A monumentally silly show, Oh, Mary! arrived at the Lyceum Theatre on Thursday for a 12-week Broadway engagement. Created by and starring comedian-actor-writer Cole Escola as its title figure, Oh, Mary! was a surprise hit Off Broadway earlier this year.
By now, many readers probably are aware that Escola depicts Mary Todd Lincoln as a whiskey-steeped fruitcake who’s nutty with dreams of renewing her career as a cabaret songbird.
“People traveled the world over for my short legs and long medleys,” Mary declares.
[Read Bob Verini’s ★★★★☆ review here.]
A ribald cartoon more hysterical than historical, Oh, Mary! sheds unexpected light upon the assassination of Abraham Lincoln and represents the latest generation of gender bent comical entertainment known as camp. Elder viewers reared on the comparatively subtle writing and performance style of Charles Busch are likely to find Escola’s slapdash artistry crude, but there’s no denying he snags laughs.
Skittering about in voluminous black skirts, corkscrew curls bobbing, Mary weaves and staggers around the presidential office in relentless pursuit of liquor and her ambitions to become a star. Mary’s long-suffering spouse Abraham, who describes her as “foul and hateful,” meanwhile is distracted by suppressed desires of his own and concluding the Civil War with the south.
“The south of what?” wonders self-centered Mary.
In an 80-minute series of blackout comedy scenes, Mary rejects embroidery lessons in favor of swilling paint thinner, demoralizes a genteel chaperone and soon gets entangled romantically with a hunky acting teacher, although she feels little need for his Shakespearean coaching. “There is no difference between theater and cabaret,” Mary opines. “Theater is just fewer feathers and flatter shoes.” Eventually and in spite of tragic events, Mary triumphs.
I blush to admit that Escola is an artist new to me and their charm eludes me so far. Still, it can be amusing to observe the naked ambition that drives Escola’s Mary as she blithely smashes furniture and everybody who gets in her way. This gimlet-eyed termagant’s ruthless egotism is exceeded only by her risibly woeful acting abilities when she auditions to play a role in Our American Cousin at Ford’s Theater.
It is curious how Oh, Mary! is reminiscent of those gay what-the-hell spoofs that used to pop up in downtown niteries like the basement of The Monster some forty years ago. I fondly recall seeing a musical Christmas pageant once staged there titled Jesus Christ, It’s Your Birthday! – but let’s exit gay memory lane and get back to Broadway, shall we?
While the script may be flimsy, director Sam Pinkleton’s production looks good at the Lyceum. Before the performance begins, Pinkleton establishes a rowdy mood by foreshadowing Mary’s cabaret urges with loud pre-show recordings of Ethel Merman blasting “You’re the Top,” Barbra Streisand singing live at the Bon Soir and Patti LuPone being louche at Les Mouches. Pinkleton then paces the play’s episodic silliness very neatly with the assistance of designer Cha See’s sharply cued lighting and composer Daniel Kluger’s brisk, bright piano music.
Spinning around Escola’s whirlwind of a Mary, the supporting players achieve a nice sense of spontaneity, as if they really are making up the show as it happens. Conrad Ricamora’s Lincoln desperately hangs on to his dignity until he doesn’t. James Scully cuts a dashing figure as Mary’s acting coach; Bianca Leigh looks marvelously appalled as Mary’s hapless chaperone; and Tony Macht’s rumpled little presidential aide-de-camp is not the timid pushover he appears to be.
The dots design collective initially provides a prim White House interior dominated by a pair of double doors, an imposing desk used for special executive action and a portrait of George Washington looking down upon the chaos. When Mary finally realizes her dreams, a radiant heaven of swagged golden draperies and stage fog materializes for a happy ending in song and dance, which shall go undescribed per the request of the press representatives.
Oh, Mary! opened July 11, 2024 at the Lyceum Theatre and runs through January 19, 2025. Tickets and information: ohmaryplay.com
