Alice Paul, exhausted by NAWSA's slow progress, proposes a march on Washington, D.C. on the day of President Woodrow Wilson's inauguration, to pressure him to support a federal amendment for suffrage.

Not wanting to derail the march, Alice elects to compromise by setting up a separate colored women delegation; prominent African-American journalist and activist Ida B.

Ida favors direct actions to draw attention, while Mary prefers an approach of "dignified agitation", working within the system to fight for colored women's rights, which causes a rift between them, though they both march with the hope of uplifting Black voices ("Terrell's Theme").

Alice, Ruza, Inez, and Lucy encourage Doris to embrace this label as a sign of her strength in the face of sexist men ("Great American Bitch").

Carrie offers NAWSA's backing to the newly-formed Congressional Union (CU) for Woman Suffrage, made up of the march's organizers, although she and Alice still disagree on their respective approaches.

The CU go to the White House for a meeting with Wilson, who offers them lip service about his condescending and chauvinistic adoration for women ("Ladies"), but continually puts off publicly showing support in his first term.

Doris educates Wilson's chief of staff Dudley Field Malone on the movement by offering a hypothetical scenario of her rights if they were husband-and-wife; the two gradually fall for each other ("If We Were Married").

Stunned and offended at having her contributions to the movement brushed aside ("This Girl"), Carrie publicly condemns Alice and privately informs her that her actions have no place in NAWSA ("The Convention Part 2").

As Alice slowly starves to death in solitary confinement, she is met by prison staff member Dr. White, who threatens to have her committed if she continues striking.

However, the entire group is exhausted and decide to quit organizing: Doris plans to publish her memoirs about her experiences in the movement; Ruza wants to act on Broadway (“August 26th, 1920”).

Realizing she has become the "old fogey" that Carrie was to her, Alice accepts she will not live to see the end of the fight for equality, but declares that it will happen one day so long as people maintain their resolve ("Keep Marching").

[8] The musical, originally titled Suffragist, had been planned to premiere at the Public in fall of 2020 with a cast that would have included Stephanie Hsu and Kate Wetherhead, but this was delayed due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

[9][10] The plots of the Off-Broadway and Broadway versions of Suffs are roughly identical, but in making changes Taub focused on tightening the story and improving the development of the supporting characters.

[13][14][15] Directed by Leigh Silverman, it starred Taub as Alice Paul, Jenn Colella as Carrie Chapman Catt, Nikki M. James as Ida B.

[18] Silverman returned to direct; new members of the creative team include Mayte Natalio, choreography; Riccardo Hernandez, sets; Paul Tazewell, costumes; Lap Chi Chu, lighting; Jason Crystal, sound; and Michael Starobin, orchestrations.

[32][33] Elisabeth Vincentelli of The Washington Post wrote that "while it did not magically morph into a great show, Version 2.0 is tighter, more confident, often rousing and downright entertaining."

She praised the revisions which placed more focus on the ensemble and which better acknowledged the shortfalls of the white suffragists to include their Black counterparts, but felt that the book did not explore each character enough.

[35] Frank Rizzo, writing for Variety, called the production "smart, inspiring and thoroughly entertaining," impressed that the show covered seven years of events "efficiently and effectively with artful modulations of intensity, humor, sadness, spunk and joy".