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[0:00] Jeff Malone: Welcome to Half Hour with Jeff and Richie, the podcast where we explore the latest shows we see, sharing our insights and opinions on the performances, storylines, and everything in between. In today's episode, we discuss the Broadway run of OH, MARY!, playing at the Lyceum Theatre in New York City. Whether you cannot catch the show in person or you want to expand your thoughts after seeing it, this episode is for you. And as always, we don't want to inform you that this episode will contain spoilers, so if you're ready to dive into this production, stick around with us. I'm Jeff.

[0:29] Richie Grasso: And I'm Richie, and we're thrilled to be your hosts for this episode. But before we start the conversation about OH, MARY!, here are a few words from our advertisers.

[0:44] Jeff Malone: Welcome, everyone, to a new episode of Half Hour with Jeff and Richie. Today, we're discussing the Broadway run of OH, MARY! OH, MARY! is a dark comedy starring Cola Scola as a miserable, suffocated Mary Todd Lincoln in the weeks leading up to Abraham Lincoln's assassination. Unrequited yearning, alcoholism, and suppressed desires abound in this one-act play that finally examines the forgotten life and dreams of Mrs. Lincoln through the lens of an idiot, played by Cola Scola.

[1:11] Richie Grasso: So funny. Let's start this conversation with our hot take on OH, MARY!, so you go first.

[1:17] Jeff Malone: All right, my thoughts on OH, MARY! are I believe this might be the funniest thing I've ever seen.

[1:23] Richie Grasso: Ever?

[1:24] Jeff Malone: It might be. I mean, it's obviously top five. I'm sitting for 90 minutes or so just hysterically laughing. I think it's really, really, really smart writing and acting and design, and it's a collaborative piece. Even though I know Cole's at the helm of it, I totally want to dive into this more and talk more about it. But yes, it's one of the funniest things I've ever seen.

[1:50] Richie Grasso: My hot take on OH, MARY! is that I think that OH, MARY! is proving every single person that said that this should not go to Broadway. Now that it being on Broadway makes it so much better because of how successful it is running in the Lyceum Theater.

[2:07] Jeff Malone: Totally, totally. Let's dive in.

[2:10] Richie Grasso: All right. I feel like, you know, so we saw this downtown off Broadway. Now we're here on Broadway. Other than maybe a few minor, minor, minor changes, a set piece thing here, a lighting thing here, a costume design thing here, it's basically the same thing. So for those of you who are wondering, and like we said, there'll be spoilers, it's basically what you saw downtown on a bigger stage, bigger house, bigger audience. I think what Cole does really well here with this piece is has an idea, it's fleshed out, brings the design team on board to flesh it, brings supporting characters in. And it's not, as much as it is the Cole show, it's almost not because there's this collaborative effort here to bring this funny comedy.

And let me tell you something, there was tons of potential for this to derail, to go, to take a hard left and go down like, what's going on now? It was so clear that we could have gone there at any point and we could have gone to the end of being like, it was funny in the beginning, but, and instead it wasn't that. It was this really well-constructed piece of theatre from beginning, middle, and end. You know an assassination's coming at the end. You know the cabaret moment's probably coming at the end. And it's a wonderful piece that is crafted really successfully using the stereotypes and the tropes of traditional comedy. And I think that's where Cole said, let me take what's happened before and let me make it my own. And I think that's very smart.

[3:41] Jeff Malone: And what do you kind of feel like, one thing that I was kind of thinking more about this was in terms of the script of this show and it working downtown off Broadway, and then everyone taking this risk and bringing it to Broadway for such a bigger, wider audience, how do you feel like your initial thoughts on that was that it was going to either work or not work? And why do you think it is working? Like the script, actually.

[4:12] Richie Grasso: I knew it was going to work because it didn't seem to be too polarizing. Of course, it's got innuendo. But you look at old comedy, even Shakespeare comedy, there's innuendo. It's always existed on the stage. I don't think that we're talking about anything that out of left field that absurd that the average mainstream audience is going to say, I don't like this or what's going on. We've had absurdist things before. I left that off Broadway saying, oh, I wasn't one of the people that thought maybe this won't work uptown. I wasn't one of those people. I always thought this would work. I don't think it's doing anything to polarize it. I just feel like it's such a topic, though, that with this sitting down on a desk and someone picked it up and read it, they would immediately say something like, should we do this?

And now that it's getting done, and when we get into the actual production of this again, I think what's so interesting here is the actual subject matter. Because especially with what has recently just happened in political media here, and now for us to be seeing something like this happen again, to now going back, it's almost like the Titanic conversation that was being had that some people are really against that show, because we're talking about something bad that happened and making comedy out of it. I'm fine with it, because I think when you can look at something and you can see the comedy in something, it's great. But I think there are a lot of people that are probably like, maybe not.

[5:46] Jeff Malone: Comedy, unfortunately, sometimes comes out of tragedy all the time. The producers and the World War II era that that is kind of poking at. Yes, Titanic, this, this isn't about a presidential assassination. Yes, we're finding people are taking bold, Mel Brooks was a bold choice in the industry, you know, now you had Tide Blue and Titanic. Now here's Cola Scola. It's working. It's clearly working financially. It's clearly working. I looked around and everyone in that audience is laughing all the time. And I'm looking at different demographics of people laughing older, younger, male, female, I'm looking at and I'm like, Oh, everyone's kind of laughing. But I think that's something to say about the text in the script here is like, when we're going into it now we're like, we're making is it getting made fun of?

Or are we just adding comedic light to bad things that have happened? You know, during our time, but like, if we can't laugh at these things, how do we laugh anymore? Right. And that's what comedy kind of comes from is the sense of where we need to find humor in dark days, post COVID days, we need these slap your knee, wow, I'm hysterically laughing kind of comedies. And I think, you know, we're going to get into some of the design and direction of this too. But from a written standpoint, we're dealing with high elevation. The writing is elevated, the acting is elevated, the design is elevated. And we'll get into that in a second. But I'm just saying everything is elevated. Nothing fell to the wayside here.

Clearly a team got together to elevate this experience, multiple scenery locales, multiple costumes, some actors playing multiple roles. We went serious, and then comedic, and then serious and comedic. We're on the roller coaster, we nothing was left off the table with this. And I think it's smart. It's really, really smart comedy writing, even down to how the script is only one act, and how it really meets the needs of what someone wants to go in. It's like, you're not breaking the moment in going into an intermission. Like, you have the moments leading up to the assassination, that are very funny leading up. And it's one act, it gets you there. And it ends with the punch of doing a cabaret.

And it's just so funny, you know, and it keeps that momentum going over and over and over again. So I do I really praise this actual script. And the actual plot here, you know, I hope that there's so much more of this coming down the pipeline for us, because I think that this is really the comedy that has been lacking and missing, and it's what we need.

[8:27] Richie Grasso: And did we get glimpses of it from like, the cottage, we had the noises off revival? Sure, we get that. But it doesn't really quite go where OH, MARY! is going in terms of the whoa, wow. Well, because now it's bringing like, as much as you want to say, like, it's politics, but it's bringing pop culture, because at the end of the day, politics kind of feeds pop culture with so many different things. Look at all of the great things like SNL when they're, you know, they feed off of political commentary and make fun of it. Right. You know, right. So let's dive into some more of this direction, some of these performances, the design. So let's go there. Now, before we get there, let's just take a quick moment for a few messages from those that make the show possible.

[9:13] Jeff Malone: Okay, let's dive into it. So Sam Pinkleton directs this piece, right? Of course, Cole's in it. He's written it. He's probably really, I think it was smart for Cole to bring on another set of eyes as a director and not also direct it. Sometimes we see people do all three, write it, in it, and direct it. I think it's nice to bring a director set of eyes. What's really working here are, like I was saying earlier, the comedy tropes, the comedy moments. Comedy, I'm going to say this right now, doors. Comedy and doors. In and out of doors is very funny no matter what time period, no matter where you are. Doors flying open and people entering and exiting and making entrances and exits through flying doors always, always works.

So here we go with dramatic entrances, subtle entrances, loud entrances, running in, and even Conrad's entrances and exits. Everyone had these dramatic, hilarious entrances and exits. Doors are a character in comedy and it was so clear that that was executed correctly. And everyone always enters through the door unless they're already on stage or leaves through a door. So we never have anyone walking off the stage, stage left or stage right.

[10:25] Richie Grasso: Yeah, right. On top of that, we have actors playing multiple roles. Bianca Lee putting on the silly hat and beard in the bar, on the bar. It's funny to see her play such a completely different character in the beginning than towards the end. That's comedy. Putting a wig and a hat on someone that we clearly know and letting the audience know we're not trying to hide too much here. On top of it, there's a very famous thing in comedy, comedy of threes. If you look at history of comedy, sometimes things are funniest in threes, not always two and not always four. So in the scene where he's like, oh, don't interrupt me, Mary. And he's like, okay. And then he interrupts him once. Then he interrupts him twice.

And he interrupts him three times. That was a comedy of threes moment where we knew the third one was coming. It landed. We didn't need to go to a fourth one. And we wanted the third one. It's comedy of threes. It's like an unofficial rule of theater with comedy. So they found that. They found physicality with the pillow, fighting with the pillow. Whoa, this goes flying the book. Oh, I fall and my hoop skirt flies. And there's my underwear. So like undergarments, like that's comedy. It works no matter what time period. So Cole knew and the director, Sam knew to add these really funny things that we've seen for hundreds of years of comedy into a modern piece. I appreciate it.

[11:48] Jeff Malone: And but they also like are owning that too, because even like you're talking about the ice cream bit. I think they only did that three times.

[11:58] Richie Grasso: Yeah. And yet then they throw. And what's also nice is how do you modernize it? Will you throw in the sexual energy? You throw in a bad word once in a while. It's a modern bad word. And I think what that does is you're not saying the F word a million times. You're not saying all these horrible. You're just lightly like when he comes in and she's like, and she's like, she has a story about her ice cream. You know, she says a really naughty word there, but it came out of nowhere and it wasn't overused. It was funny. So the gay innuendo with Lincoln and all that, it's just lightly sprinkled in. Right. Then you realize with James Scully's character that there's something going on with Lincoln and him. And so there's it's lightly sprinkled throughout. That's what makes it funny. It's not beat me over the head with a curse word a million times.

[12:42] Jeff Malone: Right. And like and since this is the same cast that we saw downtown, so it's very easy for you to go back and listen to what we've already talked about their performances, because I think they've all really mastered comedy. And it's also great because Tony Mack, I think, is making his Broadway debut in this as well. So moving from off Broadway to Broadway is great for them. What I wanted to kind of talk a little bit more about, like what is getting added to this production as well as the whole marketing and everything that's happening outside of the production, because I think it's really adding to this a lot more, even from when they made the announcement that Mary was going to Broadway and they started making the videos and putting them out there.

And like Cole, as Mary, is always in character. It's very hard to see them out of the Mary character because it's like owning it and really being part of it. But they are really engaging the Broadway community in so many great ways, especially with like engaging Patti LuPone now in certain ways and Patti going to the opening night and like also like Patti, you took our theater. We needed to be at the Booth Theater. Like it's so funny. And that's adding to this whole element of comedy. It's like it's living there. You know, the little Greyhouse Girl that was up in the window, I think at the beginning, they put Mary up there as well. It's not there anymore, but I think you were even saying like opening night, they put Mary up in the window next to the little Greyhouse Girl.

Now they're both gone. But it's funny. And they're doing the advertising like they were advertising a 1930s play on Broadway. It's, oh, Mary exclamation point with this like yellow marketing. I feel like if you, someone in this whole design team did their homework on old Broadway because they used to do that like paint. It looks like a paintbrush painted the letters and it's like a black and white cameo photo and the silliest titles of shows long ago, like, like, oh, Mary could have a thousand percent been a title 70, 80 years ago on Broadway. Like Oh, Calcutta. Yeah. Or like the, like they would have the silliest. And so when you see like SNL and Kristen Wiig and she's like the Broadway star, she's like, I was in a production of The Flower in the Meadow. Like it's just like these bizarrely wild, like whimsical titles.

[15:59] Richie Grasso: Cole got to speak on the stage too at opening night and said, we're closing tonight. Silly things like that. They have the wigs with the bratty hair. This is a very specific interpretation of Mary Lincoln. And we don't know much about Mary and Abraham Lincoln because they were pre the radio days and the television days and all that. But it's like taking going back to like, I know what we said earlier is like, Cole going and taking the rumors of Mary Todd and Abraham Lincoln being beards for each other and all of that and taking it and running with it and being funny with it. You know, it's nothing against these, you know, historical figures, but at the same time, it's funny. And then at the end, you get to the booth of the booth, you know, the, the, the place where Lincoln was assassinated, and there's John Wilkes Booth.

And you're like, oh, we all know what's happening now, except she takes the gun and does it and gives it to Booth. It's like, he did it. He did it. Yeah. Which one thing I, I don't know if you noticed this, and I don't know if it was off properly. Maybe someone can correct us. But didn't they used to have a real gun, not a toy gun? You know, I don't know. Did they change that? Yeah, I don't know. Maybe if that was just like after what had happened. And it did look like it like it was almost like a cardboard cutout. Oh, maybe that was part of the cartooniness of it. I can't remember if it was off Broadway when it was like that. But you know, maybe. Yeah, being cautious of what's happening. Also, there's just like I said, the I think there's a moment where Conrad's really angry at Mary and Lincoln's like yelling at her.

And I'm like, oh, it kind of goes serious for a second. Like he was like, I don't understand. I'm like, oh, comedy comes out of serious moments, too. When James Scully's character was reading the Shakespeare, he was really profoundly reading some gorgeous text. Like we went deep for a minute or two, because sometimes the audience needs a minute of silence, needs a minute to take a deep breath. And they understood that, too. The pacing was really on point with this. And now speaking about the audience, I want to move into our own experience at the show and what this show's impact is. But first, here are a few messages from our sponsors.

[18:12] Jeff Malone: All right, so I want to get back into here and kind of like talk about our own experience here, what the audience is like now in the Broadway house, etc. So what do you feel like is really happening now that this has moved to Broadway?

[18:28] Richie Grasso: It's becoming more mainstream, people are going, it's selling really well. People are laughing, all ages, all backgrounds of people. I know people coming to the city this summer for their New York City summer trip and putting this on their list of must do in New York City this summer. It's smart theater. It's not four hours long. It's in and out. It's a night out where you can go with friends, have a drink, have dinner before, go enjoy yourself, laugh. It's just refreshing in this heavy, heavy political climate that we're in right now. Very heavy. We didn't need something heavy on Broadway. I think it's also nice to see that you have Once Upon a Mattress and Oh Mary on Broadway this summer. These are these light, whimsical, comedic things.

Of course, we have Job 2, which is really serious, and there's chorus room for that too. But these are the summer shows, and Oh Mary is right there. I'm telling everyone to go see it because I just think it's one of the smartest things I've seen.

[19:19] Jeff Malone: Yeah, not even that, but with Oh Mary playing off Broadway, I know so many people that wanted to see it when it was downtown, they didn't get the chance to see it, and now it's on Broadway. And one thing I'm going to say, the audience roaring of laughter throughout the whole theater is just another impact that's really elevating this show. And it was funny downtown, and you had a lot of people laughing, but now it's even at a level 110 that you're just like, oh, this is so funny. If you're not laughing, I don't know what would make you laugh. And Lyceum is a pretty big space. It's not the biggest space, but it's got three tiers, and it's full. I think it has 100% capacity these last few weeks, just about filling up every empty seat in this theater. That's what Broadway needs, and it's bringing younger people back in too. I'm noticing younger people coming back to the theater that maybe were away for a while since COVID or what have you.

[20:15] Richie Grasso: Yeah, and what do you feel like could really, the potential impact that this show can have on comedy on the Broadway stage in the future?

[20:21] Jeff Malone: Well, it does a few things. It opens up more doors for more people to write like this. It allows for this show to keep getting extended, possibly, and going into Tony Award season and maybe winning some awards. It licenses out to community theaters. I'm not sure about high schools doing this, maybe, but you'll definitely see communities and regionals doing this. A thousand percent you'll see regionals doing this. It opens up many doors. This is just the start for someone like Cole, too. As Lynn really hit the map within the Heights and then Hamilton, Cole, you are doing something really right here. Now, what's your next big comedy piece? Or maybe it's not comedy. Maybe they want to try something dramatic, but I think comedy is really, really their forte here.

[21:06] Jeff Malone: Yeah, and I think it also adds to a praise of launching something and starting something in New York City still off-Broadway, having the success, creating the demand, and having the confidence that you can really bring this show to Broadway. And look, it's selling. I also think it's just the right amount of time in between them closing it off-Broadway, reopening on-Broadway, doing it at the end of Pride Month, adding to that, letting it be a summer blockbuster people want to see, and also not competing with all of the shows that opened in the spring, because it would have got lost in that space if they tried to rush it there. I think everything that was happening with this show, and I also think that everything that's happening with Job is the right thing they're doing.

I don't know what's going to happen with Once Upon a Mattress yet. We haven't really started seeing those grosses or people attending it, because that's going to start at the end of the month. But with these two shows, you're seeing the people that wanted to see it off-Broadway. It's going on Broadway now. They're in kind of smaller houses. The Lyceum is probably a bit bigger than Helen Hayes. Helen Hayes is the smallest theater there. But Job is selling. We're going to read the grosses later when they come out, and we're going to see now that these two shows are selling, and they're doing great. Having the stars in the show as well, I think, is helping, and I think it's going to help Once Upon a Mattress as well with Sutton. But it's like these things had the buzz. Move them to Broadway and see the success happen.

[22:39] Richie Grasso: Not to mention the news lately. O'Mary is now extended. It's extended to November. Maybe it goes another extension. Maybe Cole leaves and someone else comes. I don't know. There's a lot of talk about it. Well, it's interesting, because last week it grossed $667,000, playing 100% capacity. That's great. I'm sure that's going to be even higher when we read it later. But what you're saying, yeah, it's extended, and the rumoring and the chatter that we're hearing in the buzz is that even Cole wants other people to take on the role of Mary. And I think it would be so funny. It would almost be a little bit of that Hedwig run, where a new star went in, and you wanted to see that star go in and play it.

Yeah, it's stunt casting, but guess what? The play is already good, and bringing some other people in will also make it good. There's many producers on this, but Kevin McCollum's at the lead, Ren to have a new cue. He has an amazing track record, and I think Kevin knows exactly what he's doing, bringing this to Broadway and keeping it running. So kudos to him, too. He's a great producer. So really, really great stuff here across the board.

[23:44] Jeff Malone: Yeah. I mean, this is a show that should be on everyone's list, because who knows how long it's going to be playing on Broadway. But for now, I'm sure we're going to see more extensions happening.

[23:58] Richie Grasso: Fair. So one thing we're going to start new this week, and in episodes going forward, everyone, is we're going to talk about some new buzzy things that are happening in the theatre space as well. And yeah, so one thing I wanted to bring up is that the last five years finally landed their home, which is going to be at the Hudson Theatre. They're doing a 14-week only run, and it's starring Nick Jonas and Adrianne Warren, previews beginning March 6. What do you think your prediction is on this?

[24:30] Jeff Malone: I think the theatre is great. I think the tickets are going to sell like wildfire. I think it's going to stay a limited run. I think it's going to get Tony buzz. I think this would hit revival category, even though it's the first time on Broadway, because it had such commercial successful runs in the off-Broadway space, the Tonys always kind of vote that way. It's Jason Arbor Brown putting it on stage. No doubt, I'm sure it'll be a fully orchestrated piece, which most of the JRB stuff is. I'm excited for Adrianne and Nick. I think this is great. I think across the board, it's great, and I think people really got to get their tickets.

[24:59] Richie Grasso: Yeah, this is going to come in as the dark horse at the end of the season. I think, you know, what we're talking about, placing a show in right place, right time, could be great for the last five years. I know I was reading a little bit of the buzz on Nick Jonas, that people are very indifferent about that casting of him. Because what was it they were talking about his Les Mis performance, that it's not good when he was on that? But then other people were like, he was really young when he did that. And how should someone, you know, be taken on to that? But hey, the major thing that we're going to talk about here is Adrianne Warren getting added to this leading actress in a musical category, because that is insane.

[25:45] Jeff Malone: Well, the leading, if we start with, I think the list could be up to 10 people now for potential contenders. It's Sutton Foster. It's Idina Menzel. It's Nicole Scherzinger. It's, oh, Audra McDonald. It's Jennifer Simard. It's Megan Hilty. It's, oh my gosh, maybe Kristen Chenoweth if Queen of Versailles was to come. It's Bernadette Peters. Bernadette Peters, Lea Salonga. And now it's maybe Betty Boop herself.

[26:11] Richie Grasso: Which is the other announcement.

[26:13] Jeff Malone: Betty Boop's coming. I forget the name of the actress.

[26:15] Richie Grasso: Her name is Jasmine Amy Rogers.

[26:17] Jeff Malone: I wonder if she'll come do the Broadway, if they're going to keep her on the Broadway.

[26:20] Richie Grasso: I'm pretty sure because I looked at her Instagram and it's all Boopified as well. So I'm sure that she will be coming attached to that. That one is also previously starting in March, March 11th, opening April 5th. So new musical. That category is also filling up crazy. I'm sure we're going to get so many more announcements for spring, which is interesting.

[26:45] Jeff Malone: And one other thing I'll say I saw this week, if you all go check out, there was an interview they did with Sutton Foster and Michael Urie. I believe it was on ABC or CBS or one of the morning shows. And they tour NBC and they talked to her about, she got a phone call from Carol Burnett, who played Winifred in the original Broadway run. And they show the video of her talking to Carol and Carol and Sutton saying, Carol, thank you for taking on this role. And Carol's like, you're going to make it your own. You're the perfect choice for this. And it was wonderful to hear Carol Burnett speaking to her. And then Sutton says in the interview, yeah, this is wonderful. And they say, Sutton, you're an icon to a young generation.

It's amazing because I grew up listening to Sutton in high school and middle school, even knowing that she was doing Millie. And that was like my leading, like, oh my gosh, who is this? Right now we get to keep seeing her out doing so many Broadway roles. Mary in Peru recently in Music Man, and she did Sweeney Todd. And now she's onto Mattress. She's doing the iconic roles. She's doing the golden age roles. I'm going to make a prediction here. We're going to dig up this clip one day, maybe many years from now, but Sutton Foster, Mama Rose, Gypsy Revival, one day. It's coming one day. She's too young now, but I think one day I'm seeing that. I don't know. I'm calling it in 2024. And let's also show that clip of her and Carol speaking on this. Because like, what an amazing, amazing thing. But hey, you might be right about Mama Rose. I don't know. There's a long list of people that want to play that role.

[28:23] Jeff Malone: And that's why this show comes back every 10, 15 years to Broadway. I think this will be the fifth or sixth revival of it. It's a nearly perfect musical, Gypsy, and we'll have a whole episode on that in the fall when we see Miss McDonald do that on the Broadway stage in the newly renovated Majestic Theatre. That's our news for the week.

[28:43] Richie Grasso: Yep. And it's time to wrap up. There it is. So final thoughts on Oh Mary, Jeff, before we wrap up this episode today.

[28:50] Jeff Malone: Oh Mary, like I said, this is the comedy that you want to see this summer. And if you don't see it, you're missing out. So go see it. One of the funniest things. Even if you think maybe you're going to buy a random ticket on a weeknight in September, October, just go buy the ticket. Yeah, you keep entering lotteries and rushes, of course. Who wouldn't do that? But just get a seat, a cheaper seat way down the line. It's going to play now until November. You're going to want to see this. Sometimes that's what I do. If I say, you know what, I want to see this, but I got to book way out, book way out. We already have some tickets to some things for like October because that's how we think.

[29:28] Richie Grasso: Totally. Well, that does wrap up our discussion for this episode. We hope you enjoyed our deep dive into Oh Mary. We're going to share the link with ticket information in our description here. And don't forget, we want to hear from you. Continue the conversation with us on Instagram at hathourpodcasts and let us know your thoughts on Oh Mary. And if you enjoyed the show, please leave us a review. Your feedback helps us bring more theater to you. Remember, you can listen to past episodes and stay tuned for the many upcoming ones as well. Until next time, I'm Geoff.

[29:51] Richie Grasso: And I'm Richie, saying ta-ta for now. Bye.