Oh, Mary!

About This Event

Cole Escola's own pitch for the premise: what if Lincoln's assassination wasn't actually such a bad thing for Mary Todd? They worked backward from there — what might she have secretly wanted, landing on "the stupidest possible thing she could've wanted," which turned out to be a cabaret career. Escola wrote it, and originated the role, imagining a miserable, suffocated Mary Todd scheming her way out of the White House and into a spotlight of her own.

It opened on Broadway in 2024 and broke box office records at the Lyceum Theatre, which is a strange outcome for a show built around a joke that specific. It also picked up a 2025 Pulitzer Prize finalist nod for Drama, a Drama Desk Award, a Theatre World Award, two Outer Critics Circle Awards, and an Obie — a real sweep for something that started as an off-Broadway curiosity.

At the 2025 Tony Awards it won two: Best Leading Actor in a Play for Escola (the first openly non-binary performer to win the category, beating a field that included George Clooney) and Best Direction of a Play for Sam Pinkleton. This touring stop follows Maybe Happy Ending into the same CIBC Theatre slot, making January 2027 an unusually stacked month for that one stage.