‘Oh, Mary!’ Broadway Star Cole Escola Would ‘Love’ for Pedro Pascal or Tituss Burgess to Replace Them as Mary Todd Lincoln in the Hit Comedy
variety.comMarc Malkin Senior Editor, Culture and Events Cole Escola, the 37-year-old star and writer of the hit Off Broadway farce ”Oh, Mary!,” isn’t letting fame get to their head. (Escola identifies as nonbinary and uses they/them pronouns.) When they’re a few minutes late to a Zoom interview for Just for Variety, they explain it’s because they were busy installing an air conditioner in their apartment. “Yes, I put it in myself,” Escola says. “I’m going to Broadway, but I’m still a person.” A person who has become the toast of New York theater circles, Escola’s outrageous drag performance centers on boozy, sex-starved wannabe cabaret singer Mary Todd Lincoln, who is cooped up in the White House as her boy-crazy husband, Abraham Lincoln, is trying to end the Civil War. “Oh, Mary!” was the hottest ticket in town throughout its five-month run at the Lucille Lortel Theatre.
The play isn’t revisionist history — it’s completely made-up history. However, I admit to Escola that I googled Honest Abe’s widow after seeing the show because I wasn’t sure what might be real. “Oh, wow.
I hadn’t even considered that,” says Escola, whom television audiences know from “Difficult People,” “Search Party” and “At Home With Amy Sedaris.” ”That I might actually be tricking people into thinking like, ‘Wait a minute — did she want to be a cabaret star?’ Oh, God!” Next up, Escola wants to get back to writing. “I would love to write something that I’m not in and just be in a rehearsal room as a writer,” they say. “But I love theater.
Read more on variety.com