Good morning, Broadsheet readers! The CDC recommends that doctors provide pain management to patients with IUDs, single mothers are more likely to fall below the poverty line than single fathers or married parents, and Shaina Taub has So, that’s nonsense just in time for a historic election.
– History in its making. I spoke to Shaina Taub a few weeks ago about her Tony Award-winning musical So, that’s nonsenseabout the women of the suffragist movement. Much has changed since then – we now have a strong female presidential candidate. So Taub’s Broadway show, which she wrote and stars in, has a new resonance as female voters head to the polls to vote for a female candidate. At a performance the night after Joe Biden dropped out of the race and endorsed Kamala Harris, the crowd reportedly chanted “Kamala.”
So, that’s nonsense premiered in New York in April. The show, produced by Hillary Clinton and Malala Yousafzai, was a surprise hit of the season, drawing audiences and earning Taub the Tonys for best musical book and best original score. What surprised theatergoers most was the show’s humor (which raises the question of why people are so surprised that a show about women’s history can be funny). The show is not a history lesson but a human story about bonding, conflict and building a movement among friends. “These were three-dimensional, complex women who had a sense of humor and had fun and fooled around and got drunk and were whole people,” Taub says.
Theo Wargo/Getty Images for Tony Awards Productions
The series dramatizes the generational conflict within the women’s suffrage movement at the beginning of the 20th century, between the state-by-state strategy of Carrie Chapman Catt and the more radical efforts of the younger Alice Paul (played by the 35-year-old Taub) – as well as the conflict within the movement as white women sacrificed the right to vote for black women (represented by characters such as journalist Ida B. Wells) to achieve their own victories. It invites the inevitable comparisons with Hamiltonwhich Taub doesn’t mind, although she was more inspired by her favorite musical, ragtimeThe difference is that Hamilton a familiar story told in a new way, while So, that’s nonsense introduces many viewers to this story for the first time. “There is no script that can be rewritten,” says Taub.
“It’s missing from our curriculum, it’s not in our textbooks,” Taub says. “There are whole generations of people who grew up without it… who then become filmmakers and theater makers. And they don’t think it’s something that can be dramatized.”
When Taub and I spoke, the presidential race was still between Donald Trump and Biden. “We’re running the show on the brink of a really scary election,” she said at the time. “I hope we can offer an antidote that is not superficially optimistic, not pessimistically gloomy, but somewhere in between.” The political discussion seems to be moving in that direction – and So, that’s nonsense can meet it there.
Emma Hinchliffe
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ALSO IN THE HEADLINES
– Scary plot. Three Taylor Swift concerts in Vienna were canceled after authorities arrested two suspects who allegedly planned a terrorist attack on the concerts. The plans focused on the event itself rather than an attack on Swift herself. She has not yet commented on the plans or the cancellations. NBC News
– Brand boycott? X CEO Linda Yaccarino has announced the company’s antitrust lawsuit against the Global Alliance for Responsible Media (GARM) and the World Federation of Advertisers. X, owned by Elon Musk, accuses the organizations and advertisers of a “systematic illegal boycott” of its platform. The organizations have not yet commented on the lawsuit. AP
– Through the pain. The CDC recommends that doctors counsel patients on how to manage pain before inserting an IUD. The guidelines have also been updated to include more pain relief options for the procedure. Recently, more women who have IUDs inserted have been sharing their painful experiences on social media. New York Times
– Redemption arc. The U.S. women’s soccer team will play the winner of the upcoming Brazil-Spain match for the Olympic gold medal. Last year, the team was eliminated from the World Cup, which was its worst result in a major tournament. Coach Emma Hayes is credited with rebuilding the team, although she has faced criticism for some of her lineup decisions. Wall Street Journal
MOVERS AND SHAKERS
DBS, Singapore’s largest bank, called Tan Su Shan as deputy to current Chief Executive Piyush Gupta. Tan will succeed Gupta next spring, making her the first woman to lead DBS. She is currently head of DBS’s institutional banking group.
The Estée Lauder Companies were appointed Rashida La Lande as Executive Vice President and General Counsel. Previously, La Lande served as Executive Vice President and Global Chief Legal and Corporate Affairs Officer at The Kraft Heinz Company.
ON MY RADAR
It’s time to close the merchandising gap in women’s sports once and for all Elle
Usha Vance is here to clean up her husband JD’s mess. But to what end? Daily Beast
The irony of the Republicans’ “Tampon Tim” insult Time
HYPHENOMS
“We wanted to be the first company to give them a chance.”
— Amy Arnett, CEO of hair care and hair color company Madison Reed, on the company’s multimillion-dollar partnership with the University of Connecticut and its women’s basketball team
