Shaina Taub on Finding Courage, Building a Sisterhood and Finishing Suffs on Her Own Terms

Shaina Taub keeps her two Tony Awards in her dressing room. They sit next to an essay she wrote in second grade titled "Magical Broadway." Beside the essay, a Post-it note reads, "Do it for her." “Seeing those things side by side has reminded me to take a long view,” Taub tells Broadway.com.

In the past year, Taub has gone from “One to Watch” to a two-time Tony-winning Broadway composer, librettist and star. Her musical passion project Suffs, which plays its final performance at the Music Box Theatre on January 5, has occupied the last decade of her career—an uphill climb that’s paralleled the one she depicts on stage as the incorrigible and paradigm-shifting suffragist leader Alice Paul.

The march continues next fall when Suffs launches its national tour. But before Taub passes the torch to the next crop of GABs, she took some time to reflect on what this arduous, beautiful labor of sisterhood has meant to her. Here's how the show changed her as an artist, even as she held tight to the Broadway-loving little girl who started it all.

Suffs has been at the center of your life for a decade. What’s the biggest difference between who you were before Suffs and who you are now?

I went into writing Suffs with a real student mentality. I wanted to get a good grade. I wanted to impress all my teachers. I wanted to “get it right.” I second-guessed every impulse, never fully trusting my ideas until they were validated by someone else. It’s been a long, slow, arduous process of realizing there’s no such thing as getting it right. While I received a lot of excellent guidance, at the end of the day, no one was going to give me the answers but me. Alone at the piano, finding the courage for my convictions. All I could do was work as hard as possible to make it the best show I could, with as much craft and integrity as I could muster. Only once I finally let go of other people’s expectations and my desire for their approval was I truly able to finish the show on my own terms. I still have plenty of doubts and insecurities and always will, like any person does, but on the other side of Suffs, I feel much more able to trust my instincts, close my eyes and leap. (Sorry couldn’t resist—'tis the season.)

What do you love most about your phenomenal alternate Hawley Gould’s Alice Paul?

Hawley is a supernova of a performer. I especially love the fierce physicality and doggedness they bring to Alice. Besides being a great Alice, Hawley has been our dance captain, and they’ve led the company with precision and kindness every step of the way.

You had the chance to spend a lot of time with Secretary Hillary Clinton, one of your illustrious producers, over the course of the Broadway run. What is the greatest thing you learned about her that other people might not know?

I think for anyone who has been fortunate enough to spend time in Secretary Clinton’s presence, they feel her warm, kind spirit. She instantly makes you feel at ease and welcomed in, seen and listened to. Her love for this history and the joy she took in helping us tell it was infectious. I remember at one of our first meetings about the show, before we had gotten any accolades or awards, she told us how much she believed in what we were doing and that she wanted to support us however she could. At an uncertain time when I didn’t know how the show would turn out or be received, her vote of confidence in us meant everything. Her faith in it helped me have faith too.

You took a short hiatus from Suffs to play another activist, Emma Goldman, in City Center’s Ragtime, which you’ve said is your favorite musical. Did the experience send you back to Suffs with any new feelings or insights about art or activism?

I was doing Ragtime the week of the election. It really felt like we were on the front lines of the thousands of peoples’ emotional aftermath. City Center has a plaque backstage that reads “A Temple of the Performing Arts,” and that’s what it felt like that week. Holy and communal. Putting on a show felt like a service, to help people process their rage and despair. Not to provide a false sense of comfort, but to remind each other we’re alive and not alone. Instead of doom-scrolling alone in our rooms, we could process this tumultuous time viscerally, not virtually—by assembling as strangers in a civic cathedral to express ourselves out loud. I really took that with me back to Suffs, where we’ve been feeling the reverberations of the election ever since. It also occurred to me transitioning between both shows in such a seismic week—telling stories on stage that honestly reckon with national history would not be permissible in places like China or Russia. This is still a right we have in America, as long as we can keep it—to publicly assemble to witness the free, uncensored expression of art. It gave me solace to think of that as one way our democracy is functioning as it should right now. And it made me feel lucky to participate.

Where do your two Tony Awards live, and how do you feel when you look at them?

They’ve been in my dressing room all year, and right behind them I’ve hung a little essay I wrote in second grade called “Magical Broadway,” and a little Post-it saying “Do it for her.” Seeing those things side by side has reminded me to take a long view. And honestly, when I look at the Tonys, I still feel in shock, and I think I will for a long time. I’m just so grateful for all the mentors, teachers, family, friends and collaborators who helped make this dream a reality.

Describe what it’s like knowing that there are people roaming through the world in “Great American Bitch” merchandise?

Oh god, it just fills me with delight. Especially when little girls wear it.

What is the best fan gift you’ve received during the run of Suffs?

I’m blown away by people's creativity, and there are so many beautiful paintings and drawings of the characters that I will cherish forever. Someone made us an incredible drawing of the Scoobys (Paul Tazewell’s nickname for Alice, Inez, Lucy, Ruza and Doris) as a rock band playing instruments, Josie and the Pussycats-style—that’s one of my faves.

What moment in the show will you miss performing the most?

There are a ton, but I really love when we’re up on the bridge in the Tennessee State House, while Emily Skinner is breaking hearts singing “Letter from Harry’s Mother.” We’re all just up there in a soft, warm light, holding still. I always hold Ally Bonino’s hand. I love this moment because I get to look out at the audience, take a breath and take it all in. I always use it as a moment of reflection—to remember re-writing the show over and over, and I feel a sense of peace knowing that we’re now performing it to a theater full of people.

Between the cast, creatives and producing team, the Suffs universe is a sisterhood. What has been the best part of being surrounded by so many powerful women every day?

This sisterhood is what I’m going to miss the most. There’s immense silliness and laughter. Just shenanigans all day. There’s also a fierce sense of mutual protection—everyone is always looking out for each other’s well-being like hawks. If anyone in the company is going through a difficult time, they are rallied around and lifted up. There are deep conversations, shared wisdom, healing tinctures, baked goods, dirty jokes, long hugs, pranks, shoulders to cry on. We miss no opportunity to celebrate each other. Coming to the Music Box every day feels like coming home, but I know our community is forever, and I’m excited for every future cast of Suffs to create their own version of it.