#lauren helm

[80s-90s-fashionphotography]

Vogue US (1983)

Lauren Helm by Andrea Blanch

[dozydawn]

Lauren Helm photographed by John Naschisnki.

[chicinsilk]

US Vogue October 1986

Evening enhancers, here: Christian Dior Bengal rose powder blush. Natural lining and Antique Rose on the lips. Blouse, Perry Ellis. Earrings, Mary Frost.

Model: Lauren Helm

Hair: Garren Makeup: Kévyn Aucoin Manicure: Elisabeth Drabinski

Soirée exhausteurs, ici : Christian Dior Rose du Bengale fard à joues en poudre. Doublure naturelle et Rose Antique sur les lèvres. Chemisier, Perry Ellis. Boucles d'oreilles, Mary Frost.

Modèle : Lauren Helm

Cheveux : Garren Maquillage : Kévyn Aucoin Manucure : Elisabeth Drabinski

Photographe Denis Piel

vogue archive

[cathygeha]

REVIEW

Once Upon a Halloween Night

Seven authors present romance novellas that have one big Halloween Party in New Orleans in common. I went in thinking I would read one or two romances and move on but each story grabbed my attention and soon I found I had read them all.

DATING IN DISGUISE by Lauren Helms: Blind date with one night stand expected with strong connection but neither able to forget the other. Will they meet again?

HAUNTED MELODIES by Kate Stacy: Age gap romance that has been a slow burn on both parts but finally culminates beautifully at the Halloween party.

GHOSTED by Susan Renee: Bride left at the altar goes to New Orleans to trash her wedding dress. She attends the Halloween party with her cousin’s hockey playing teammate and there is a definite connection.

HURRICANES & Halloween BY Katrina Marie: Second chance to get it right when two meet at their class reunion, attend the Halloween party, and realize the time is finally right for them to be together.

MASKED LOVE by Courney W. Dixon: M/M age gap romance with the boss and his Personal Assistant finding something special at their fake date while attending the Halloween party.

HOT HEX ON A PLATTER: by Louise Lennox: A reality show where two find true love, are parted, and meet again at the party. This book has a bit of a cliffhanger as there is a book to follow.

Did I enjoy these stories? Yes

Would I read more by these authors? Yes – this collection provided me the chance to read a few authors I have read before and read new authors I would gladly read again.

Thank you to IndiePen for the ARC – This is my honest review.

5 Stars

BLURB

Congratulations! You’ve been invited to attend the exclusive Once Upon A Halloween Night bash. This year, join us in New Orleans Warehouse District on Halloween Night for an evening of fun, costumes and… romance? Wait. What? That’s right. The Indie Pen PR and Beyond the Bookshelf Publishing are proud to host Lauren Helms, Aubree Valentine, Kate Stacy, Mel Walker, Susan Renee, Kartina Marie, Courtney W. Dixon, and Louise Lennox - in this fun Halloween romance anthology. So, throw on your best costume and get ready to sit back and enjoy eight brand new novellas to celebrate this spooky season with a romantic twist.

Buy Now: https://books2read.com/u/3k2QKG

[hotvintagepoll]

which streaming service has the most vintage movies? If you don't know, maybe your followers could answer? 🙏

Ooh hoo hoo you asked and I'll answer!!

I actually made a post like this for the hot men tournament, but I can't find it now so I'll do it again from scratch. The short answer is that I don't know of any one streaming service that has all the old vintage movies—but most streaming services have a "classics" genre category that can get you started. Here's a small selection of what you can find on different streaming services:

TUBI (free):

The Adventures of Robin Hood (Olivia de Havilland)

A Streetcar Named Desire (Vivien Leigh)

Seven Brides for Seven Brothers (Jane Powell, Julie Newmar)

North by Northwest (Eva Marie Saint)

The Music Man (Shirley Jones)

The Women (Norma Shearer, Rosalind Russell, Joan Crawford, Joan Fontaine, Paulette Goddard, several other hotties in small parts)

The Philadelphia Story (Katharine Hepburn, Ruth Hussey)

Notorious (Ingrid Bergman)

Bell, Book, and Candle (Kim Novak, Elsa Lanchester)

The Talk of the Town (Jean Arthur)

Dark Victory (Bette Davis)

Stray Dog (Keiko Awaji)

Some Like It Hot (Marilyn Monroe)

Yesterday, Today, and Tomorrow (Sophia Loren)

Dirty Girtie From Harlem USA (Francine Everett)

Passport (Madhubala)

Dark Passage (Lauren Bacall)

Sepia Cinderella (Sheila Guyse)

On The Town (Ann Miller, Vera-Ellen, Betty Garrett)

The Bandwagon (Cyd Charisse)

Devar (Sharmila Tagore)

Reet-Petite and Gone (June Richmond)

The Postman Always Rings Twice (Lana Turner)

KANOPY (free through some libraries):

Dial M for Murder (Grace Kelly)

His Girl Friday (Rosalind Russell)

Ball of Fire (Barbara Stanwyck)

Black Orpheus (Marpessa Dawn)

Flower Drum Song (Reiko Sato, Nancy Kwan, Miyoshi Umeki)

Marriage Italian Style (Sophia Loren)

The Rose Tattoo (Anna Magnani)

Tokyo Story (Setsuko Hara)

War and Peace (Audrey Hepburn, Anita Ekberg)

Salt of the Earth (Rosaura Revueltas)

Metropolis (Brigitte Helm)

The Red Shoes (Moira Shearer)

HOOPLA (free through some libraries):

The Court Jester (Angela Lansbury, Glynis Johns)

Sunset Boulevard (Gloria Swanson)

A Place in the Sun (Elizabeth Taylor)

Barefoot in the Park (Jane Fonda)

The Barefoot Contessa (Ava Gardner)

Wings (Clara Bow)

YOUTUBE (has a lot of older movies that have slipped through copyright/are still up for some reason):

Charade (Audrey Hepburn)

Story Weather (Lena Horne)

Gilda (Rita Hayworth)

Rebecca (Joan Fontaine)

This entire playlist of Indian cinema that I just found (Madhubala, Waheeda Rehman, Nargis, Meena Kumari, etc.)

And that's just a small sample. There is also always your local library for physical DVDs, the Internet Archive, and....other methods.....if you know exactly what you're looking for.

I haven't seen all of these movies, so don't consider them personal recommendations—these are just famous movies with our hotties in them, so please be careful if you have content warnings. Good luck and have fun!

EDIT 5/16: Added a few more movies to the different sections, but this is still just a small selection of what the different streaming services have. Good luck!

[columboscreens]

Sometimes Columbo seems to judge the murderers on the merits of their motive. Like if they are killing out of desperation or revenge, he can be understanding, especially if the victim is also a scumbag. When the murderer kills for greed? That's when he really despises them.

sometimes. there are certain killers for whom he has more patience than others, some he has a blast just toying with, and some he just can't wait to throw in jail. but i'd say "despises" casts too wide a net, especially since most of the murders in the series are spurred by some variant of greed.

columbo, necessitated by his vocation, compartmentalizes very well. in ransom for a dead man, lady lawyer leslie williams kills her husband simply because she's extracted all she wanted out of him and is bored of him. in etude in black, conductor alex benedict kills his star pianist mistress because she wants them to be more, lest she leak their relationship to the press--but his wife's social stature is keeping him at the helm of the LA philharmonic.

in both episodes, columbo is unequivocally appalled by the crime, considers the perps grossly arrogant, considers their lifestyles grossly opulent---yet is clearly sort of enamored of them. he clearly and genuinely shows admiration for their talents, their intellect, their determination toward their crafts.

he states this outright in try and catch me, when he's pushed in front of the lectern and gives us a rare look into his thoughts:

i think the one thing that really makes columbo lose his shit is when he sees that the killer truly has no regard for human life. it's one thing to kill someone who has wronged you, or is about to wrong you, especially in a crime of passion. but the two times we see him really get mad, at dr. mayfield and milo janus, are primarily because they've shown that they are willing to kill literally anyone to get what they want at a moment's notice, even people hardly involved in the original equation at all. they don't even pretend to be apologetic--they are flippant and cavalier about the whole thing. you can see especially in dr. mayfield's case, the fact that he's just as calm as columbo and unfettered by his presence clearly begins to piss him off.

combine this with time sensitivity and cases where columbo is in a tight spot with little/no proof, and the little man starts to unravel a bit.

you are right though, columbo is definitely more understanding when the murderer has a valid reason. lauren staton in it's all in the game killed her boyfriend because he was not only violent, he was a known scumbag who was two-timing both she and her daughter. it's the only time in the series columbo straight-up looks the other way and releases an accomplice.

[birindale]

International Women's Day promo, with transcript & further clips below the cut

ND Stevenson: When I was a little girl, I always loved scifi and fantasy. I looked so hard for the female characters in those stories, and so often they're very hard to find at all. Taking She-Ra and the Princesses of Power into today's era was a dream project for me. It's just like a really cool show.

Child 1: I love Scorpia. She's not afraid to show her inner feelings. She wants to like, cut her hair short. She's also insanely bubbly.

Aimee Carrero, voice of She-Ra/Adora: I didn't grow up with cartoons about… a girl, doing things in the world. It was about a guy and the girls who loved him.

Child 2: Watching She-Ra, it was really powerful to see that women were actually the heroes.

Lauren Ash, voice of Scorpia: So it's important to remind and--and show kids that no matter what you look like--yeah! There's a place for every one of you.

Child 3: It's so cool to have so many different-looking princesses.

Child 4: I like how it's just not boys being hav--being super-strong.

One of the children in an exaggerated voice: Onward! [the children heft toy Swords of Protection and start chasing each other and giggling]

Merit Leighton, voice of Frosta: The cast should be as diverse as real life. And as the world is.

Child 5: I feel like, because I'm not like, a stick--like all the cartoons in most shows. She-Ra inspires me to be, like more confident in myself?

Child 6: When I watch it just makes me, like… I wanna be brave too!

Vella Lovell, voice of Mermista: To see yourself on screen is to have someone say to you, "Your dreams are possible."

Krystal Joy Brown, voice of Netossa: It's time for us to be able to be at the helm of our own stories, and to also not be shy of our power.

Marcus Scribner, voice of Bow: It's super important for girls to see characters like Bow, to let them know that males are out there supporting them.

Child 4, in reaction to something offscreen: Holy mackerel!

Lauren Ash: 'Cause things are changing guys, I don't know if you know that, but it's a really exciting time.

Princess of Power. Everything is power. Princess of Power! It's just like, good to listen to, actually.

Karen Fukuhara, voice of Glimmer: I hope that our show inspires kids to be… anything that they wanna be.

ND Stevenson: This world is a place where all of them can be empowered to fight their own battles, and fight the good fight. And that's what this show is all about.

All 8 Children: For the honor of Grayskull!

--------------------------

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by DreamWorks She-Ra (@dreamworksshera)

Aimee Carrero clip: It was one of the first times that I could look across the room and see, like, women, not just in creative places of power but in executive places of power. And I think that that's a balance that has been sorely lacking in our industry

--------------------------

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by ˚✧₊* Merit Leighton ⁎⁺˳✧ (@meritleighton)

Merit Leighton clip: I mean, the show is so diverse, so it's great that they're… that they have cast people that are like their roles, in their roles. And I feel like that's how it should be everywhere.

--------------------

Dreamworks also had a page up here with a brief article with the following pdfs:

She-Ra IWD Video Discussion Guide - stimulate important discussion amongst children

My Hero Book - find your inner balanced hero

Labyrinth Game - call upon the strengths and skills of others 

Heroic Support Pyramid Game - strive for greater balance in our world

and some canned stuff on diversity which you can click through to read, idt it needs to be on here. I should note that Balance for Better was the "theme" of International Women's Day that year.

oh! and some shareable pngs of select characters to show people you like women, or balance, or whatever. like, really select characters. only 8 of them. honestly kind of a tragedy bc the comedic potential of Light Hope with a big #BALANCE FOR BETTER cannot be overstated. balance must be restored indeed. here are some links to those:

She-Ra

Perfuma

Mermista

Bow

Glimmer

Spinnerella

Netossa

Frosta

[elliehopaunt]

By Matt Grobar

EXCLUSIVE: Sheryl Lee Ralph (Abbott Elementary), Timothy V. Murphy (Appaloosa) and Bruce Greenwood (The Fall of the House of Usher) have boarded The Fabulous Four, a new comedy from Bleecker Street, which has entered production in Georgia under an Interim Agreement from SAG-AFTRA.

The actors join an ensemble that also includes Susan Sarandon, Bette Midler, and Megan Mullally, as previously announced. Ralph takes over the role of Sissy Spacek, who was attached as of last fall but was forced to drop out due to scheduling conflicts. Bleecker Street nabbed North American rights to the pic last October and will release the film in U.S. theaters in 2024. UTA Independent Film Group and CAA Media Finance arranged the financing and brokered the deal for U.S. rights, with Sierra/Affinity repping international sales.

Written and directed by Jocelyn Moorhouse, the Cannes prize-winner best known for her Kate Winslet pic The Dressmaker, the film follows three life-long friends (Sarandon, Mullally, and Ralph) who travel to Key West, Florida to be bridesmaids in a surprise wedding of their college girlfriend Marilyn (Midler). Once there, sisterhoods are rekindled, the past rises up again in all its glory, and there are enough sparks, drinks and romance to change all their lives in ways they never expected.

Richard Barton Lewis’ Southpaw Entertainment is producing alongside Lauren Hantz of Hantz Motion Pictures.

An icon of stage and screen, Ralph has won an Emmy and numerous other accolades for her portrayal of kindergarten teacher Barbara Howard on Abbott Elementary, the ABC mockumentary that has emerged as one the most popular scripted series on linear. The show, created by and starring Quinta Brunson, was renewed for a third season in January but only recently returned to the writers’ room, following the conclusion of the WGA strike. Otherwise perhaps best known for her Tony-nominated turn as Deena Jones in Broadway’s Dreamgirls, Ralph has also been seen in Mistress with Robert de Niro, To Sleep with Anger with Danny Glover, The Distinguished Gentlemen with Eddie Murphy, and Sister Act 2 with Whoopi Goldberg, along with such series as Moesha and Ray Donovan.

Most recently recurring on Law & Order: Organized Crime and ABC’s The Company You Keep, Murphy previously reprised his role in Uni’s comedy MacGruber on the same-name Peacock series. Other recent credits for the actor on the TV side include S.W.A.T., Snowpiercer, Westworld, and True Detective, to name just a few. Additional feature credits include In Full Bloom, The Lone Ranger, and National Treasure: Book of Secrets.

Greenwood puts in a stellar turn as Fortunato Pharmaceuticals CEO Roderick Usher in Netflix’s Edgar Allen Poe-inspired miniseries The Fall of the House of Usher from Mike Flanagan, which bowed on the platform earlier this month. He also recently starred in the Fox medical drama The Resident, which ran for six seasons, and will soon appear in fantasy pic The Invisibles with Tim Blake Nelson and Gretchen Mol, among other projects.

At this year’s Toronto Film Festival, Bleecker Street nabbed U.S. rights to James Hawes’ One Life, starring Anthony Hopkins, and the starry British comedy Fackham Hall, which goes into production next year. The company also locked down UK rights, alongside Elysian Film Group and Anonymous Content, to Hayao Miyazaki’s The Boy and the Heron. Upcoming releases include the Meg Ryan-helmed rom-com What Happens Later, coming to theaters November 3, which she leads with David Duchovny, and Sara Bareilles and Jessie Nelson’s Waitress: The Musical, out December 7 with Fathom Events.

[weatherman667]

Ryan Gosling won best song, (or something), for the Barbie Movie, being it's one award.

And Feminists are pissed. Because Barbie is OBVIOUSLY a Feminist property, and therefore should only be allowed to win for Feminist reasons...

Barbie has been the great opponent to Feminism. Barbie is Feminism's great white whale. Feminism went on tirade when Barbie first spoke, and didn't spout a Feminist tirade.

Runtime: 0:57

This was based off a real event. You see, while Feminism fought against gender roles, and femininity in general, Barbie was feminine. While Feminism was complaining about being kept out of the professions, women were moving into the professions. Margaret Thatcher, herself, denounced the Women's Movement, and said nothing she achieved was because of it.

Feminism conquered Barbie, skinned her alive, and wears the skin like a suit.

It should not be a surprise the part of the movie that is fun, whimsical, and soulful, and not Feminist winging, is the part that wins an award.

Long before the Barbie movie was concealed, a girls toy line was brought to the helm of a women that grew up with it, and wanted to see it better. This was Lauren Faust, and she created My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic. And this became one of the most celebrated shows of the last decade. This is because she actually cared about the show, and instead of Feminist winging, gave us wonderful characters who went on incredible adventures, (both literal, and ones of self-discovery).

[mariacallous]

Capote vs. The Swans has gathered a group of A-list stars to play the impossibly glamorous "swans," including Chloë Sevigny as Andy Warhol muse C. Z. Guest; Calista Flockhart as Jackie Kennedy’s younger sister Lee Radziwill; Demi Moore as Ann Woodward, the widow of banking heir Billy Woodward; Molly Ringwald as Johnny Carson’s second wife, Joanne Carson; Diane Lane as Slim Keith, the former wife of Howard Hawks who was credited with discovering Lauren Bacall; and Naomi Watts as Babe Paley, one of Capote’s closest friends and the wife of CBS founder William S. Paley.

As for Capote himself, Pride & Prejudice and The White Lotus star Tom Hollander will play the famed author. Tony and Pulitzer-nominated playwright Jon Robin Baitz will helm the miniseries, while Oscar-nominated director Gus Van Sant will direct all eight episodes.

oh hell fucking yeah

[dougielombax]

Okay. Let’s get this over with.

Parallels

Or

Seeing Patterns in Things that Aren’t There

Part 29

Amidst The Innumerable Stars

1. “Look. Toa Lhikan’s Spirit Star. Each Toa has one. As long as it burns in the night sky, Toa Lhikan remains alive.” - Vakama. Bionicle: Legends of Metru Nui. (2004)

2. “Now fair and marvellous was that vessel made, and it was filled with a wavering flame, pure and bright; and Eärendil the Mariner sat at the helm, glistening with dust of elven-gems, and the Silmaril was bound upon his brow. Far he journeyed in that ship, even into the starless voids; but most often was he seen at morning or at evening, glimmering in sunrise or sunset, as he came back to Valinor from voyages beyond the confines of the world.

. . .

Now when first Vingilot was set to sail in the seas of heaven, it rose unlooked for, glittering and bright; and the people of Middle-earth beheld it from afar and wondered, and they took it for a sign, and called it Gil-Estel, the Star of High Hope.”

- The Silmarillion (1977). - Quenta Silmarillion. Of the Voyage of Earendil and the War of Wrath.

3. “What are you made of?” - Lauren Arnoldson.

“Good People.” - Manticore (Constellation).

- The Monument Mythos: Season Three. Finale. FREEDOMFOREVER (2023)

Kind of speaks for itself.

But this post covers numerous examples of people living on as or becoming stars in one way or another.

In the Bionicle universe, Toa were represented by Spirit Stars in the sky of the GSR. Perhaps more akin to beacons in hindsight.

Lhikan’s spirit star remains while he lives. Until he sacrifices himself to save Vakama. And the Toa Metru receive their own stars shortly afterwards.

Earendil and his Silmaril become a star in the sky after he and his wife Elwing work with the Valar and their host to save the world from Morgoth in the War of Wrath.

The Angel Crown, Freedom (and Nina & Thomas Crawford by extension), and Everett Arnoldson merge to form the Perfect Union, sacrificing themselves to destroy the Martian Serpent and save the world.

In doing so they transcend and become stars, forming the Manticore constellation.

Make of this what you will.

[doamarierose-honoka]

Does it feel like yonks since Matt Reeves unleashed The Batman, his moody and noir-ish take on Gotham’s dark knight? It’s been well over two years now – but while The Batman Part II is still a way off, there’s a sequel of a different sort on the way. Long-gestating streaming series The Penguin will see Colin Farrell revive the role of Oz Cobb, and – as its new trailer makes clear – the series is very much a The Batman sequel, following on from the devastating flood that occurred at the end of Reeves’ film. Centrally, though, it concerns Oz trying to make a power grab in the wake of Carmine Falcone’s death – which the fellow Falcones are not best pleased about. Watch the trailer here:

Where The Batman was essentially a detective movie, The Penguin looks set to be a proper crime show set in this version of Gotham – less concerned with setpieces than character drama and political subterfuge in the criminal underbelly. Still, we get Farrell spraying off a machine gun. Most of the action, though, seems to be in the tension between Cobb and Cristin Militia’s Sofia Falcone, who along with her brother Alberto (Michael Zegen) is hoping to keep their mob business strictly within the family. Plus, we have Clancy Brown as gangster Salvatore Maroni, and Michael Kelly as Johnny Vitti. The eight-episode series is now confirmed to being streaming in September, with multiple instalments helmed by Mare Of Easttown’s Craig Zobel. Reeves serves as executive producer, with Lauren LeFranc as showrunner.

Will The Penguin provide a satisfying second chapter in The Batman saga? Hopefully. Will it set the stage for The Batman Part II? Possible. And will we ever get bored of Colin Farrell doing that accent? Certainly not. More answers will arrive from September.

[dozydawn]

Modern Bride, 1989.

Model: Lauren Helm.

[chicinsilk]

US Vogue Ooctober 1986

Pure skin, finished here, Chanel without oil Alabaster Makeup Light powder: Tawny lip color. Fashion, Chanel, cashmere sweater over a silk blouse. Rings, Fred Leighton. Model: Lauren Helm Hair: Garren Makeup: Kévyn Aucoin Manicure: Elisabeth Drabinski

Peau pure, finis, ici, Chanel sans huile Lumière de maquillage en albâtre poudre : Couleur des lèvres fauve. Mode, Chanel, pull en cachemire sur une blouse en soie. Bagues, Fred Leighton. Modèle : Lauren Helm Cheveux : Garren Maquillage : Kévyn Aucoin Manucure : Elisabeth Drabinski

Photographe Denis Piel vogue archive

[aadrawings]

A pencil test by James Baxter for Sony Pictures Animation's canceled "Medusa" animated feature film, originally helmed by Lauren Faust. Can’t stress enough how much that woman’s projects absolutely deserve a greenlight.

[50books50movies]

Suffs

Suffs (2024, The Music Box Theatre): I don’t know if the comparisons to Hamilton that have thrown around in reviews have done the show any favors. It’s an easy comparison to make:

-award-winning musicals that transitioned from off-Broadway to Broadway runs

-helmed by a singular vision

-inspired by a book that the creator read about a moment in American history

-where characters are played by actors who look and speak differently than their historical counterparts.

Obviously, these two works must be paired in conversation. And since the 1776 revival flopped on Broadway after trying some of the same casting tactics as Hamilton (casting all female, transgender, and non-binary actors as the American Founding Fathers), it fell on Suffs, at least to the public, critics, and producers, to prove that Hamilton wasn’t a singular event and that you could make a commercially and critically successful musical based on American history with ahistorical casting. (As I said, the comparison is superficial.) (Furthering the narrative, Phillipa Soo was original cast in Hamilton and in the off-Broadway cast in Suffs.)

Digging below the surface, one can see similar bones upholding Hamilton and Suffs inherited from ancestors like Les Miserables. The story is mostly focused on the brash Alice Paul/Alexander Hamilton, who is contrasted against her more conservative colleague, Carrie Chapman Catt/Aaron Burr. Paul is buoyed by her three friends: Doris Stevens, Inez Milholland, and Ruza Wenclawska/John Laurens, Hercules Mulligan, and the Marquis de Lafayette. Their uphill struggle to gain women the vote is opposed by the tyrannical President Woodrow Wilson/King George III, who has a signature solo in each act. Paul and her colleagues encourage each other to finish the fight/not throw away their shot, and the musical is as much an exhortation to the present and future as much as it is a walk through the past.

And yes, we thus have the setup for easy, smirking barbs about how the one credited to a man about a man’s story is one of the most successful, critically acclaimed musicals in history while the one credited to a woman about women just won two Tony Awards and won’t see any productions in other cities, much less other countries, any time soon.

Beyond that jab, however, is the follow-up uppercut that Hamilton is just a better musical than Suffs. Many actors are making their Broadway debut in Suffs, and you can feel the rawness in the simple choreography (likely affected by the period-appropriate costuming). The play launches jarringly with the ensemble number “Let Mother Vote;” there wasn’t even a reminder to the audience to silence their cell phones to prime the audience, and so of course a phone rang in the second act. The pace fails to give the audience a moment to cheer for the first Woodrow Wilson solo, “Ladies;” instead, the scene transitions right into “A Meeting With President Wilson.”

If we fall into the compare and contrast game, then one might hold Suffs wanting in its lack of songs that stick and work outside of its context; there are no displays of verbal gymnastics like “Satisfied” or “What’d I Miss.” I struggle to hum a melody from Suffs the morning after; I would say that it’s surprising that Suffs won the Tony Award for Best Original Score, but that is also dictated by the level of competition this year.

That’s not to say Suffs is a bad musical; the house was packed for the performance I attended, and I was moved by the story and songs. The American suffrage movement presents fewer moments of bombast compared to the American Revolution and the country’s founding; there’s no Battle of Yorktown to provide a first act closing number. Instead, we have a great and fiery number in the second act focused on the Silent Sentinels, who protest Wilson’s unwillingness to publicly support suffrage and decision to incarcerate Paul, Smith, Burns, and Wenclawska at Occoquan Workhouse.

The cast is strong across the board; standouts were Hannah Cruz, who embodies Inez Milholland’s magnetic personality; Jenn Colella, who gives needed nuance to Carrie Chapman Catt, Grace McLean, who delights in chauvinism and convenient ignorance; Emily Skinner, who lights up the stage as socialite Alva Belmont; and Lucy Bonino who lends a quiet strength and anchor to the show as Paul’s closest friend, Lucy Burns.

And then there is Nikki M. James, who is incredible as Ida B. Wells. Wells is the focal point of Suffs’ departure from comparisons with Hamilton, as how the show directly challenges how the suffrage movement justified compromises to placate southern members at the cost of Black activists seems to be in conversation with how Hamilton tried to make the slave-owning George Washington an abolitionist in “Yorktown (The World Turned Upside Down)” by having him answer Laurens’s question:

Laurens: Black and white soldiers wonder alike if this really means freedom

Washington: Not. Yet.

Though Paul is Suffs’s protagonist, Suffs also shows how Paul’s story intersects with Wells’s. The play sides with Wells when she directly criticizes Paul and friends for asking Black activists to wait their turn on racial justice without resolving their hypocrisy. The suffragists who demand that the men who control their political and economic lives stop deferring to hear their call for suffrage because tariffs, war, and campaigning for re-election take priority then tell the Black activists that actually enforcing Black men’s suffrage and stopping lynchings must wait until women’s suffrage has been won. However, Suffs has a refrain on this as well: it’s important to remember who the actual enemy is and not to succumb to these divisions that only benefit conservative forces that want to preserve the status quo.

The play mostly handles these transitions in focus with deftness, and James is able to balance steely resolution, doubt, righteous indignation, sorrow at the future, and hope for the best in her limited time on stage. The play would be greatly diminished if James’ Wells, Anastacia McCleskey’s Mary Church Terrell, and Laila Erica Drew’s Phyllis Terrell had been excised so the focus could be solely on Paul’s story.

Similarly, the play reminds us of how little we know and see about the larger story of the suffrage movement and intersectional need for change by dropping a last moment revelation that Catt was queer and romantically involved with Molly Hay. It might seem like a random point to include in “If We Were Married (reprise),” but it reinforces the point that suffrage is just one direction of necessary change and that our focus on Paul limits what we know about the other activists’ motivations and struggles.

Given the high cost of Broadway tickets (our seats were in the theater’s penultimate upper tier row, and they were still more than $100), we have to be very selective in what we see. Recommendations from Helen Shaw of New York magazine haven’t steered us wrong yet, and we’re glad that we saw Suffs on her advice. If nothing else, it’s led me to teaching myself about the suffrage movement, since my formal schooling was woefully inadequate on this subject.