
ALLY BONINO: EXCLUSIVE ACTOR ON ACTOR.- SUFFS.
July 16, 2024A
lly Bonino is currently playing her originated role of “Lucy Burns” in Suffs on Broadway, a musical about the 1913 women’s suffrage movement led by badass historical figure, Alice Paul (played by Shaina Taub.)
Bonino is kind, hilarious and humble. All of the things that the industry should strive for.
Amidst wacky schedules (on my end), we were finally able to connect.
A BLAST FROM THE PAST.
But this isn’t just any actress, this is someone I went to high school with. As such, our school hadn’t done a musical production in twenty-five years and all of the girls were vying for the role of “Reno Sweeney” (including myself) in their production of Anything Goes.
Ally nabbed it. We also did Oklahoma together as she kicked up her heels as Ado Annie a few years prior.
THE INTERVIEW.
It’s about 90 something degrees both in my respective state and her New York. Ally and I are sitting on Zoom. She is bubbly and naturally radiant by being makeup free. Bonino’s dog is the focus for a few seconds as she kindly apologizes, gets the pet settled and we dive in.
WHAT DREW YOU TO THIS PROJECT?
Ally Bonino: Oh! Shaina Taub (creator), Leigh Silverman (director) and the Public.
AB: Those were the big three that got me. I’ve been involved with it since early 2018. I was at breakfast with a friend and my email dinged, it was about this reading for this show (Suffs) written by Shaina Taub. I had been a fan of hers for years. Leigh Silverman was directing–love everything she touches and it was at The Public which has been a bucket list place for me since I moved here in…
(Bonino pauses and draws out the word, thinking.)
2007.
Katie Harden: (Surprised). Oh! Okay.
AB: With those three things it was check, check, check!
(Physically checking off an imaginary bucket list.)
SO, NO CALLBACKS OR ANYTHING LIKE THAT, YOU WERE JUST IN IT FROM THE GET-GO THEN.
AB: No. This was for a really fast and dirty twenty-nine hour reading. We were there for maybe two weeks. And those things usually don’t have an audition process. Some do. There are some bigger projects that will. But this was so small. I think there were only nine songs written.
And Rachel Sussman, who is one of our lead producers is a very dear friend of mine, when they were compiling the team, I would assume she floated my name.
Leigh had seen me in a very silly Christmas concert. Shaina had seen me perform at Pace, where I went to school and we’ve seen her work in silly things, so why not?
I am very, very grateful that my name was floated into that room! My god, very grateful.
WHAT WAS YOUR FIRST REHEARSAL LIKE?
AB: Oh, I will never forget it. I walked into the room. And I saw Jen Colella (Come From Away), Nikki M. James (Les Miserables), and Krysta Rodriguez (The Addams Family) having a conversation.
AB: I walked out of the room, and went back to the front desk. Basically, I said, hi, I think you sent me to the wrong room, I’m here for the rehearsal.
AB: And they said, no, it’s room 2B. And I thought, it can’t be because Jen Colella, Nikki M. James and Krystal Rodriguez are having a conversation. I don’t belong in that room!
AB: They were so welcoming and my imposter syndrome was off of the charts!
AB: It was Nikki M. James, Alyse Alan Louis, Jen Colella, Krysta Rodriguez, Stephanie Hsu, Sarah Steele, me and Grace McLean as well.
AB: (Sing song voice while touching her cheek and chuckling.) One of these things is not like the other!
AB: I hadn’t really done anything big and I was still trying very much to break through. I walked into this room with these titans. What am I even doing here?
KH: What the hell am I doing here?! (laughs)
AB: This is a mistake! I’ve clearly been sent to the wrong address! It was so incredible and everyone was so kind.
I had just seen Jen in Come From Away about two weeks prior. It’s Jen Colella!
AB: I was so starstruck by everyone I was in the room with, but they were so kind. Just down to earth and welcoming.
AB: And then we started learning the music, I believe we started off with The Young Are At The Gates. Holy shit, This is very special and this music is really cool.
AB: And the fact that it was a roomful of women was really cool. This is going to be something really special.
KH: And it’s great because so many musicals have so many men, you look at all of the breakdowns, and leading roles are men, men, men. Oh, here’s a few girls. Here’s the love interest. Here’s this…
AB: I always love to look at Les Miz. You have all of these men, and then you have the archetypes of women. The virgin, the sinner–it’s nuts!
KH: We need more of that. More independent women’s musicals, more independent women’s projects, more women of color. We need a lot more in this industry. Speaking of which–
WHAT DO YOU THINK COULD CHANGE IN THIS INDUSTRY?
KH: There are so many things we can talk about. As actors.
AB: How much time do we have is the question! I could go on for days!
AB: I do think we’re in a very interesting moment in our industry, where we’re seeing things change.
AB: There’s this new wave of The New Guard, and then there’s The Old Guard.
AB: Some people in the Old Guard are very adaptable, willing to change, and eager and hungry to usher in this new age. And then some people are very resistant and women are digging their heels in.
AB: When we talk about how theater needs to change, we’re talking about how some of those Old Guard people, who are just so stringent and want everything to stay the same.
“A big thing across the board is that we need more diversity in every sense of gender, race and size. Body diversity is one of the things I love so much about our show in particular. It’s truly a diverse cast of humans in every aspect of the word.” – Ally Bonino.
AB: It’s not lost on me that I am a bigger body onstage in a principal role. The role has nothing to do with the size of my body. I can just exist.
AB: Ten years ago, that wouldn’t have been the case. Well, Shaina’s projects are all things kind, empathetic, and truly progressive–but other projects and views in the past.
KH: I know what you meant.
AB: The number of times I’ve been playing a character that is fat just because they needed something comedic…
KH: The character role.
AB: The character role. Where the body is the punchline and the number of times that I’ve received a breakdown where the character is depressed, and maybe she’s fat. But people are depressed all of the time without being overweight. It’s not mutually exclusive.
AB: We are slowly moving away from that, even though it still exiin other places. People are trying to be more conscious about it. But it is such an interesting time where we are finally talking about all of these things that have been wrong and weird for so long.
AB: People are in positions to do something about it. I’m excited for change to happen and I think there is a lot of change that still needs to happen.
AB: The other thing I talk to a lot of my friends about is that some people I’ve met have said that it’s been personally hard for them as an individual and so it should be hard for everyone.
AB: My guy, I’m so sorry that, that was your experience. I’m sorry that it was hard for you. But it doesn’t need to be that way moving forward.
AB: Just because it happened to one person does not mean that somebody else needs to struggle or take on that trauma for you. We need to stop the perpetual trauma. We need to move forward and heal because there is really good art to be made. It doesn’t need to be hard and it doesn’t need to be a slog.
AB: You don’t need to leave rehearsal crying.
“It’s possible to do hard work and have hard conversations in a kind, empathetic and truly transformative way”
WHAT WAS YOUR FAVORITE SONG IN SUFFS?
AB: (Intrigued.) Oh, man. There was a song that doesn’t exist anymore. It’s when we were at the Public and it was called I WASN’T THERE.
AB: It took place after the 19th amendment was passed and would have been this big, celebratory moment, but it’s actually very quiet when all of the characters come in.
AB: Nobody was there when the 19th amendment got signed into law. There were no women invited.
AB: When you see laws being passed, there is a crowd around the president. Somebody gets to keep the pen, and that sadly didn’t happen for these women. They were not afforded that celebratory moment.
AB: And the song was a very cathartic moment of saying, we did this thing, and yet, we didn’t get to celebrate it.
AB: Eventually, it didn’t make it to the Broadway version, because it was a little bit of a downer.
AB: I still loved it so much and all of us with the Public really miss that song, but it’s understandable why it was didn’t transfer. The song we have in its place now is such a stunning moment, but I still loved that original song.
AB: There’s something so tongue in cheek about how hard it is to be a woman. Sometimes, the show is about that.
“Even in today’s 2024 society, if something amazing happens to a woman, you still have to tamper it down! You can’t just show your excitement. You can’t get emotional because then it looks like you’re hysterical. People will say you are out of your mind.”
KH: It’s like the Barbie monologue! (performed by America Ferrera in the film.)
AB: 100%! I’m sure every other woman watching that monologue just felt it. When I saw it, I just started crying. But not ugly crying, I just felt so seen but simultaneously so sad at the same time. It’s the Barbie monologue!
KH: It is! You can’t be too pretty because you look too prideful. You can’t be ugly because you’ll look unattractive.
AB: You can’t celebrate because it makes you ungrateful. It’s a snake eating its own tail.
AB: Sometimes I think of sports where a guy gets to the end zone and does a little celebratory dance. Okay, for him, sure, but we won this incredible thing and just had to say ‘thank you for this incredible opportunity.’ It’s nuts!
WHAT WAS THE MOVE TO NEW YORK LIKE?
Oh, it was, it was crazy. I moved here when I was seventeen. I graduated from high school and then I came here. Coming to school in the city helped the transition because I had the landing pad of the school. A lot of my friends who went to school somewhere else and moved here afterward, said there was such a learning curve for those first couple of months because the city is insane.
AB: Learning the city, learning the subways. Time moves differently here. It’s so fast-paced but the MTA will make a minute feel like three hours.
AB: Having the safety net of the school was amazing. Luckily, it wasn’t a school that didn’t let you audition outside of your program.
AB: A lot of MTA–oh my god. (Holds head) what am I saying?!
AB: BFA programs…
KH: You’re still on the train.
AB: It. Never. Leaves. Your brain.
AB: But Pace was pretty much, don’t fuck it up, go and represent yourself well. It was a really good way of putting it in my eyes.
AB: And going to auditions and having that process was very helpful because you could come back and talk to the teachers about your experiences. You could say, this was an interesting thing or that was strange, and they would tell you that was how it was going to be in this business.
AB: I felt oddly cushioned in a way and I’m very grateful for that. It might not have been a lot of people’s experiences, but it was mine. I was very grateful to have school be the reason that brought me here. It was really a very safe, for lack of a better word, introduction to a city that is built on chaos and lies.
KH: Chaos. Lies. Noise and pigeons.
AB: PIGEONS! Everywhere pigeons.
KH: And angry people. (Oh, yes, I’m a city girl.)
AB: So angry! I had a friend visiting. He saw stuffs a couple of days ago and we got dinner. He went to school here too so he knows the city very well. He lives in DC now.
KH: Yeah.
“My friend said: Everyone is so angry now. It wasn’t like this. And I said, yes, it was like this, but there are a lot of factors that go into it. The pandemic changed it, honestly. It’s a different vibe, and now everyone’s a breath away from a brawl.”
KH: (Cracking up.)
HOW HAS THE FAN INTERACTION BEEN?
KH: People seem very taken with you and very sweet from what I can see on Twitter (ugh) and Instagram. It must be really surreal.

NEW YORK, NEW YORK – APRIL 18: Ally Bonino attends the “Suffs” Broadway Opening Night at Music Box Theatre on April 18, 2024 in New York City. (Photo by Cindy Ord/Getty Images)
AB: It is very surreal. The fan interactions have been amazing. It’s not lost on me that I wouldn’t have a job without them. So I’m really grateful. And I love meeting people. I love talking to people. This show specifically strikes such a nerve with people that the conversations I have at the stage door and social media–Twitter admittedly scares me. It’s really terrifying.
AB: Sorry, X. Formerly known as Twitter.
KH: That site.
AB: —Have been really, really lovely. I don’t think it’s fully hit me as someone who was bullied for a very long time growing up.
KH: (Shocked from remembering such a popular and sweet girl) Really?
“It hasn’t hit as, ‘oh, a lot of people like you’. There is still a part of my brain that wants to know, am I gonna’ (sic) blow it? Am I gonna’ (sic) do something wrong? It’s very interesting meeting people and having them say that I’ve had such an impact on them. Honestly, I’m really just trying to do my job and do justice to the show. It’s been very special and a little overwhelming in a very good way. I’m just not used to all of this positivity!” – Ally Bonino on fame.
HAVE YOU BEEN HAPPY WITH THE REVIEWS?
AB: You’re not going to believe me, but, I don’t really read the reviews.
KH: That’s smart. (Myself, a professional reviewer but also an actor.)
AB: My manager, I love her so much! I told her I don’t view them. And of course, on opening night, she sent me a snapshot of the review from The (New York) Times where I was mentioned.
AB: I said, Rochel, (Saks&) I don’t want to know! But she told me it was a really good one because they named me specifically. From what I’ve gathered, the reviews have been pretty good. And that’s great. I’m so thrilled that they have been.
AB: Reviews are a little–I don’t want to say silly, but how we review things could be reevaluated. The fact that the New York Times holds so much power and it comes down to two or three people from a very specific socioeconomic background–with a very specific point of view, and a specific agenda, could be reevaluated.

NEW YORK, NEW YORK – APRIL 18: Jenn Colella and Ally Bonino take part in the “Suffs” Broadway Opening Night curtain call at Music Box Theatre on April 18, 2024 in New York City. (Photo by Cindy Ord/Getty Images)
AB: “I was talking with Pippa (Hamilton’s own “Eliza” aka Phillipa Soo) when we were at the Public and she had such a great idea. She said, why is it not a conversation? Why is it not a review for The Times and you get someone from lifestyle, arts and entertainment, sports, and business? And then they get a random person and ask them to go to the show with them?
AB: Go see the show and have a conversation about it! It is funny, I don’t read reviews for shows that I’m in, but I do read reviews for other shows.
AB: You read these reviews and then see the show, and wonder what these people are talking about. Either positively or negatively. It’s always based on one person’s perspective and point of view that day. In a lot of cases, it can make or break a show.
AB: With great power, comes great responsibility. It feels like a lot of times that responsibility isn’t really followed through on. Especially this season in particular, there were a lot of shows that were done very dirty by some reviewers.
AB: They were great! I enjoyed them. A lot of the shows this season that I was able to see. The reviewing process just needs to be different.
KH: Yes.
WHAT WAS IT LIKE TO PARTNER WITH HILARY CLINTON?
AB: It was! And I called it the day before the announcement came out. We got an email, that stated the official announcement is going out tomorrow. We knew it was transferring, but we couldn’t say. (NDA.) And the email also included the news about two new producers coming on board.
AB: I was on the phone with my mom and I said, I bet one of them is going to be Hilary. And she goes, why do you think that?
AB: I just had a feeling! And I’m so glad that I said it aloud because sometimes I can be a bit witchy (a possible sixth sense?)
AB: If I don’t speak about it, then I go crazy!
AB: (Sarcastically acting like others) Suuuure. Okay, Ally.
AB: But I verbalized this and the next morning when the news broke, my mom texted me! How did you know that?
AB: I don’t know! It’s been great. She has been so lovely and she’s so into it. Hilary was there for our first day of rehearsal. We thought she was just going to come in for the photo op and leave, but she stayed for it! She was sitting at the table with the creative team and going through the music with us.

Producer Hilary Clinton, Jen Colella and Ally Bonino during a press event. Courtesy of Getty Images.
AB: This is nuts! This is bonkers! Then she visited again and stayed for the whole thing. Hilary’s been so supportive and she was so moved by it.
AB: (Jokingly) I feel like we’re three interactions away from being invited to Chappaqua (where Clinton resided.)
AB: That’s the goal. We want to go to a barbecue at her house in Chappaqua. That’d be great! She’s so lovely!
LET’S TALK ABOUT THE TONY’S!
AB: (Sly, shoulders up.) Let’s talk about em’ (sic).
AB: It was wild! I’ve been watching these every year since I was seven or eight years old! The day is crazy. It’s a bonkers day. You have a rehearsal in the morning that they film, in case anything goes wrong with the broadcast. At eight o’clock, you have to be ready to get to the theater. We get in full hair, makeup and costume.
AB: The people that drive the bus are very sweet. They want to practice the route that you’re going take later, like it’s part of the dress rehearsal. You’re full everything! It’s early in the morning, you get on the bus, and you go.
AB: You do your segment and you come back. We also had a show that day. We did the morning thing, then the show and finally had some downtime
AB: Jen and I were sitting in the box watching Titanic (the movie) just trying to distract ourselves. The first half of the Tony’s isn’t televised, or maybe on Tubi or something, which we don’t have on our phones. And then our phones started blowing up! Shaina won best book! We lost our minds.
AB: Why are we watching Titanic?! Let’s go find a TV. And so we went down into wardrobe and we were watching the whole first bit. It didn’t really hit me. I was watching it and in exactly two hours, I’m going to be on that stage.
AB: The whole thing was just unbelievably surreal.
AB: So we get in hair, makeup and costume and we get back on the bus. We’re out of the theater because it’s so choreographed that they don’t let you in until a certain time. So we’re standing inside of Lincoln Center, huddled around Jenna’s (Bainbridge) little phone, and we’re just watching.
AB: And then Shaina won for best score. And we lost our minds! The screams we unleashed could have been heard in Yonkers! I have no doubt. We were right outside. And then they let us in. The holding hallway that we were in, just so happened to be where Shaina’s room was. Where she was getting ready.
AB: We come down the hall. She sees us and we see her and we all just start crying. It was such a special night. And then my heel broke on stage! Which is so appropriate for me! But the whole thing was so unbelievably special and such a core memory.
DO YOU HAVE THE MOMENT YOUR HEEL BROKE IN THE TONY VIDEO?
AB: No! You don’t see it. The cameras kept moving around so much too. I was so sure that it’s all anybody was seeing!
AB: Because when that happens to you… Oh my god! I’m on national television. Everybody watches this. And I was in the center for a lot of it. But watching it back, you don’t see any of it, which I was so grateful for.
AB: When we’re coming off of the stage, I had my heel in my hand. I felt the urge say to the camera man: My heel broke! As if I had to justify whatever you saw on stage. Whatever craziness. It was my heel! Not me!
WHAT DO YOU THINK GEN Z CAN TAKE AWAY FROM THE SHOW?
AB: The takeaway might be that like the act of dissent is so inherently normal. It lives inside of all of us.
AB: When they go out and march–I don’t mean to say that the Suffs did it first, but the Suffs did it first.
AB: It was the first march on Washington that happened in 1913.
AB: The picketing and standing outside of buildings with signs? The Suffs literally did it first.
AB: It really is this beautiful cyclical thing of having the impulse to do it. You have this urge to go out and make change. It’s so natural and that is part of what makes you a human.
AB: Follow that urge. Follow that impulse.
AB: And the other thing about Gen Z too that I think millennials really struggle with, or at least this one does, is they are so good about talking about what they need.
AB: And advocating for themselves, their vocabulary. To be able to say you know what? I actually don’t like how you’re talking to me right now.
AB: My millennial brain gets anxious wondering what if somebody might not like me, or somebody might be–I can’t advocate for myself! I just had to shut up. Gen Z is so good at saying, ‘actually, bro, no, you don’t.’ We can all learn from Gen Z that it’s okay to say what you need. And there is a way to do it that doesn’t make you a douche.
AB: You can act respectably, and this generation has a good grasp and a hold on that. They grew up in the pandemic and got the short end of the stick. They’re a very good generation but I see them and ‘I’m going to get out of your way! You guys know what you’re doing!’
Editor’s note: Gen Z drives me nuts, so her being kind about it is nice!
KH: But at the same time, Beavis and Butthead is coming back and these kids are ‘Oh, my god, I’ve never seen that before! (Also, this generation could NOT handle that show or its humor.)
AB: I will say, them trying to reimplement low-rise jeans does feel like a personal attack. That’s really all I’ll say about it. That just feels so specific. I can get behind the middle part. Okay. But why are you coming for me? I’ve lived through this already and by the skin of my teeth. I’d rather not!
KH: You go to Walmart and all of the bright colors are back! We didn’t do the peace signs obviously, that came from the 70s. We stole that. But the furry things. The inflatable things?
AB: Oh, yeah. I remember those chairs. God, what a time!
WHAT IS YOUR ADVICE TO ANYONE WHO ASPIRES TO BE ON BROADWAY?
KH: To any young person–I sound old. We are young! Jesus, Kate.
AB: Oh! The biggest thing is just to lean into what makes you, you. There is such a focus on comparison. You have to sound like this person or have to do it this way. If you’re trying to emulate someone else, then you are only ever going to be a cheap imitation of that person. Why would you not spend all of your energy on making yourself the strongest version of yourself, as opposed to trying to be or sound like someone else?
AB: At the end of the day, being you is going to be what people respond to. That’s what people are going to be excited about!
AB: Honestly, I’ve never been a fan of the cookie cutter mentality anyway, just because of who I am.
AB: That was never going to be me. I was never going to be that cookie cutter persona. I’ve learned it later in my life and I wish somebody had told me this when I was starting out.
AB: Embrace yourself. Embrace what makes you weird. Jen always says, you’re never weird alone in theater.
AB: The number of times somebody will be doing a silly dance backstage and then we all do it because we’re all weird together!
AB: I love that! Also, I simultaneously received the best and the worst piece of advice in my time, which was say yes to everything. It feels like it feeds into that FOMO mentality where if I don’t say yes to this, then somebody else will. Am I losing the opportunity?
AB: The older I get, I’ve reshaped to only say yes to things that spark something inside of me. And it’s okay to turn things down. Sure, if you don’t do it, somebody else will be fantastic. Somebody else could be ready for it.
AB: For me it’s about quality over quantity, and doing things that are in alignment with you personally. And sure, sometimes you need to take the job for the paycheck. I understand that too. Yet the fastest way to get burnt out is to just say yes to every single thing.
AB: There is power in saying no. When you say no to something, it lets people know that you know what you’re doing. That you have a really good grasp on who you are and what you’re selling.If you’re saying yes to everything, even things you’re not right for, people will think that’s weird and that you don’t have a good sense of self. Whereas, if you take things that are very smart and can showcase you in the best possible way, people will think, Ah! This person knows what they’re doing and what they are bringing to the table.
AB: It’s exciting because a lot of times creative people are not very creative. They like to be told.
KH: (Me with strong leadership qualities, a boat load of ADHD and anxiety.) Exactly! They crave organization and routine!
AB: If you can make someone’s job easier by saying ‘Hi, this is what I do and I do it very well’ people will respond to that. ‘Oh, god, thank you. Thank you for not making me categorize you into something that you’re not.’ They do respond to it. Be uniquely yourself. There is power in the word no and stand firmly in who you are.
WHAT’S NEXT?
AB: Oh! I have a few projects in the mix! We’ll see what happens!
YOU CAN CATCH ALLY BONINO AS LUCY BURNS, RIGHT NOW IN “SUFFS” THE MUSICAL. PLAYING AT THE MUSIC BOX THEATRE.
Ally is represented by Rochel Saks with Saks&.
EN: Though I performed with Ally, I was never able to get to know her, because as we know–high schoolers are just trying to survive. It saddens me that this sweet, confident girl was actually getting bullied behind the scenes. I am now glad to call her my friend.
FOLLOW LORETTE ON INSTAGRAM & TWITTER

About the author: Katie Harden is a professionally repped New York-based/bi-coastal musical theater, entertainment journalist, and indie film actress. She is proudly part of the Actor’s Equity Association and frequently interviews colleagues, friends, and celebrities, along with reviewing television and movies. Find her at the bottom of a can of Arizona sweet tea or in the ocean!
Work: AMC, Tribeca, Showtime, HBO, The Emmy’s, The Walking Dead magazine, MGM, Universal, Sony Screen Gems,Bloody Disgusting, and more.
INSTAGRAM: @KATIEHARDENOFFICIAL