Oh Mary! review, Trafalgar Theatre – Hysterical, captivating Broadway smash arrives in London

The historical record is pretty divided on what kind of woman Mary Todd was. Was she a gracious Southern belle who staunchly supported her husband, President Abraham Lincoln? A gauche, crude upstart who embarrassed him in fine company? Or a wanton spendthrift who nearly bankrupted the White House with Trump levels of interior design extravagance? Who knows? But what she almost certainly wasn’t is anything resembling the nightmarish, clownish, puerile star of Cole Escola’s hysterically ahistorical comedy Oh Mary! This Broadway hit takes a sideways look at one of the most famous chapters of North American history – and unlike Hamilton, it sticks its tongue out and waggles it, too.

This imaginary version of Mary is a captivating creation – melodramatic, childish, and monstrously self-absorbed. In New York, she was played by Drag Race star Jinkx Monsoon. Here, non-binary actor Mason Alexander Park plays the part with the dark energy of a crinolined poltergeist, their black ringlets bobbing as they smash up Lincoln’s presidential office in search of forbidden gin. As Lincoln, Giles Terera is her subtler, sleeker adversary, wittily capturing the hypocrisy of a powerful man who wanted to marry an interesting woman – then make her life as dull as possible. He’s consumed by the civil war he dragged the country into. But Mary’s waging a battle of her own, fighting against the tedious chore of being a dignified first lady. She’s hellbent on returning to her boozy glory days as a cabaret star, and she doesn’t see why a little thing like the country being in ruins should stand in her way.

Escola’s writing fizzes with confidence and brash, crude wit in this play’s early scenes. The stage is Mary’s playground, and it’s a delight to watch her make mischief. There’s an unexpected tenderness to the way this lonely woman cradles a tasselled velvet cushion like a doll (even if there is a bottle of booze lurking inside it). And a jarring darkness to the scene where she slurps down a bucket of... well, let’s leave that one to the imagination. The total blackouts between scenes feel like a mic drop, the uproarious audience laughter clashing with melodramatic Victorian-style piano chords that dare us to take this story seriously.

Oh Mary! is full of queer, subversive and very silly twists that it would be a shame to spoil. But if there’s a message to this frivolous creation, it’s that repressed things turn into monsters that emerge from the shadows to destroy your whole life. Mary is kept from expressing herself, so she turns into a twisted creature hell-bent on revenge. And the harder Lincoln tries to keep his own private life a secret, the higher the stakes become when the truth finally outs.

It’s easy to see why Oh Mary! has delighted Broadway audiences. Escola’s play basically sits in a genre of its own, one that mixes the farcical humour of am-dram classics like Charley’s Aunt with the disturbing queer energy of early John Waters films. Its initial energy peters out, a little, towards the end of its short 80-minute runtime, with a glitzy finale that feels dangerously close to showboating. But isn’t that Mary’s prerogative? Like a drag queen milking her turn for every last drop of laughter, this fabulous confection has earned our attention.