A Tony Award-winning musical will make its Texas debut at Bass Performance Hall in Fort Worth as the 2026 Broadway at the Bass season comes to an end. Suffs tells the story of brilliant, passionate, and funny American women who fought tirelessly for the right to vote. It focuses on the years lead ing up to the passage of the 19th Amendment in 1920 and follows historical figures like activist Alice Paul and journalist Ida B. Wells. Performances from August 4-9 will be the final stop on the show’s first national tour. “Suffs is a wonderful musical about women fighting for the right to vote after Susan B. Anthony, women finding their voices who really wanted to be heard and seen, women who were just tired of waiting for their voices to be counted,” said actress Trisha Jeffrey, who portrays Memphis native Mary Church Terrell. The National Women’s History Museum says Terrell was a well-known African American activist who championed racial equality and women’s suffrage in the late 19th and early 20th century. Terrell was born in 1863,the daughter of former slaves. Her father was a successful businessman who became one of the South’s first African American millionaires. Her mother owned a hair salon. Terrell was part of the rising black middle and upper class who used their position to fight racial discrimination. “Before Suffs was created, I had no idea who Mary Church Terrell was,” Jeffrey said. “The more I learn about her, I’m so honored to play her, to carry on this amazing legacy she had.” Jeffrey says the company travels with a Suffs library on the road to continue to research and learn about the women who shaped American history, but whose stories may not be well known. She describes them as women who wanted the same things, who loved each other, who fought hard and sacrificed. “When you come to see this musical, you will be inspired. You will know that you don’t have to sit on the sidelines. You can take action,” Jeffrey said. “It’s passing on this torch of empowerment for women, that our voices matter and that we count and that we have to stand up for ourselves. We have to stand up for each other.” Jeffrey’s appearance on the Bass Hall stage is a return to Fort Worth. She’s played there before and at Casa Manana. “Fort Worth has so much art and culture, so it will be great to be at Bass Hall. I’m excited to come back and visit the Stockyards and the museums,” she said. “It’s our last stop on the first national tour of this amazing company. So, what I hope for is that audiences will come out, see the show and want to celebrate with us, want to cry with us, want to stand up and march with us,” Jeffrey said. “I hope this will get people more interested in these women’s stories.” The Broadway musical Suffs won the 2024 Tony Award for Best Original Score. The music and lyrics were written by Shaina Taub, who made history as the first woman to independently win both Best Score and Best Book of a Musical in the same season. ...read more read less