OH, MARY!
by Cole Escola
Directed by Sam Pinkleton
Lucille Lortel Theatre, New York City – until 12 May 2024
Lyceum Theatre, New York City – 26 June to 15 September 2024
Probably the hottest ticket in New York right now and the kind of downtown audience and critical darling upon which theatrical fortunes, legends and reputations are founded, Cole Escola’s Oh, Mary! is utterly, joyfully ridiculous. Watching it, I was reminded of the work of Charles Ludlam’s acclaimed Ridiculous Theatre Company which gleefully, and similarly, took a queer hatchet to conventional straight sensibilities and themes. Escola, as both writer and star, makes an equal impact here: this gorgeous comedy is crazed, super-smart and entirely irresistible as it rewrites American history and leaves audiences helpless with hysteria.
Escola plays Mary Todd Lincoln, yes the First Lady of Abraham, but this is neither drag nor slavish historical recreation (God forbid), although it does feature references to the Civil War. That’s as nothing though compared to the Uncivil War waged between the Lincolns: upright, repressed gay Abraham, forever eyeing up the male domestic staff when he thinks nobody’s looking, and cabaret-obsessed, easily triggered, vicious alcoholic Mary whose determination to return to the stage is outdone only by her loathing for her husband and interest in getting herself around the nearest bottle. This Mary is more than quite contrary, she’s absolutely unhinged and, as represented by Escola, entirely irresistible, even, or maybe especially, when she’s being a total nightmare.
Clad in a funereal black hoop dress and a ringleted wig that is trying so hard to be period specific but seems strangely at war with both itself and Mary’s head, Escola’s Mrs Lincoln raises malice and indignation to an art form, and their comic timing is exquisite. Amazingly, they even find some pathos in the character. When we finally get a taste of the cabaret act Mary was forced to abandon, the mirth stakes are raised even higher, I can’t remember the last time I saw people laughing that hard in a theatre. It’s all the funnier because Cole’s Mary takes herself and her art very seriously indeed.
Conrad Ricamora’s grandstanding, lecherous Lincoln is equally hilarious, which is no mean feat given what he’s up against, and James Scully is attractively manic and also tremendous fun as an acting coach engaged for Mary, and who ends up playing a bigger part in the unfolding history than you might imagine. Bianca Leigh is rather gorgeous as a chaperone with an ice cream based shame that’s never to be spoken of (which means basically that Mary can barely shut up about it) and, surprisingly, a whiskery benign barkeep. Tony Macht is the fifth member of this merry team as the assistant that President Lincoln can’t seem to get enough of.
The infamous assassination of the President at the theatre is reenacted here but with a backstory that is anything but predictable. Sam Pinkleton’s pacy production never misses a comic beat and, if its brief running time of eighty minutes leaves you wanting more, you’re unlikely to feel shortchanged, when you account for your sides and face aching from laughing. If this sometimes feels like a Saturday Night Live sketch writ large (and with more swearing) it’s undoubtedly a gloriously fun time, and Cole Escola is a magical, one-off talent. I adored it.
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