NEW YORK – Oh Mary! on Broadway at the Lyceum Theatre
For starters, the horse is out of the barn and halfway to the Northern Forty when the curtain goes up on “Oh Mary!” created by and starring Cole Escola.
Just in case you Have been living under a rock for the past few months, there are announcements and quotes a-plenty showering down upon you from every angle. Beginning with “The Greatest Play of The Generation” and continuing on with “You’ll Be Losing Your Mind With Joy” – I don’t know who penned the first, nor do I know what “The Generation” means. The second is from our very own New York Times and is self-explanatory.
Palm fronds abound. They are well deserved.
I say all of this to underscore that watching this play is a little like catching a ride on a runaway stagecoach – with no less than six horses. There are some serious twists and turns (the press people have requested we give nothing away in terms of the plot) that leave your head spinning, and the speed with which the tale unravels leaves a person little time to laugh. I myself did not laugh once. I was too busy admiring the script and every element of this production.
Playbill quotes Escola as saying that the Mary we see is based on a “Third-grade knowledge of the historical figure.” Lucky for us it stops at that level. If the grade went up any higher, Escola would have us turning our mental wheels. With “Oh, Mary!” there is no time for thought. There are only the fleeting opening moments during which we leap on board.
We see immediately that Mary is a self-absorbed and suffocated woman whose only fun is to drink whiskey (perhaps with a paint-thinner chaser), and these bouts leave her exploding with possibilities.
The fact that her husband is the President is of little interest. Ditto that pesky war everyone is talking about. Who is it that’s at war, and what does it have to do with her? WHY is she not being released from the box of a home where she is more or less held prisoner?
Mary will stop at nothing to secure her release. She will take up painting (no success there). She will study with a tutor (no success here either). What she will not do is give up her dream of escaping the White House and returning to a life she loved. The facts are incidental and not to be taken seriously. The only thing to be taken seriously is the wild ride that Mary creates for herself. Damn the torpedoes and full speed ahead.
Escola has created a Mary who is Scarlett O’Hara on uppers. This Mary is at the center of her own universe, and everyone else is a tiny planet orbiting around her. Each of the characters listed in the program is identified in relation to Mary (one of the many smart moves in this production): “Mary’s Husband (Conrad Ricamora), Mary’s Teacher (James Scully), Mary’s Chaperone (Bianca Leigh), Mary’s Husbands Assistant (Tony Macht)”.
We travel at such a dizzying pace that the audience barely notices when there is a lull in the action. We have been riding so high that when the story sags, we remain bodies in motion and hurtle past the dip to catch up to the plot when it looms upward into our path and pirouettes into a whizz-bang conclusion.
Escola and this exquisite cast have created a Neverland that rivals anything J.M. Barrie created. With hoop skirts, top hats, and cravats fully secured, they invite us to leave our seats and follow Peter Pan’s travel instructions given to Wendy: “Second star to the right and straight on till morning.” Barrie continues – “but even birds, carrying maps and consulting them at windy corners, could not have sighted it with these instructions.”
Thank goodness Mary knows the way.
PS The gown goes with. She is not giving up that puppy.
Oh, Mary! On Broadway
Written by and starring Cole Escola
Directed by Sam Pinkleton
WITH Cole Escola as Mary Too Lincoln, Conrad Ricamora as Mary’s Husband, James Scully as Mary’s Teacher, Bianca Leigh as Mary’s Chaperone, and Tony Macht as Mary’s Husband’s Assistant, dots (Scenic Designer), Holly Pierson (Costume Designer), Cha See (Lighting Designer), Daniel Kluger (Sound Design and Original Music), Drew Levy (Sound Designer), Leah J. Loukas (Wig Designer), Addison Heeren (Props Supervision), and David Dabbon (Musical Arrangements). Casting by Henry Russell Bergstein, CSA. Original Gowns for Cole Escola by Astor Yang.
At the Lyceum Theatre
49 West 45th Street
New York, NY
Runs through September 15, 2024. 80 minutes running time. TICKETS
Readers may also enjoy our reviews of The Journals of Adam & Eve: The World’s First Love Story, The Edge of Nature at La Mama, Empire the Musical at New World Stages, If These Wigs Could Talk by Panti Bliss at the Irish Arts Center, and Elevator Repair Service Ulysses,
