Catherine Tate Leads Olivier-Winning 'Oh, Mary!' in West End as Cole Escola Sets 1-Month Run

Q: With its creator returning, how will their Mary Lincoln compare to Catherine Tate's acclaimed performance?

Cole Escola’s return is likely to feel more definitive and authorial, while Catherine Tate’s Mary is expected to remain a star comic’s sharply individual interpretation. Escola is not only the writer but the performer who originated the role and won a Tony for it on Broadway. Their Mary has been widely described as the purest expression of the show’s sensibility: high-camp, absurdist, darkly satirical and deliberately “unhinged,” with a cabaret-obsessed, alcoholic Mary Todd Lincoln played through a lens of queer farce and emotional desperation. Because Escola created the character without aiming for historical realism, their performance is closely tied to the play’s original rhythm, tone and comic architecture. Tate, by contrast, brings a different authority. Reviews and casting commentary point to her formidable comic timing and long experience playing volatile, outsized characters. That makes her especially well suited to the role’s broad, fast-moving comedy and its flashes of vanity, fury and self-delusion. Her Mary is likely to be judged less as a replica of Escola’s than as a distinctly British comic turn inside the same anarchic framework. So the key difference is not likely to be quality but texture. Tate offers a celebrated guest-star version shaped by her own comic persona; Escola’s return should restore the original, Tony-winning blueprint — the performance most closely fused with the play’s camp, queer and blackly comic DNA.

3 articles · Updated · The New York Times · Jun 1

Catherine Tate has taken over the title role in London’s West End production of 'Oh, Mary!,' with creator Cole Escola set to succeed her later this summer for a one-month engagement.
The transfer extends the momentum of Sam Pinkleton’s production after it won the Olivier Award for best entertainment or comedy play in April.
The comedy reimagines Mary Todd Lincoln as an aspiring cabaret star, a show that began in Lower Manhattan before becoming a London hit.
London’s casting change mirrors the Broadway production’s durability through multiple recasts, underscoring the show’s growing transatlantic staying power.