"Keep Marching" (Award for Print Feature Reporting)

Michigan’s Rachel Sussman chronicles Suffs’ 10-year journey to Broadway. See page 32

Michigan’s Rachel Sussman chronicles Su s’ 10-year journey to Broadway.

CONTRIBUTING WRITER

Over the past two months, producer Rachel Sussman opened Suffs the Musical on Broadway, got married, had two baby showers, became the kvelling mother of an adorable son, hosted his bris and attended the 77th Annual Tony Awards where Suffs was nominated for six Tonys and won two.

“It’s been really nuts. People kept asking me, ‘How are you doing it all at once?’ and I just reply that ‘I am.’ That’s how the chips fell, but I wouldn’t recommend it,” joked Sussman, who grew up in Bloomfield Township and is adding a move to Brooklyn next month to the fast-paced mix.

Sussman has had a banner year with three of the shows she’s produced,

including Suffs, having sell-out runs on Broadway. Sussman won her first Tony, Drama Desk and OCC Award last June for Parade (Best Revival of a Musical), which starred her brother-in-law Ben Platt. Next was Alex Edelman’s Just for Us, which was filmed live and is now streaming on HBO. Edelman received a Special Tony at this year’s awards for his one-man comedy show about Jewish identity and antisemitism.

Edelman first met Sussman through their mutual friend, Tony Awardwinning composer Benj Pasek, at the height of the pandemic back in March 2020. Edelman and Pasek were executive producers and writers of Saturday Night Seder, a virtual program of comedy, music and sketches. Edelman

and Pasek brought Sussman on as a co-producer for the grassroots effort that raised more than $3.5 million for the CDC Foundation COVID-19 Emergency Response Fund.

Now, as lead producers of Suffs, Sussman and Jill Furman brought on Hillary Rodham Clinton and Nobel Prize laureate Malala Yousafzai to be co-producers and ambassadors of the show.

“I had the time of my life at the Tony Awards introducing a song from Suffs,” Clinton wrote in a recent guest essay for the New York Times.

As a special homage to Suffs, Clinton wore an elegant caftan, designed in suffragist white and gold, to the Tony Awards ceremony. Clinton concluded

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ARTS&LIFE

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her remarks by saying: “I’m extremely proud of this original American musical by Shaina Taub — now a two-time Tony winner.  Suffs is about some American originals — the suffragists who fought so valiantly for so long to give women in our country the right to vote. It’s almost impossible to think about what a challenge that was, but now it’s an election year, and we need to be reminded about how important it is to vote.”

Suffs is not the first show about women fighting for equality that Sussman has championed. She produced What the Constitution Means to Me in 2019, earning Sussman her first Tony nomination for Best Play.

“I would call myself a modern-day Suff — someone who wholeheartedly believes change is possible and, in collaboration with others, will fight for what she, or he, believes in and knows is right, no matter the cost,” Sussman said.

Supporting that notion, Sussman is currently an ambassador for the New York American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) and a proud supporter of Broadway Votes. She was named to Variety’s “10 Broadway Stars to Watch for the 202324 Season.” In addition, she is co-founder of the educational initiative, The Business of Broadway, and co-founder of The MITTEN Lab for emerging theater artists in her home state of Michigan.

LOCAL ROOTS, LOCAL STAGES

Sussman, 34, was always a theater kid, dating back to West Maple Elementary.

As a pre-teen, she first learned about the American women’s suffrage movement in her U.S. history class at Berkshire Middle School. In fourth grade, she joined Bloomfield Hills Schools’ Knapsack Players, followed by the Rising Stars from grades 6-9. Always in shows, Sussman starred as Annie in Annie, Louisa in Sound of Music and Adelaide in Guys and Dolls, among many other iconic roles Sussman’s younger sister, Hillary, 31, also participated in the programs.

Rachel was a competitive dancer for Miss Barbara’s Dance Centre in Birmingham and Juliana’s Academy of Dance in Madison Heights. Even their bat mitzvah themes were all-things theatrical — Rachel’s Broadway Bash and Hillary’s Musical Mania at Temple Israel.

“When I talk to folks in this industry, it’s amazing that most people didn’t have

the opportunity like I did — to have a performing arts company all four years in public high school,” Sussman said about Groves High School where she had the lead in Thoroughly Modern Millie and featured roles in Beauty and the Beast and Seussical.

“It just tells me how essential that kind of training and the arts are, especially for a young person,” Sussman added. “Our parents [Steve and Kathy Sussman] really let us live our fullest artistic lives.”

Sussman graduated from New York University with a BFA in drama and a minor in psychology.

“When I was a sophomore in college, I really had this epiphany when I was an intern at a nonprofit in New York, that I wanted to be a producer,” Sussman said.

“I wanted to help create the container for artistic work and ask all these hard questions about what we are making and who is it for and why are we doing it now.”

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“HAL PRINCE WAS THE BEACON OF WHAT IT MEANS TO BE A PRODUCER. HE WAS SUCH AN INSPIRATION TO ME AND COUNTLESS OTHERS COMING UP IN MY GENERATION.”

— RACHEL SUSSMAN

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As the 2018-19 [Hal] Prince Fellow, Sussman received funding, mentorship and education at the Columbia School of the Arts MFA Producing & Management Program. Suffs — back when it was just called The Suffrage Project was the project that Sussman applied with and spent the year developing under the Fellowship’s guidance.

“Hal Prince was the beacon of what it means to be a producer. He was such an inspiration to me and countless others coming up in my generation,” Sussman said about the legendary theater producer and director. “Hal actually gave me some notes on a rough outline of Suffs back in 2019 before his passing and challenged me, even then, to think about how to balance the history with the humanity and relationships of the characters.”

THE SUFFS JOURNEY

From its early development with the Prince Fellowship to its world premiere and 2½-month off-Broadway run at The Public Theater in 2022, to its Broadway opening at the Music Box Theatre on April 18, 2024, Sussman’s passion project has had a 10-year genesis.

When Sussman was 24, she wrote to fellow NYU graduate and singer/songwriter Shaina Taub, who was 25 at the time.

“I was so enamored with Shaina’s sound. It’s so eclectic and contemporary. And she had this real interest in making stories of women sing and bringing those into the musical theater canon,” Sussman said.

“I was so obsessed with suffrage. And after I had decided that I wanted to be a producer, that’s really when the idea for a suffrage musical came back to mind. So, I sent Shaina an

email and said, ‘I have an idea for a project and I think you might be the right person to write it.’”

Over dinner in Cambridge, Massachusetts, in 2014, Sussman asked Taub if she had ever heard of Alice Paul, the National Woman’s Party Founder who authored the Equal Rights Amendment in 1923. She had not.

Sussman gave Taub a copy of Doris Stevens’ book, Jailed for Freedom: American Women Win the Vote, which was a firsthand account of the suffragists’ fight for passage of the 19th Amendment.

“I woke up the next morning to an email from Shaina at 5 a.m. And the subject line just said ‘YES,’ Sussman recalled. “And Shaina said, ‘We have to do this.’ And that sort of was the beginning of it all.”

Taub, who also stars as suffragist Alice Paul in Suffs, took home two Tonys last month for Best Book of a Musical and Best Original Score (Music and Lyrics).

“There’s a quote from the Talmud that I put at the top of my script that says, ‘You are not obligated to complete the work, but neither are you free to abandon it,’” said Taub, who is only the second woman in Broadway history to write, compose and star in a Broadway musical.

“That’s such a North Star for my life and this idea of we’re never going to finish these fights for equality and justice in our lifetimes, but that doesn’t let us off the hook.”

In her acceptance speech, Taub credited Rachel Sussman “for knowing that this story needed to be told and changing my life by choosing me to tell it.” She also thanked co-producer Jill Furman “for never giving up.”

Four of the lead female creatives behind Suffs are all Jewish: Jill Furman, Rachel Sussman, Shaina Taub and Director Leigh Silverman.

“I said right before the Tonys began that as Jews we say ‘Dayenu’ — that would have been enough,” Taub explained. “Just to be in the

room and be a part of this community — Dayenu. But to get to win on top of that is just more than I could have ever imagined. It’s a lifetime’s honor.

“I am so passionate about sharing the story, specifically the process as a writer,” Taub added.

“A lot of people counted us out. A lot of people underestimated us. Sometimes, there’s nothing quite like being underestimated to make you rise to the occasion.”

And rise they have. Following the Tonys, Sussman announced that the next block of Suffs tickets is now on sale through Jan. 5, 2025.

“I think we’ve all been in Suffs together for so long, in the trenches, trying to get it to Broadway and it not being a home run right away. And to be recognized for it now, 10 years later, it just feels so gratifying and validating,” Sussman said.

“It’s also the most beautiful closing of that chapter right now, because Suffs is no longer in development. It’s open now. Suffs is alive. And so my job changes. My job now is, how do I share Suffs with as many people as possible from Broadway to beyond?”

Sussman currently has more than 10 projects in the works. Her mentor Hal Prince always told her, “The day after you open a show, you should be having meetings for your next project. You’ve always got to be moving forward. You’ve always got to be brainstorming about what’s next.”

Sussman concluded, “I feel like I’ve really taken that to heart and I’m excited about a lot of the things I have coming down the pike — plays and musicals — but all of them speak to my ethos and my desire to tell stories either about the world around us or women.

“I’m really interested in work that asks that question without easy answers. And I think when people leave the theater they feel, perhaps, galvanized or moved to do something with what they’ve just come away with.”

For tickets, visit https://suffsmusical.com.

Mazel Tov

On April 18, 2024, producer Rachel Sussman and Emma Galvin, a psychotherapist and actor, attended the Broadway opening night of Suffs at the Music Box Theatre. Six days later, the two were married at New York City Hall.

“We plan to have a Jewish ceremony at a later date,” says Sussman after their whirlwind two months of milestones.

Next came a family baby shower hosted by Emma’s brother, actor Noah Galvin, and his fiancé, Tony Award-winner Ben Platt. The company of Suffs also threw Rachel and Emma a surprise baby shower.

On June 3, just 13 days before the Tony Awards, Emma’s and Rachel’s son, Shiloh Ziggy GalvinSussman was born.

“Shiloh is a name we both love. It’s derived from the Hebrew verb shalah, which means ‘to send’ or ‘to appoint,’” Sussman says. “It also has been attributed to mean “the peaceful one,” which feels apropos given that we hope he will be an antidote to so much pain in the world.”

Shiloh’s middle name “Ziggy” is for Sussman’s paternal grandma, Zelma Sussman.