Review: Oh, Mary!
@ Trafalgar Theatre until April 25th 2026
Director: Sam Pinkleton
Writer: Cole Escola
Cast: Mason Alexander Park, Kate O’Donnell, Oliver Stockley, Dino Fetscher & Giles Terera
Finally arriving in London, Cole Escola’s Tony Award-winning smash hit Oh, Mary! is currently in residence at the Trafalgar Theatre. Telling the story of the assassination of Abraham Lincoln through the eyes of his wife, Mary Todd Lincoln, Escola’s play is a tasteless, offensive, preposterous spoof, rich in farce and low humour, that slaughters sacred cows by the dozen and turns history on its head in the most ludicrous, homoerotic fashion. In other words, it is the quintessential antidote to MAGAland, which it never parodies or repudiates by name or cultural reference but nonetheless repels by its very existence.
With a runtime of just 80 minutes, the action of Oh, Mary! is condensed into a series of increasingly absurdist vignettes. Mary - a temperamental lush with no respect for the office she unwillingly holds - is in a loveless marriage to Abraham, who is trying to win a war against the South (“of where!?” cries Mary, bemused) while battling with… “doubts” of his own. In order to quell her rage and permanent state of drunkenness, Abraham employs an actor to give Mary lessons so that she might one day perform on stage in a real theatre, as opposed to performing in cabaret, which she loves but he professes to find vulgar. Before long, their journey takes them to a production of Our American Cousin at Ford’s Theatre, and the rest, as they say, is his herstory.
The MVP here is, of course, Mason Alexander Park as Mary. Having been the highlight of both of Jamie Lloyd’s Shakespeare adaptations last year - a low bar, admittedly - Park relishes this opportunity to lead with a performance that is frenetic, exaggerated and perfectly suited to the farcical material. Stalking and stomping around the stage in a huge black dress like some grotesque, gothic entity straight from the pages of an Edgar Allan Poe story, they portray Mary Todd Lincoln as a shrieking, horny, violent alcoholic who despises her husband and is hopelessly untalented, despite her ambitions. From the very beginning, Park’s Mary is crude and cruel, and Park plays it with just the right level of callous humour. Their character is detestable, yet Park also manages to demonstrate real pathos, portraying her sympathetically and tenderly when needed.
The rest of the cast are excellent too, and everyone pitches it just right. Giles Terera’s Lincoln is manipulative, conniving and deeply conflicted, and his arguments with Park are a real treat. The beautiful Dino Fetscher, who plays Mary’s teacher, oozes an almost sickly charm, and delivers one of the play’s standout moments in a sequence in a tavern towards the end of the play, while Kate O’Donnell is hilarious as Mary’s downtrodden, endlessly belittled chaperone Louise, who spends most of the play vainly trying to rein in Mary’s excesses. Together, the ensemble take one of the most consequential moments in world history and turn it into a Rabelasian pantomime, and the effect is an absolute joy.
There is an obviousness and crassness to the humour that might appal some and bore others, and neither Escola’s script nor Pinkleton’s production show any regard for tedious little things like subtext or subtlety. This, ultimately, is the gag, and your enjoyment of the show will depend on the extent to which this bothers you. Personally, I found it thoroughly entertaining, though I don’t for a second question why some might find the whole thing intolerable.
Score: ⭐⭐⭐⭐
Click here for another perspective from a friend who saw the show with me.