Broadway’s Shaina Taub Plays Accordion in Her Musical “Suffs”

October 31st 2024
Rita Davidson Barnea
Shaina Taub

Broadway’s Shaina Taub made history with her hit musical “Suffs”, earning her a Tony for both best book and best score. She’s been named to the TIME100 Next list and collaborated with Elton John on “The Devil Wears Prada” musical.

Shaina Taub
Shaina Taub Photo by Gonzalo Marroquin/Patrick McMullan via Getty Images

“Suffs” is the Tony Award®-winning musical that’s making history on Broadway. Created by Shaina Taub, who is now the first woman to ever independently win Tony Awards for Best Book and Best Score in the same season, “Suffs” has also been named Best Musical (Outer Critics Circle Award), received two Drama Desk Awards including Best Score, and is “unquestionably the most emotionally stirring musical of the season” (Chicago Tribune). Produced by Hillary Clinton, Malala Yousafzai, Jill Furman, and Rachel Sussman, Suffs is a “theatrical masterpiece that demands to be seen” (Forbes) and a reminder that progress is always possible but never guaranteed.

Classicaly trained as a pianist, Shaina taught herself to play the accordion which she frequently plays on her shows. See Shaina play the accordion at 3:40 on the video. The Tony Award-winning Broadway musical Suffs will play its final Broadway performance on January 5, 2025, but before the suffragists take their movement on a national tour, the Broadway production has added extra shows to its December schedule. Suffs stars Tony Award-winning book writer, composer, and lyricist Shaina Taub in the role of Alice Paul, making her only the second woman in history to write the book, music, lyrics and star in her own Broadway musical. 

“Suffs” also stars Tony Award-winner Nikki M. James (The Book of Mormon) as Ida B. Wells, Tony Award-nominee Jenn Colella (Come From Away) as Carrie Chapman Catt, Grace McLean (Natasha, Pierre and The Great Comet of 1812) as President Woodrow Wilson, Hannah Cruz (MCC’s The Connector) as Inez Milholland, Kim Blanck (Signature Theatre’s Octet) as Ruza Wenclawska, Anastacia McCleskey (Waitress) as Mary Church Terrell, Ally Bonino (Broadway debut) as Lucy Burns, Tsilala Brock (The Book of Mormon National Tour) as Dudley Malone, Nadia Dandashi, Broadway debut as Doris Stevens and Tony Award-nominee Emily Skinner (Side Show) as Alva Belmont/Phoebe Burn.

Shaina Taub on making Broadway history and “TIME 100 Next” recognition.

Earlier this month, it was revealed that Tony-winner Shaina Taub had been honored by Time Magazine as part of the 2024 TIME100 Next list. The list honors “emerging leaders who are shaping the future” and this year, Taub is in such company as Cole Escola, Reneé Rapp, and Ashley Park.

The “Suffs” writer and performer recently visited CBS mornings (see video) to talk about what led to the honor and her contributions to musical theater. On writing the acclaimed musical Suffs, Taub says she felt it was important to highlight a story that “systems in power in this country would rather us forget” and hopes that it might inspire young people to bring about positive change.

Starting this week, Taub will temporarily leave her role in “Suffs” on Broadway to play the revolutionary Emma Goldman in New York City Center’s Encores! production of “Ragtime”, a show that she names as her favorite. “I got the cast album for Hanukkah in 1998. I was a young Jewish girl but I didn’t yet understand how activism was baked into the Jewish philosophy…It was my biggest inspiration for “Suffs”. Taub will appear in New York City Center’s Encores! production of Ragtime from October 30 to November 10, 2024.