Nonbinary Writer-Star of Broadway's 'Oh, Mary!' Can't Believe Show's Success

Less historical than hysterical, "Oh, Mary!" reimagines Mary Todd Lincoln as "an alcoholic aspiring cabaret singer married to this closeted gay guy who's trying to end the Civil War," as Variety summarizes the show.

It seems an unlikely recipe for a runaway Broadway success. However, the entertainment news outlet noted, the show has broken box office records for the venerable Lyceum Theater, one of the oldest on Broadway. Variety noted that "Oh, Mary!" is "the first [show] at the Lyceum to gross over $1 million weekly" – an impressive result even if prices for some tickets approach $400.

Nonbinary writer-star Cole Escola can't believe the smash hit the Broadway play has become. Saying they felt like they were "in the eye of a hurricane," Escola told Variety, "The only way I can wrap my head around it is by pretending I'm looking back on it from 20 years in the future."

But the play is a success in other ways, as well, including with celebrity theatergoers (Variety mentioned Jennifer Aniston and Daniel Day-Lewis).

Then there's what Diane Sawyer told Escola. The former news anchor said "that she learned something about the former first lady after seeing the play," Variety relayed.

"I made some stupid joke, like, 'Oh yeah, it's very historically accurate,'" Escola recalled. "She was like, 'No, I learned something about her emotional life.'"

"I almost broke down in tears," the writer-director went on to add. "It means a lot to me when anyone sees there's heart in the show apart from it being funny."

"Of course, Escola's slightly demented, unabashedly queer sense of humor is exactly what turned 'Oh, Mary!' into a cult favorite," Variety posited, before adding that Escola "has refined [that sense of humor] in YouTube videos – where they parody Bernadette Peters and suburban moms – as well as television shows like 'Difficult People' and 'Search Party.'"

Escola disclosed that starring in the twice-extended show has been an exhausting proposition, but added, "On nights when I'm like, 'I don't know if I can get through it,' as soon as I hear the audience when I'm backstage, I get excited to tell them the story."

Then, there's the attraction of taking the show to audiences abroad.

"I want to go to London and let them decide if I am any good or not," Variety quoted Escola saying. The theatermaker added, jokingly, "New York is too soft."

Then again, zippy humor and bold storytelling seem right up the Big Apple's avenue. The show's wholesale reinvention of history is one of its selling points, not to mention how it leans into Abraham Lincoln's supposed homosexuality – a subject that has been of increasing interest recently, with 2024 seeing both a documentary ("Lover of Men") and a feature ("Lavender Men") tackle that theme.

Part of the zeitgeist that it may be, the show defies easy categorization, Variety noted, and Escola seemed to agree.

"If I were to call it a farce or a screwball comedy, I feel like actual scholars of comedy would be like, 'There's not a single door slam, you idiot!'" the playwright mused, according to Variety. "I would call it ... a dirty limerick."