OH, MARY!'s Cole Escola Wins 2025 Tony Award for Best Actor in a Leading Role in a Play
Oh, Mary! is now playing at the Lyceum Theatre.
Jun. 08, 2025
Cole Escola has won the 2025 Tony Award for Best Performance by an Actor in a Leading Role in a Play for Oh, Mary!. Escola is the first nonbinary performer to win a Tony Award for Best Performance by an Actor in a Leading Role in a Play.
Cole Escola is a comedian, actor, and writer. They’ve received a Drama Desk Award, a Theatre World Award, and two Outer Critics Circle Awards for Oh, Mary! and they’re making their Broadway debut with the show. Notable TV includes: “Search Party,” “At Home with Amy Sedaris,” “Difficult People” (on which they also wrote), “Man Seeking Woman,” “Mozart in the Jungle,” and “Ziwe” (for which they were also a writer). Cole consulted on “Hacks” for HBO and also wrote for “The Other Two” for Comedy Central. They were the co-creator, writer, and star of the lo-fi cult-hit TV show “Jeffrey and Cole Casserole,” and were named one of Vanity Fair's “25 Best Performances of 2023" for their special "Our Home Out West,” and “Best Sketch Comic of 2020” by the New York Times for their special “Help! I’m Stuck!,” which they filmed alone in their apartment during quarantine. Both self-produced specials are available on YouTube.
Who knew Mary Todd Lincoln could be so funny? The first lady is the subject of Broadway's most hilarious new play- Oh, Mary! Oh, Mary! is a dark comedy about a miserable, suffocated Mary Todd Lincoln in the weeks leading up to Abraham Lincoln’s assassination. Unrequited yearning, alcoholism, and suppressed desires abound in this 80-minute one-act play that finally examines the forgotten life and dreams of Mrs. Lincoln, through the lens of an idiot (playwright Cole Escola). Escola originated the title role in the production, which is directed by Sam Pinkleton. The cast also inlcudes, Conrad Ricamora, James Scully, Bianca Leigh, and Tony Macht. The play arrives on Broadway following a sold out, twice extended world premiere run at the Lucille Lortel Theatre.
Oh Mary! Portrait Tote
Oh Mary! Logo Magnet
Oh Mary! Penny Pin
