Cole Escola’s first shot on Broadway has earned them one of the coveted prizes within the theater world.
At Sunday evening’s Tony Awards, the star of “Oh, Mary!” scored the Tony for Finest Efficiency by an Actor in a Main Function in a Play for his or her delightfully daffy depiction of Civil Struggle-era first woman Mary Todd Lincoln.
Escola accepted the award in a robe impressed by a glance worn by Broadway legend Bernadette Peters wore to the 1999 ceremony. Of their speech, they cheekily thanked a Grindr match in addition to actor-comedian Amy Sedaris, who “always reminds me how important she is to me, and she is.”
“Oh, Mary!”, a campy revisionist one-act play set within the days main as much as President Abraham Lincoln’s assassination, paints the primary woman as a petulant, puckish troublemaker who tries to drink her woes away. She yearns to go away the White Home to change into a cabaret star.
Theo Wargo/Getty Pictures for Tony Awards Productions
Final month, Escola, who was not solely the lead of “Oh, Mary!” but additionally penned the crowd-pleaser, advised NPR how they associated to the primary woman and her offbeat ambitions.
“This play is about a woman with a dream that no one around her understands. A dream that the whole world is telling her is stupid and doesn’t make any sense. And I feel that way.”
Escola additionally advised NPR how they started imagining the idea over a decade in the past throughout their early days in New York’s cabaret and alt comedy scenes.
“I had the thought: What if Abraham Lincoln’s assassination wasn’t such a bad thing for Mary Todd?” they recalled. “And it was just an idea that tickled me so much.”
“Oh, Mary!” formally got here to life when it debuted off-Broadway in January 2024. After rave critiques prolonged its run a number of occasions, the present made its approach to the theater world’s principal drag in Manhattan that June.
Michael Loccisano by way of Getty Pictures
Escola took a break from taking part in Mary Todd in January, handing off the function to Betty Gilpin (“GLOW”) and Tituss Burgess.
The “Difficult People” actor stepped again into the primary woman’s footwear for a short run in early April earlier than passing the torch again to Burgess for a restricted six-week engagement, which can start June 23.
With their win, Escola turns into the primary overtly nonbinary performer to earn a Tony Award of their class, and for a task they authored themselves.
In 2022, British composer Toby Marlow and producer JJ Maley turned the first-ever nonbinary folks to earn Tony Awards.
Marlow gained for his or her work on the musical “Six,” whereas Maley was one of many producers of “A Strange Loop,” the 2023 winner for greatest musical.
Performers Sara Ramírez and KO each gained Tonys in the very best actress in a musical class earlier than popping out as nonbinary.
