It seems to happen less and less, but every so often, the stars still align. The puzzle pieces of the universe fit perfectly together. A witch’s dusty spellbook — trapped in the highest tower of the oldest castle — flies open all on its own, turning its pages to an old incantation said to make everything okay again, if only for a few moments. With that, the die is cast, destiny is in motion and Mary Todd Lincoln gets her long-awaited Tony for her cabaret prowess.
Or, rather, her second Tony, as “Oh, Mary!” scribe and star Cole Escola so studiously noted as they accepted their Tony for best actor in a play at Sunday’s Tony Awards ceremony. “Julie Harris has a Tony for playing Mary Todd Lincoln,” Escola said as they started their speech, paying reverence to the stage legend’s 1972 play, “The Last of Mrs. Lincoln.” But in Escola’s relatively short time in their first starring role on Broadway, they’ve become something of a legend themself. “Oh, Mary!” is Escola’s debut on Broadway proper, after a throng of smaller (though no less hysterical) off-Broadway and independent cabaret and solo shows, and the play was a hit within minutes of its first preview’s curtain-raise in January 2024. The show imagines Mary Todd Lincoln as a hard-drinking, boisterous, wannabe cabaret star, beleaguered by her marriage to what Escola imagines is an obviously gay president. It’s not so much laugh-a-minute as it is laugh-a-second. When I saw the play during its initial off-Broadway run at Manhattan’s Lucille Lortel Theater in March 2024, the sold-out house practically shook with thunderous applause during the cast’s final bows.
