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Theatrical review by Adam Feldman
Cole Escola’s Oh Maria! It’s not just funny: it’s dizzyingly funny, the kind of humor that ambushes your body until it causes unrestrained laughter. Stage comedies have become an endangered species in recent decades, and when they do appear, they tend to be the type of comedy that evokes smirks, giggles, or wry smiles of recognition. Not so here: I don’t remember the last time I saw a play that made me laugh, helplessly and loudly, as much as Oh Maria! He did, and my reaction was shared by the rest of the audience, who burst into applause at the end of each scene. Fasten your seatbelts: this 80-minute show is a fast and wild ride.
Escola has earned a cult reputation as a sly comedic genius for his dazzling solo performances (Aid! I’m stuck!) and on television shows like At home with Amy Sedaris, difficult people and Search party. But Oh Maria!, his first full-length work, may surprise even longtime fans. In this hilariously anachronistic historical burlesque, Escola plays (who else?) Mary Todd Lincoln, in the weeks before the murder of her husband. Drunk, vicious and miserable, the unstable and outrageously contrary Mary is unaware of the Civil War and is hell-bent on achieving stardom as (what else?) a cabaret singer.
Oh Maria! | Photography: Courtesy of Emilio Madrid
Described by the long-suffering President Lincoln as “my disgusting, hateful wife,” this virago makes her entrance snarling and hunched over with fury, desperate to find a bottle she has hidden in a White House office; Bursting onto the stage in a black hoop skirt, with dark curls framing her round, pale face, she suggests a porcelain doll that comes to evil life and is determined to torment everyone she crosses paths. her. Mary’s intensely mercurial nature (her mood can shift in an instant from wild to sentimental) is an ideal match for Escola’s magnetic combination of madness and poise, of knowing distance and total moment-to-moment commitment. Her sensibility is steeped in the camp culture of yesteryear, but she does not remain immersed; a mischievous modern streak continually rises to the surface. The effect is fascinating: Escola lights up the stage like a full moon.
But other than that, Mrs. Lincoln, how’s the play going? Fortunately, it’s a transhistorical delight: a very 21st-century comedy about a 19th-century tragedy filtered through the lens of 20th-century dramatic films. Director Sam Pinkleton never lets the comedic energy flag, and the supporting cast is delightful. Conrad Ricamora plays the not-so-honest Abe, consumed by lust for a young underling (Tony Macht); James Scully is a handsome drama teacher with whom Mary strikes up a forbidden romance, and Bianca Leigh is Mary’s prim companion. It would be unsportsmanlike to spoil any of the comedic turns (some of them gleefully bawdy) that the play offers audiences, but it all comes together to create an instant downtown classic. Upon entering the Lucille Lortel Theater, you walk past the names of Charles Ludlam and Carlos Busch, two country comedy legends honored on the playwrights’ sidewalk outside the venue. With Oh Maria!Escola is firmly committed to being the next step.
Oh Maria! Lucille Lortel TheaterOff Broadway). By Cole Escola. Directed by Sam Pinkleton. With Escola, Conrad Ricamora, James Scully, Bianca Leigh, Tony Macht. Duration: 1h 20min. Without intermission.
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Oh Maria! | Photography: Courtesy of Emilio Madrid