Review: Oh, Mary!

Cast of Oh, Mary!

I admit, I’m a bit late to the party on this one! Cole Escola’s absolutely deranged farce, Oh, Mary!, is every bit as campy and hilarious as everyone says. Retelling the story of former First Lady Mary Todd Lincoln “through the lens of an idiot,” as Escola has said, this show characterizes her as a raging drunk and a former cabaret star. After receiving almost unanimous praise when it premiered off-Broadway at the Lucille Lortel Theatre in the spring of 2024, Oh, Mary! transferred to Broadway’s Lyceum later that June, where it continued to be a critical and popular success. After several extensions and replacement stars, I was finally lucky enough to catch it earlier this month and had a blast. 

The whole idea for this show is, for lack of more descriptive words, insane. Escola’s masterful comedic writing, paired with a razor-sharp cast of comedic masterminds onstage, led to a truly delightful evening. The humor is so overtly broad and over-the-top, often playing on Mary’s lack of knowledge of the world around her, specifically her lack of understanding of the American Civil War (“the South of what?”). Yet the script is still clever and witty, a mark of a good playwright, leaving moments when the audience needed a half-second longer to fully get a joke. So much of the humor also relies on physical gags, most notably Mary’s enormous hoop skirt, which made fitting through doors rather tricky. 

Starring as Mary Todd Lincoln at my performance was Jinkx Monsoon. She was an absolute charm, even after a few early moments of continuous screaming that initially grated on my eardrums, and she quickly endeared the audience to this delightfully detestable character. Monsoon, whom I saw last summer in Pirates! at Roundabout, was in a much better-suited role here, focused on straight-up comedy and involving far less singing. Oh, Mary! offers a script that perfectly showcases the full extent of her comedic chops. Nearly all of her lines landed beautifully, and her interactions, especially with her chaperone, Louise (Hannah Solow, at my performance), as well as her madcap medley at the end, were just the icing on the cake.

Oh, Mary! at the Lyceum Theatre

John Andrew Morrison was equally fantastic as President Abraham Lincoln. The former president is now reframed as a gay man struggling to manage his unruly wife while conducting two affairs: one with his assistant (Tony Macht) and another with the man he hires to give Mary acting lessons (Julian Manjerico), who may or may not be named John Wilkes Booth. Manjerico was, in my view, the standout of the cast. First appearing as Mary’s acting teacher and later revealing his affair with Lincoln, he pulled off an impressive shift into flamboyance, complete with plenty of sass.

Under the direction of Sam Pinkleton, who won a Tony alongside Escola last summer for Oh, Mary!, the production might have seemed like a tough sell for a broad audience. It satirizes a presidential assassination, has no historical connections beyond a few names and very loose references, and shows little concern for deeper meanings (or “subtext”) beyond what plays out onstage. Still, it has remained one of Broadway’s hottest tickets, thanks in part to excellent casting choices, not just for Mary, but across the ensemble. Rotating performers keep the show fresh and exciting, encouraging audiences to return a second, third, or even fourth time, and I would be eager to see how another performer’s take on Mary compares to Jinkx’s.

So, who would like this show? That’s the question, and I think the answer is “almost anyone.” Yes, it’s a lot, and perhaps a little jarring to see, say, with a parent. But, it really is a ton of fun, and as long as you are not expecting a shred of historical accuracy, you will enjoy some part of Oh, Mary!. What lingers most isn’t any specific gag or performance, but the sheer audacity of the whole production and how confidently it commits to its own ridiculousness. It’s a reminder that Broadway still has room for shows that exist purely to entertain and bewilder, courtesy of a “rather well-known niche cabaret legend.”

4.5/5 stars

80 minutes, no intermission

Lyceum Theatre