It happened. And it is happening.

What happened on Wednesday was the announcement that Jenna Bainbridge, once a longtime performer with Denver’s disability-affirmative Phamaly Theatre Company, has been cast in the newly announced Broadway musical “Suffs” – short for “Suffragist.”

And what’s happening when “Suffs” opens at the Music Box Theatre on April 18 is history. Not only will Bainbridge make her Broadway debut, she will become the first wheelchair user to originate a role in a Broadway musical. Ever.

And she will become just the second wheelchair user to appear in a Broadway musical, period. The first was Ali Stroker, who won a Tony Award playing Ado Annie, “the girl who cain’t say no” in a 2019 revival of “Oklahoma!“

“Ali did it first – now let’s open the floodgates for many more,” Bainbridge wrote on her Instagram page. “I certainly hope this helps to pave the way for many more disabled (actors) to perform on Broadway and to see themselves represented fully on stages around the world.”

In September 2022, Denver actor Regan Linton became just the fourth wheelchair-using actor to be cast in a Broadway production, as an understudy in “Cost of Living.” That’s a Pulitzer-winning play that will be separately presented by Denver’s Curious Theatre, in partnership with Phamaly, from March 16-April 20).

“As a little kid performing at Phamaly, I honestly never thought that this could happen for me, and to be here now is a dream come true,” Bainbridge told The Denver Gazette. “Especially just a year after Regan came out to do ‘Cost of Living.’ There are so many Denver kids on Broadway now, and none of us would be here without the community we grew up in.”

Linton is a former artistic director at Phamaly, as is Steve Wilson, who has directed both Bainbridge and Linton many times over the years. He said the duo’s Broadway ascension is an affirmation of what the founders of Phamaly had in mind back in 1989.

“This is something I always felt was possible – but I didn’t know the world was ready for it,” said Wilson. “The fact that the world is ready to embrace Jenna and Regan makes me hopeful for the future of the world – as well as the future of the American theater.

“There are very few humans who deserve this more than Jenna does. She is incredibly talented, a hard worker and a quality human being.”

Bainbridge is an “ambulant wheelchair user” – a term that refers to individuals who are disabled and use wheelchairs but are capable of walking in some circumstances. Bainbridge walks – and often performs – with a noticeable gait due to a spinal-cord injury as a baby. Her condition is called transverse myelitis, a neurological disorder of the spine. Bainbridge has had a wheelchair for her personal life since she was 15, and is using it onstage for “Suffs.”

Wilson gets misty just thinking back to Bainbridge’s 2010 performance as booksmart Belle in Phamaly’s “Beauty and the Beast,” which culminated in a big, sweeping waltz between Belle and the hideous monster. The moment was conceived to be an expression of pure human perfection. And not in spite of the gait. Because of it.

“Jenna redefined how I view beauty and movement in that moment,” said Wilson. “There is no single human dancing that I find to be more beautiful than simply watching the way Jenna moves.”

“Suffs,” written by (and starring) cast member Shaina Taub, tells real stories of the American women’s suffrage movement leading to the passage of the 19th Amendment in 1920. A year ago, “Suffs” was a developing musical that premiered at the famed Public Theatre, which birthed “Hamilton” but is considered an off-Broadway house.   

Bainbridge, a graduate of Castle View High School in Castle Rock and the University of Denver’s Lamont School of Music, plays 12 ever-changing characters in “Suffs.”

“This track is so unique,” she said. “I am playing entirely non-disabled roles, understudying for non-disabled performers, and getting to create a track as an ambulatory wheelchair user –  walking and rolling through this gorgeous production, something that we have yet to see much representation of anywhere in media and performance.”

She credits her Broadway success to her roots in Denver with Phamaly.

“The world had told me that my disability was something to be ashamed of and something to hide,” she said in a previous interview. “Phamaly taught me that is complete bull. Phamaly taught me that my disability is a part of me, and is something beautiful that should be embraced and celebrated and showcased.

“Phamaly gave me the confidence to say, ‘Yes, I have a disability, and I’m a great actor – and those two things are not mutually exclusive. This is who I am, full picture, full stop.’”

It’s going to be a wild ride.