Suffs is A-plus; bathrooms are a fail

Photo courtesy of the Library of Congress

Suffs, produced by Hillary Rodham Clinton and Malala Yousafzai, might be the best Broadway musical play I’ve ever seen.

I wanted to stand after the second number: “Finish the Fight.” For sure, I was on my feet — arms in the air — after “How Long?”, the song leading to intermission.

For dramatic effect, a giant photo of Inez Milholland, sitting on a white horse, filled the stage after Act 1. Milholland, the inspiration for Wonder Woman, was a suffragist whose last words were: “Mr. President, how long must women wait for liberty?”

I wiped away tears.

And then I needed to use the bathroom. Really, really bad after hydrating on a hot summer day. Just as I expected, the line to the ladies’ room was at least four times as long as that for the men’s room. Most of the audience consisted of females, while the men zipped in and out of their facility.

Not wanting to “wait” any longer, I and another female went to the men’s room, looking down at the ground as we passed men peeing on both sides, their backs against our shoulders. If you’ve never been to see a Broadway show, tiny bathrooms are part of the experience. Don’t rule out the men’s room. Hey, you’ve paid at least $50 for tickets. You should be comfortable.

I stood in line for a stall, and a woman popped out. We laughed at this meet-cute. I felt like an activist for a few moments, although nothing compared to what Alice Paul and her friends endured to get the vote.

The first point of this blog is that Suffs is amazing. See it.

A second point is that there aren’t enough restrooms in Broadway theaters, often a factor in my decision to see a play versus something on Netflix.

Had the Music Box Theatre been a ship and the toilets lifeboats, we would have perished. There just aren’t enough.

So … how long must we wait, Broadway?

We have to go really, really bad!