Hannah Cruz (‘Suffs’) on performing Inez Milholland’s ‘last scream for attention’ for the suffragists’ cause [Exclusive Video Interview]
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“It’s really cool to get to see a show from different perspectives,” says Hannah Cruz about her unique history with the musical “Suffs.” When the show played Off-Broadway at the Public Theatre, the actress played the role of suffragist Ruza Wenclawska, but in the Broadway production that just opened at the Music Box Theatre on April 18, she steps into the role of Inez Milholland. The performer says of the two women, “They’re actually incredibly similar… like two sides of the same coin,” explaining that “they were both socialists, they were both very radical.” Watch our exclusive video interview above.
Cruz shares that she didn’t know much about Milholland – or many other of the suffragists depicted in Shaina Taub’s musical about the passage of the 19th Amendment guaranteeing women the right to vote – prior to joining the project. But in the case of the “suff” that she inhabits she says, “There’s a good amount written about Inez, especially because she was the public face of the movement.” Even though “Suffs” has officially opened, the actress continues to read about Milholland, sharing, “I find when preparing for a role, if you cram and read books on books on books and listen to podcasts and watch movies it’s almost too much to let it nuance your work, but if you nibble and snack on things, you can add different colors into your performance.” She loves portraying this particular suffragist because “even today she would be radical and incredible,” let alone in the early twentieth century.
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At the 1913 women’s suffrage march in Washington, D.C., Milholland rode down Pennsylvania Avenue on a white horse attired in a crown and a flowing white gown, a moment that “Suffs” recreates in the rousing Act One number “The March.” Cruz admits that she has “started to well up every night” during this number, not only because she gets to “see all my cast mates in the wings” while she’s atop a figure horse on stage, but also because she gets to “take in the enormity of the theater” and “look out into the vast darkness of the theater.” She explains, “In ‘The March,’ it’s a sea of darkness and I really love staring out into that, it’s almost a religious experience, and you get to paste anything you like onto that and it makes my job as an actor a lot easier when you can create your own space.”
Shortly thereafter, Cruz stars alongside Taub, Kim Blanck, Ally Bonino and Nadia Dandashi in the hilarious number “G. A. B.,” which stands for “Great American Bitch,” a song of friendship after suffragist Doris Stevens (Dandashi) admits to being called a bitch at the march by a man. The actress says the song is so important to the show because it is “humanizing these women and getting to see them celebrating and happy together and friends,” which “only makes the rest of the show more impactful.” In addition, the song shows how these women were “taking back the moniker of bitch and subverting it and putting it on its head and making it for us.”
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The remainder of the first act is an emotional one for Milholland, who is struggling to conceive and approaches Alice Paul, organizer of the 1913 march, to take a step back from her work. Paul sings the number “Show Them Who You Are” to convince Milholland to continue and she agrees, much to her detriment. As Cruz explains, Milholland “knew she was anemic, she knew it for years, and she knew she was pushing herself too hard… It’s really sad when you think about it retroactively.” The following songs, “The Campaign” and “How Long,” show Milholland on a cross-country speaking tour before she collapses during a speech in California and later dies. The actress’ final notes in that latter song are profoundly moving and powerful, filling every last inch of the Music Box Theatre. As she describes of performing that scene, “That moment of the show is where I can really drop in and I’m really blessed because my favorite thing as an actor is getting a sequence where I can give absolutely everything I have.” “It really is her last scream for attention,” adds the Broadway newcomer of that incredible note that she hits.
Audiences get to see Cruz a few more times in the second act, including in the final anthem, “Keep Marching.” It is a song that celebrates the tremendous achievement of passing the 19th Amendment affording women the right to vote, but it also acknowledges that we have more work to do, even in the present day. “Rather than it being a finale of the show, it’s more of a beginning of the next step,” expounds the actress, adding that she hopes it leaves the audience with a “tingling in their blood” because “there more to be done here.”
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