Cole Escola‘s unconventional smash “Oh, Mary!” has recouped its entire production costs on Broadway. The play, capitalized at $4.5 million, is the first show of the 2024-25 season to do so.
After a sold-out, twice-extended run at downtown Manhattan’s Lucille Lortel Theatre, “Oh, Mary!” transferred to Broadway’s Lyceum Theatre on July 11. The deranged comedy became the inaugural show in the theater’s 121-year history to gross more than $1 million in a single week. It has broken its own box office record nine times, most recently for the week ending on Nov. 24 with $1.225 million. This production was slated to conclude on Sept. 15 but has been extended through Jan. 19.
Written by and starring Escola, “Oh, Mary!” follows a miserable, suffocated Mary Todd Lincoln in the weeks leading up to the 16th president’s assassination. As the official logline teases, “Unrequited yearning, alcoholism and suppressed desires abound in this one-act play that finally examines the forgotten life and dreams of Mrs. Lincoln through the lens of an idiot.”
As that not-entirely-interested-in-facts description suggests, the play is silly, purposefully stupid and tough for even Escola to categorize: “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!’ I would call it … a dirty limerick,” they joked to Variety earlier this fall.
“Oh, Mary!” runs at a brisk 80 minutes and has played to rave reviews during its Off Broadway and Broadway stint. It continues to bring in starry crowds with recent attendees including the likes of Tom Hanks, Anne Hathaway, Andrew Garfield, Anna Wintour, Jennifer Aniston, Madonna, Daniel Day-Lewis and Steven Spielberg.
Sam Pinkleton directed “Oh, Mary!” which also stars 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. Producers include Kevin McCollum, Lucas McMahon, Mike Lavoie and Carlee Briglia.
