Cole Escola Wins Tony For 'Oh, Mary'

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.

“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.

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.”