Oh, Mary! at the Trafalgar Theatre review: a boozy glitter bomb of outrageousness

This queer Broadway hit comedy lands on the London stage like a glitter bomb of outrageousness. Cole Escola’s play imagines Mary Todd Lincoln - the wife of a certain revered, 1860s, stovepipe hat-wearing American president - as a ragingly self-obsessed, alcoholic and possibly non-binary diva. Her soon-to-be-murdered husband is fighting a war with the southern states and a losing battle against his own, barely-repressed homosexuality. It’s an absolute hoot.

The New York staging by Sam Pinkleton won armfuls of awards and has featured a string of large personalities in the lead - male, female and transgender - starting with Escola themself and including Jane Krakowski, Tituss Burgess and drag queen Jinkx Monsoon. The London version (Pinkleton is credited with the “ENTIRE PRODUCTION”) has a bravura, freewheeling, eye-rolling, ringlet-frisking turn from the non-binary actor Mason Alexander Park in the lead.