'Stupidest, funniest thing'

Is award-winning farce Oh, Mary! a new Hamilton?

- Nadia Khomami Arts and culture correspondent

What if, in the final weeks before Abraham Lincoln’s assassination, the first lady couldn’t care less about the civil war and was instead hellbent on becoming a cabaret star?

That’s the question posed by Oh, Mary!, the smash-hit show that reimagines Mary Todd Lincoln as a gloriously unhinged alcoholic who despises her closeted husband.

The 80-minute, one-act play opens in the West End next week after a blockbuster run in New York, where it was declared “one of the best comedies in years”. It received Tony awards for best leading actor in a play (Cole Escola - who also wrote the show, and became the first non-binary performer to win the gong) and best director (Sam Pinkleton).

Its runaway success also drew a star-studded audience across the pond, including Steven Spielberg, Tony Kushner and Sally Field - who made the 2012 Oscar-winning film Lincoln, with Field as the First Lady - as well as Meryl Streep, Robert Downey Jr, Sarah Paulson and Amy Adams. Observers are already asking whether it’s the new Hamilton.

The acclaim is a long way from the show’s origins in 2009, when Escola conceived of Mary’s miserable life in a simple email to themself pondering: “What if Abe’s assassination wasn’t such a bad thing for Mary?” They did no further research.