Oh, my! Mary Todd Lincoln is a drunken wannabe cabaret star! Her husband Abraham, the 16th US president, is a closet homosexual! And her acting tutor – also Abraham’s ex – is a hunk in tight breeches who might have wandered off the set of a 70s porn film! They all variously swear, sing and engage in acts of sexual desperation!
Oh, why, when Cole Escola’s play comes garlanded from Broadway for its send-up of the 19th-century first couple, did this critic sit with a frozen face through the whole sorry fandango? Billed as an uproarious black comedy about Mary’s life and times in the lead-up to Abraham’s assassination, the original production starred Escola as Mary. This transfer features Mason Alexander Park as the obstreperous lush, with Giles Terera as her civil war-fielding husband.
