Former presidential candidate and secretary of state Hillary Clinton was greeted with a lengthy standing ovation on Sunday night after making a surprise appearance at the annual Tony Awards at Manhattan. She sang the praises of a new musical about the suffragists and cracked a joke about the 2016 election that fell largely flat among the otherwise fawning audience. 

“I have stood on a lot of stages, but this is very special, and I know a little bit about how hard it is to make change,” Mrs. Clinton said from the stage, a remark that was met with silence from the audience. 

She said “Suffs,” a show which she produced and which first premiered in April, is important for the times in which we now live. Mrs. Clinton was introducing the company behind the production before their performance of a song from the show.

The show details the fight to pass the 19th Amendment to the Constitution, which expanded the right to vote to American women. Mrs. Clinton said the play is about “some American originals — the suffragists, who fought so valiantly for so long to give women the right to vote.”

She made it clear that the musical should be a rallying cry for all who cherish the right to vote, especially women, during this election year. “It’s almost impossible to think about what a challenge that was. But now, it’s an election year, and we need to be reminded about how important it is to vote.”

The show ended up winning two Tony Awards on Sunday — best book for a musical and best original score. 

Mrs. Clinton said her own presidential campaign and decades in the public eye prepared her for creating a Broadway show. “It was kind of like preparing for a debate on the biggest stage in the world, where 90 million people are going to watch me debate,” she said. “I really could relate to that persistent professional process they were engaged in.”

Mrs. Clinton has mostly stayed out of the political spotlight in recent years, working behind the scenes with Democratic Party candidates and fundraisers instead of the typical campaign rallies. She made a recent foray into local politics when she endorsed Westchester County executive George Latimer over Congressman Jamaal Bowman.