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Broadway’s Weirdest Hit Is Extending in London, and Cole Escola Is Coming Too

26 May 2026

Some theatre announcements are impossible to pretend neutrality about. Oh, Mary! extending in the West End until January 2027 is one. The news that Cole Escola will also arrive in London this summer to reprise their Tony Award-winning performance as Mary Todd Lincoln is another.

The sort of idea that should last three nights in a downtown basement theatre

If you somehow missed the phenomenon, Oh, Mary! is the deranged dark comedy that reimagines Mary Todd Lincoln as a miserable, alcoholic wannabe cabaret star trapped in the final weeks before Lincoln’s assassination. It sounds like the sort of idea that should last three nights in a downtown basement theatre. Instead, it transferred from off-Broadway to Broadway, won Tonys and Olivier Awards, became a Pulitzer finalist, and is now extending at the Trafalgar Theatre into 2027.

The current London production stars Catherine Tate, whose run ends on 18 July. Tate always felt like an inspired bit of casting, but the genuinely thrilling part of this announcement is the chance to see Escola themselves perform the role they created. Not a replacement. Not “direct from Broadway”. The actual chaotic force responsible for the thing in the first place.

The press release dutifully lists Escola’s growing pile of awards and television credits, from Search Party to Hacks, but none of that really explains the appeal of Oh, Mary!. The show operates with the confidence of a fever dream and somehow gets funnier the more seriously everyone commits to it.

The extension is perhaps the strangest part of all. Not because the show isn’t good, but because it remains faintly unbelievable that London audiences have embraced a play in which one of America’s most tragic historical figures behaves like an unstable nightclub performer in hoop skirts. Yet here we are.

Escola performs from 20 July to 15 August 2026 only. Which means tickets will almost certainly vanish at alarming speed. And honestly, fair enough.

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