"Oh, Mary!" may be Broadway's most unlikely offering this season, a wildly over-the-top, not-at-all historically accurate look at first lady Mary Todd Lincoln, written by and starring Cole Escola.Abraham Lincoln: "For God's sake, Mary! How would it look for the first lady of the United States to be flitting about a stage right now in the ruins of war?"Mary Todd Lincoln: "How would it look? Sensational!!"It's a broad comedy about Mary's secret passion of becoming a cabaret star.Meanwhile, her husband, Abe, is just wrapping up the Civil War, and is more concerned with keeping the country together.Abraham Lincoln: "No! It's inappropriate! We're at war!"Mary Todd Lincoln: "With who?"Abraham Lincoln: "The south!"Mary Todd Lincoln: "Of what?"It's not a revival, it has no movie stars ("Well, speak for yourself, Mo!"), and it's a smash hit, breaking box office records.
What does that say? "Inflation is high," Escola laughed.Escola came up with the idea in 2009: "I sent an email to myself that said, 'What if Abraham Lincoln's assassination wasn't such a bad thing for Mary Todd?' You know, like, Mary's starting over.
Like, 'Now I'm single.I can date.' You know?"But this fever dream Mary remained just a dream for years.
"I loved this idea so much, I didn't want it to get on paper and for it to disappoint me – to disappoint me, not just the audience, but, like, me," Escola said."There are certain ideas that you're just like, 'Oh, I don't wanna plant this seed, because what if it's an ugly flower?'"Escola eventually wrote the play.
"Oh, Mary!" opened to rapturous reviews downtown, quickly moved uptown to Broadway, and just this week earned five Tony nominations, including two for 38-year-old Escola (for best play and best actor).It's all a long way from rural Oregon, where Escola was raised.
The family had little money, with a Vietnam veteran father, Escola says, who suffered from mental illness."When I was maybe five years old, my father ch...