08] Richie Grasso: So well, thank you everyone for listening. That wraps up our discussion of today's episode. We hope you enjoyed our deep dive into SUFFS. We will share the link with ticket information in our description. And don't forget, we want to hear from you. So continue the conversation with us on Instagram and TikTok at Half Hour Podcast and let us know your thoughts on SUFFS.

[28:27] Jeff Malone: If you enjoyed our show, please leave us a review. Your feedback helps us bring more theater to you. And remember, you can listen to past episodes and stay tuned for the many upcoming ones we have as well.

[28:36] Richie Grasso: Yeah. So until next time, I'm Jeff.

[28:38] Jeff Malone: And I'm Richie saying ta ta for now.

[28:41] Richie Grasso: Bye.