Oh, Mary! – an ‘irreverent, counter-historical’ delight

Cole Escola’s comedy about the life of Mary Todd Lincoln has been a smash hit in New York, said Dominic Cavendish in The Telegraph. A “knowingly bogus” portrait of the former US first lady as a volatile dipsomaniac and frustrated cabaret star, the show has been running on Broadway since June 2024, and has won two Tonys. Now “Oh, Mary!” has arrived in London, and it deserves the same success here.

It’s more “snappy lark” than history lesson, and it’s no “Hamilton”. But its “transgressive charge” is laced with a truth about the necessity of self-expression, and as the pale-faced, rouge-cheeked protagonist, the brilliant American actor Mason Alexander Park “gives the funniest performance in town”.

This unashamedly silly show “won’t be to everyone’s taste”, said Sarah Crompton on WhatsOnStage. But it is “absolutely and uniquely itself, an irreverent, counter-historical delight”. Park is an impressive comedic performer, “pinging around the room like a human special effect”, said Andrzej Lukowski in Time Out. But after all the US critics described “laughing so hard” during the show they suffered life-changing injuries, I was taken aback by its “broad, dated” Benny Hill-style humour. The actors play it with conviction, and there’s some fine physical comedy. But the central conceit – that Abraham Lincoln was a closeted gay man, and his wife a “borderline feral” narcissist – is just not that funny, or interesting.

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I sat stony-faced through “the whole sorry fandango”, said Arifa Akbar in The Guardian. Featuring “‘American Pie’-levels of puerile humour”, and going for the kind of “low-hanging fruit that Kenny Everett’s team might have rejected”, the show feels long at 80 minutes. Others in the audience seemed to be relishing the high jinks, but where was the “story, character, wit or wonder”? I’m not opposed to camp fun, said Clive Davis in The Times. I absolutely loved “Titanique”, for instance. But “Oh, Mary!” is just infantile. “A clown is in the White House, and this show is riding high on Broadway. Can things get any madder?”

Trafalgar Theatre, London SW1. Until 26 April