Oh, Mary!is playing at the Lucille Lortel Theatre through March 24.
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This piece was originally published on February 8, 2024.
We are republishing it to mark the news ofOh, Mary!heading to Broadway this summer.
Read more about the newshere.
My lips are gone, Escola tells me as they clutch their phone with gloveless hands.
They assume the voice of a prototypical audiobook narrator: Two faggots walk into a cemetery … From there, they did little to no research.
Escolas Mary is conniving, mean, and loud.
Escola, 37, is primarily known as a comedian and TV actor.
Look at Pearl Harbor.
Escola was born in Clatskanie, Oregon, a town of 1,700 people.
I remember thinking, like,Oh my God, thats me.
Im not a boy.
Im not a girl.
Imit, they recall.
I had two friends, and we would use theitpronoun to describe each other.
Not in public or anything but just in private.
We called ourselves the Its.
If they knew they were anitat 10, they knew they were poor much earlier.
The two broke up before school started, but Escola still made the move in 2005.
After their freshman year, they dropped out because they couldnt take out any more loans without a guarantor.
The following year and a half in New York was not good.
Escola was, in no particular order, suicidal, bulimic, lonely, and depressed.
Escola gave her a name Joyce Conner and took a walk in character around the Upper East Side.
Suddenly, even though they were still thinking about suicide, they felt happy.
Joyce was a big part of the Brooklyn anti-folk scene for about six months in 2008, Escola says.
As we trek through the cemetery fields, veering off the paths, the conversation turns back to divas.
When they lived nearby, Escola would come to the cemetery just to visit Stevenss grave.
I love Dietrich, they say.
I didnt like when she wore suits.
We share an obsession with Elaine Stritch.
Escolas relationship with audiences is complicated: Im scared of them.
I look down on them.
In 2016,Julio Torresinvited them to perform their first live comedy set on a lineup at Williamsburg venue.
You have three people before you who are doing stand-up thats very conversational.
I can feel the audience go,Ugh.
My biggest fear and biggest belief about myself, they say, is that Im really annoying.
But, inOh, Mary!, theyve designed a role in which annoyance is the goal.
Escola is in total control of the stage as Mary Todd Lincoln.
It brings down the house.
Finally, we arrive at Keenes grave, where one nearly decayed flower is already resting.
just dont let the ghosts of Abraham and Mary ruin my show, Escola implores Keene.
kindly protect me from bad reviews.
And I hope youre proud.
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