The sensational ‘Oh, Mary!’ proves you can’t predict a Broadway hit
Something I would have never predicted five years ago: One of Broadway’s hottest shows is a rip-roaring comedy about Mary Todd Lincoln, the wife of assassinated President Abraham Lincoln.
And yet, last week “Oh, Mary!,” the brilliant new play written by and starring Cole Escola, grossed a massive $1,054,998 — setting a record for the century-old Lyceum Theatre and besting 10 musicals, including “Six” and “& Juliet.”
After reading the news, an industry pro texted me one word: “Woah.”
Warped and wacky, “Oh, Mary!” has nothing that, we’re told over and over again like gospel, is needed for success on the Great White Way today: A-List stars, popular songs and a familiar title. None of that.
Instead of kowtowing to that cynical rubric, the show ticks the boxes of hilarity, edge and unrestrained creativity.
In my review, I gave it four stars.
My friend Cindy Adams, another outspoken fan, wrote that the 90-minute sprint is thankfully not the same “three-hour drama we’ve seen 12 times while desperately needing the can.”
A producer of major musicals told me the first-lady farce is a boon for Broadway.
“It’s wonderful that these fresh, original ideas come from left field and are not created by money or producing clout — just the right people being passionate about something else no one would think of and doing it in a totally unique and fresh way,” he said.
Looking back, isn’t that the genesis of most Broadway hits — the Midtown meat that has sustained Times Square and its businesses for decades?
“A Chorus Line” in 1975 experimentally turned dancers’ candid interview recordings into an electrically choreographed and sung confessional. It ran 15 years.
In 1996’s “Rent,” Jonathan Larson took the tale of Puccini’s opera “La Boheme,” reset it to rock and twisted the story to be about the struggles of his artist friends in the East Village.
That one ran 12 years.
“South Park” boys Matt Stone and Trey Parker’s “The Book of Mormon” — now that does have title recognition! — is filthy and foul-mouthed while wrestling with complex religious ideas — and still overflows with heart and classic showbiz panache. (Thirteen years so far.)
And for the past nine years, Lin-Manuel Miranda’s “Hamilton,” an R&B and hip-hop history of Alexander Hamilton, has made sexy a founding father people previously didn’t ponder much (except, of course, at The New York Post, the newspaper he founded).
Even the British mega-musicals aren’t obvious winners on paper: “The Phantom of the Opera” (the main character’s a creepy stalker); “Les Miserables” (a winding, 1400-page French novel); “Cats” (need I say more?).
“Oh, Mary!,” which just extended through November, won’t be any of those.
It’s a play, and plays never run decades. Two years would be impressive.
Heartening to me, however, is that Escola’s “Oh, Mary!” is a new non-musical comedy — a genre many had all but left for dead — that was born and raised downtown at the Lucille Lortel Theatre here in New York.
And now, on any given week, it’s one of Broadway’s biggest draws.
I repeat: A farce about Mary Todd Lincoln!
One source described succinctly what “Oh, Mary!” has in common with all of New York’s greatest hits.
“In lesser, tasteless hands the same idea could have been a disaster.”
