'Oh, Mary!' review — Cole Escola's hit comedy gets a bigger stage and bigger laughs
Read our review of Oh, Mary! on Broadway, written by and starring Cole Escola, now at the Lyceum Theatre after an Off-Broadway premiere this past spring.
After an acclaimed Off-Broadway run, Oh, Mary! lands on Broadway with a triumphant flourish. Playwright and star Cole Escola is practically radiant as they bring a larger-than-life version of Mary Todd Lincoln to life at the Lyceum Theatre, a venue beautiful and distinguished enough to assassinate a president in.
Escola, as Mary, is mesmerizing to watch with bouncing pin curls, whirling hoop skirt, and an angelic face that is constantly at odds with the vitriol the character spews (both literally and figuratively). Mary is intensely physical - her first entrance on stage is frantic and angry, a perfect setup for her defining character traits. She stomps around the room, swirls her enormous dress, and kicks up her skirts to reveal cartoonish white-and-red-polka-dotted bloomers more than a few times.
Mary’s perfect foil is the oh-so-stoic (or at least, trying to be) Abraham Lincoln, billed simply as “Mary’s Husband” and played with equal hilarity as a repressed gay guy by Conrad Ricamora. Abe’s melodramatic hand-wringing over the ongoing Civil War is no match for Mary’s violent tantrums and fantastic lack of awareness. (“I wish we really WERE at war!” she cries after not getting her way.)
Their character approaches are immediately obvious in their respective accents: Ricamora’s Lincoln speaks with a very manly ultra-Americanness, while Escola’s Mary is a transatlantic diva.
Together with James Scully as Mary’s handsome drama teacher, Bianca Leigh as Mary’s long-suffering chaperone, and Tony Macht as Abe’s extremely pliant assistant, the entire ensemble elevates very silly jokes into a work of art that keeps you riveted from start to finish. Suffice it to say that when the lights went up after the curtain call, my guest and I agreed we had literally laughed until our faces hurt.
Oh, Mary! summary
Fresh from its Off-Broadway run at the Lucille Lortel Theatre in the West Village this past spring, Oh, Mary! is enjoying a Broadway run that can be owed to none other than its own unexpected success. Writer Cole Escola stars as a fictionalized version of FLOTUS Mary Todd Lincoln, who has turned to alcoholism and violent outbursts to cope with the fact that her stuck-up husband is keeping her from her one true love: performing cabaret.
Desperate to keep Mary distracted from her desire for stardom, Abe Lincoln employs an acting teacher to run lines of Shakespeare with his wife. At first, it seems to be the best case scenario for everyone: Mary is busy with lessons, she falls in love with her teacher, and she’s even eyeing a return to the stage.
But when Mary realizes the men in her life will never have her best interests at heart, she decides to take matters into her own hands with a theatricality only she - and Escola - can achieve.
What to expect at Oh, Mary!
Possibly the most important thing to understand about Oh, Mary! is that almost nothing about the plot is historically accurate, nor does it strive to be. While the real-life Mary Todd Lincoln likely struggled with mental health issues, that is definitely not what is going on here. Instead, stifled by the boredom of presidency and war, Mary yearns for her former life as a “rather well-known niche cabaret legend.”
The Lyceum Theatre is almost too perfect for Oh, Mary!, with its evocation of both old-timey theatres and a bygone era of opulent cabaret. The show is a tight 80 minutes with no intermission and nearly no breaks in the volleys of jokes, which earned near-uninterrupted laughter from my audience. Bawdiness and references to alcoholism abound, as well as a cheerfully irreverent characterization of our nation’s 16th president (not to mention his wife).
What audiences are saying about Oh, Mary!
Oh, Mary! has a 91% rating from 489 reviews on Show-Score from its Off-Broadway run, putting it firmly in the “Must See” and “Audience Acclaimed” categories. The current Broadway run has an 83% rating, with only 28 posted reviews as of publication.
- “Campy queer bliss. It survived the transfer to Broadway beautifully with a perfect ensemble and a delightful, gonzo lead.” - Show-Score user JimDM
- “The play is very funny. It is also very silly and stupid.” -Show-Score user BRUCE F 7160
- “Cole Escola is [a] one kind of actor!” -Show-Score user Chatterbox
Read more audience reviews of Oh, Mary! on Show-Score.
Who should see Oh, Mary!
- Fans of Cole Escola's past projects, like their YouTube shows and HBO's Search Party, will not want to miss Oh, Mary!, in what just may be the peak of all of their work to date.
- Fans of the 2022 film Fire Island will enjoy seeing romantic leads Conrad Ricamora and James Scully take on roles in Oh, Mary! that allow them both to showcase just how wide their acting ranges can be.
- Anyone who loves irreverent, silly comedy along the lines of Monty Python or Saturday Night Live will not want to miss this show, which is probably the most irreverent, silliest show on Broadway (in the best way possible).
Learn more about Oh, Mary! on Broadway
Perhaps the best parts of Oh, Mary! are the seriously hilarious, oh-so-fitting plot twists that are just too juicy to reveal. The only way to be in the joke is to see it for yourself.
Additional Oh, Mary! content
- The real history behind Oh, Mary! on Broadway
- Video: Celebrity guests at Oh, Mary!
- Video: What audiences have been saying about Oh, Mary!
Photo credit: Oh, Mary! on Broadway. (Photos by Emilio Madrid)
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