Even the sharpest of London theatre critics might not have guessed that a rap-heavy play about Alexander Hamilton — a lesser-known Founding Father of the United States — would have been going strong on the West End for eight years now.
Now, could another irreverent spin on America's political past be the next big hitter on this side of the pond?
Having rocked Broadway with bemused laughter since it took to the stage in summer 2024, Oh, Mary! — a wild comic romp about an alternative life lived by Mary Todd Lincoln, wife of Abe — is making for the bright lights of London's theatreland.
The 80-minute, one-act play is the 'gloriously deranged' brainchild of comedian and actor Cole Escola, who also originally played the lead role on Broadway (and before that Off-Broadway).
In Escola's take on what might've been for Mary, the First Lady is a frustrated alcoholic with a secret passion to become a cabaret star — an ambition which her understandably swamped husband finds a distraction from his task of keeping the country together. After the President's untimely demise at the theatre, however, Mary discovers a world of new opportunities — and the chance to pursue her long-held dreams.
While available tickets for the show's Broadway run cost between $102 and $522 (well, Time Out New York did praise Oh, Mary! as "dizzyingly, breathtakingly funny, the kind of funny that ambushes your body into uncontained laughter") those for London's show are more keenly priced, starting at just £31. For one thing, Cole Escola will not be reprising their role in the London production; that honour goes to another American actor, Mason Alexander Park. There may also be some doubt whether various US-centric gags will land so firmly with a British audience.
Moreover, while the real-time, real-life America continues playing out as a 24/7 fever dream, do we even have the breath left for laughing at a mere fictional White House farce?
Oh, Mary! is on at Trafalgar Theatre, with booking open from 3 December 2025-25 April 2026.
