Amanda Lopez (far left) is featured in the company of the musical “Suffs,” coming to Des Moines Civic Center from April 28 to May 3, 2026.
By Jonathan Turner, Hola Iowa
Amanda Lopez is living her dream, making history in a musical about women’s suffrage.
Amanda Lopez, a member of the “Suffs” ensemble who covers a number of principal roles, is a 33-year-old Cuban-American.
The 33-year-old Cuban American (a native of Miami) is in the ensemble of the first national tour of “Suffs,” playing at Des Moines Civic Center April 28 – May 3, 2026. It’s about the brilliant and passionate American women who fought tirelessly for the right to vote. Created by Shaina Taub, the first woman to ever independently win Tony Awards for Best Book and Best Score in the same season, this “thrilling, inspiring and dazzlingly entertaining” (Variety) new musical boldly explores the triumphs and failures of a struggle for equality that’s far from over.
Winner of the Outer Critics’ Circle Award for Best New Musical, premiering off-Broadway in 2022, “Suffs” is based on the American women’s suffrage movement, focusing on the events leading up to the ratification of the Nineteenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution in 1920 that gave some women the right to vote.
The show ran on Broadway from April 2024 to January 2025, nominated for six Tony Awards, including Best Musical, winning two, for Best Book and Best Score.
A May 2024 review in Smithsonian magazine said: “Suffs may not have a decade-long run on Broadway, but it’s begging to be shown in classrooms, aired on PBS and cited as paving the way for other musicals on women’s history. And the paying customers appeared more than satisfied: Despite the disheartening reality of the Equal Rights Amendment’s failure, the audience left as happy to have seen a show of substance.”
“It’s a wild time. I cover seven roles,” Lopez said recently of her first national tour. “Everything’s color coordinated. Nothing’s out of place, and I’m always reviewing things before I go on. And I’m constantly going over things, and I’m always learning. I never have everything locked in. I always got to keep looking at things and learning.”
Since the show started touring last September, she’s played a principal role in 50 performances – including the lawyer and suffragist Inez Milholland (1886 – 1916) — and the tour runs through August.
“In our history books, I think maybe we had a paragraph of the women’s suffrage movement, maybe mentioning Susan B. Anthony,” Lopez said. “There’s so much to learn. I’m still continuing to learn and read and finding new things out as we go.”
“It’s crazy how much is not written and how much is in our show,” she said, noting most of the action is from 1913 to 1920, and an epilogue in 1975 about the Equal Rights Amendment. “And I love watching people in the audience get on their phones right after the show and are googling and researching and talking about dates and the vote, and it’s amazing.”
“We’re still fighting for that Equal Rights Amendment,” Lopez said. “In 1920, when the vote was passed, Alice Paul says in our show, she’s like, I think we need to full equality. Why are we stopping just at suffrage? We need to post for complete equality. Which is when she thinks of the ERA. And then we get to 1975, and it’s still fighting for the ERA.”
One of her favorite lines is, “Progress is possible, not guaranteed.” “I love it because we see progress and we’re like, we’re gonna succeed in that. And that’s not always the case. And the continuous motion forward motion of fighting,” she said.
The show has color-blind casting, including a Colombian actress playing Inez, and a Black woman playing President Wilson’s press secretary, who was white.
“I’m hoping that people realize that they need to continue to fight and I’ve seen the impact that it’s already had on audiences,” Lopez said. “I’m hoping that the show makes them feel hopeful and makes them feel empowered, and it gives them a sense of urgency to continue to go out there and make change and research and learn things that they didn’t know before and talk to their friends and build conversation and build community.”
Inez (who didn’t survive to see women get the vote) is her favorite role to play. “She is a badass, to say the least,” Lopez said. “She was an aristocrat, and she was the face of the march. If you look at pictures from the march on Washington, she is on that white horse, like she said, with her gold breastplate and her gold helmet and she’s leading the charge of these women. And it’s pretty iconic to sit on that horse and lead the charge of women down on stage.”
She’s performed on Broadway in “Real Women Have Curves” in summer 2025.
When “Suffs” was on Broadway, Lopez was performing on a Norwegian Cruise Line, traveling the world for eight months in “Beetlejuice,” as Miss Argentina, “which was very cool,” she said. “It was spectacular.”
The Boston Conservatory alum loves theater for the storytelling, creating new roles, and friendships.
“We have four from my university that I graduated from in ‘Suffs’, which is so fun, and we’re all different years,” Lopez said. “And these are people that I’ve admired for years. So it’s that aspect and then creating new roles and bringing these stories to different audiences.”
For tickets and more information, visit DMPA.org or call 515-246-2300.
Stay in the know with stories that matter — visit HolaAmericaNews.com for the latest news, culture, and community updates!