London's Trafalgar Theatre opened its doors this week to the new production of Oh, Mary! Direct from Broadway, Cole Escola's Tony Award-winning comedy tells the story of Abraham Lincoln's "foul and hateful wife" stifled and unhappy, dealing with a life that wasn't what she intended as she works her way through her lifelong desires and unfulfilled dreams. In this raucous comedic tour-de-force, we see Mary launch herself into the world of theatre with aplomb, leading to a fantastically ridiculous finale as silly as Lincoln himself was serious!

Check out what the critics had to say below!

The Reviews

WhatsOnStage

"There is a sliver pathos in Mary as she convinces herself, melodramatically, that she is in love and is about to be a stage success which Park allows to emerge. If you squint hard and at a distance, then there might be a sense that the play is examining the frustration of people who are neglected. But not really. This is a piece almost entirely without sub-text, a celebration of the camp, queer humour that Escola has made their own."

The Standard

"Park is a force of nature, whisking around the teasingly basic set (by the "multi-disciplinary design collective" dots), hooped skirt flying, in a desperate search for liquor and attention. She addresses a portrait of George Washington (or as we should probably call him, "the Man who did Mary's Husband's Job In The Past") as "Mother". Induced to try oil painting, Mary guzzles a bucket of paint thinner, sicks it up, and drinks it down again."

The Times

"Cole Escola's deeply weird comedy, which re-imagines Mary Todd Lincoln, wife of honest Abe, as a frustrated cabaret artist, knocking back booze and spitting venom in all directions, has built a cult following since it began life off-Broadway. The performance I attended at the Trafalgar Theatre was greeted with some of the most maniacal cackling I've ever heard from a West End audience. Which is very, very odd when you consider that, deep down, Sam Pinkleton's production is really a Saturday Night Live sketch stretched to improbable lengths."

The Telegraph

"With set designs that exude tongue-in-cheek period fidelity, and thundering piano-music interludes that form a running joke about 19th-century theatricals, this is more snappy lark than history lesson. Its mischievous streak is fully announced the moment Park's pale-faced, rouge-cheeked heroine flounces on to the stage, hoop-dress and ringlets a-bobbing, in raging search of the liquor her husband (played by Giles Terera as a wonderfully furtive statesman) has just tried to hide. "Oh mother, why did I marry him?" she madly rails at a sober portrait of George Washington."

London Theatre

"It's an incredible showcase for a performer which, on Broadway, has included Escola, Tituss Burgess, Jinkx Monsoon, and Jane Krakowski and London is treated to a tour-de-force turn from Mason Alexander Park, who tears into the material like a ravenous tiger. Park hits every note with absolute comic precision: Mary's infantile narcissism, crippling boredom, devilish humour, and, when presented with a hunky new acting teacher in tight breeches, all-consuming lust."

TimeOut

"Two great leads, a handful of good lines, some top notch physical business and the epically random deployment of Belle and Sebastian's classic 1996 song Get Me Away from Here, I'm Dying' these are all good things. Existing at the point in the curve where subversive New York cabaret and naff 70s British comedy overlap, there's clearly an audience over here for Oh, Mary! But that's not the same thing as living up to the hype."