Cole Escola’s first shot on Broadway has earned them one of the most coveted prizes in the theater world.
At Sunday night’s Tony Awards, the star of “Oh, Mary!” scored the Tony for Best Performance by an Actor in a Leading Role in a Play for their delightfully daffy depiction of Civil War-era first lady Mary Todd Lincoln.
Escola accepted the award in a gown inspired by a look worn by Broadway legend Bernadette Peters wore to the 1999 ceremony. In their speech, they cheekily thanked a Grindr match as well as 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 in the days leading up to President Abraham Lincoln’s assassination, paints the first lady as a petulant, puckish troublemaker who tries to drink her woes away. She yearns to leave the White House to become a cabaret star.
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Last month, Escola, who was not only the lead of “Oh, Mary!” but also penned the crowd-pleaser, told NPR how they related to the first lady 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 also told NPR how they began imagining the concept over a decade ago during 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!” officially came to life when it debuted off-Broadway in January 2024. After rave reviews extended its run several times, the show made its way to the theater world’s main drag in Manhattan that June.
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Escola took a break from playing Mary Todd in January, handing off the role to Betty Gilpin (“GLOW”) and Tituss Burgess.
The “Difficult People” actor stepped back into the first lady’s shoes for a brief run in early April before passing the torch back to Burgess for a limited six-week engagement, which will begin June 23.
With their win, Escola becomes the first openly nonbinary performer to earn a Tony Award in their category, and for a role they authored themselves.
In 2022, British composer Toby Marlow and producer JJ Maley became the first-ever nonbinary people to earn Tony Awards.
Marlow won for their work on the musical “Six,” while Maley was one of the producers of “A Strange Loop,” the 2023 winner for best musical.
Performers Sara Ramírez and KO both won Tonys in the best actress in a musical category before coming out as nonbinary.
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