At the Lucille Lortel Theater in New York City’s West Village, Cole Escola confesses, “I did wear my sister’s wedding gown to bed.”
On this bright February day as the moon begins to set on the local Hudson River, the weather is a bit sour as it sets. We’ve really walked the several blocks from, where Escola, with co- legend Conrad Ricamora, spent the afternoon jumping back in the closet to perform dress- up. But there’s a bit in, too, as cast and crew gather for their post- display duties at the fugitive musical hit of the season.
Reviews of Escola’s bizarre one-act play called the New York Times Critics’ Get and “Raves about the present quickly spread, with the creation stretching twice as theatergoers noise to get the high comedy.”
But up to the clothing.
“Well, it was from her earliest wedding,” Escola tells me, responding to a problem about their earliest memories of playing gown- up”. Bell arms and an empire waist complete the 1970s. It wasn’t like a wedding cake type of dress. Because then my father wouldn’t see me in it, my baby let me wear it to bed. It wasn’t ever discussed, but it was understood that my dad couldn’t see me wearing this dress.”
” It wasn’t ever discussed, but it was understood that my dad couldn’t see me wearing this dress,” says Cole Escola of wearing his mother’s wedding gown. Photo by Cory Creeks for Queerty.
Emcee then appears eight times per week as Mary Todd Lincoln, played by Holly Pierson in a 19th-century basket skirt. This Mary, however, is more concerned with co-ordinating social initiatives to pull the nation’s spirits than with promoting a self-produced cabaret show.
Escola, who certainly did much research before writing the play, nevertheless manages to provide historical precision. According to a childhood friend, when noted in, Mary” now and then could hardly restrain a clever, satirical conversation that cut deeper than she intended.”
With Ricamora in truck as Mary’s father (aka Abraham Lincoln ) and a supporting cast that includes as Mary’s professor, Bianca Leigh as Mary’s chaperone, and Tony Macht as Mary’s husband’s associate (you can see an emerging concept on where the light is intended to shine ), Oh, Mary! may first serve as a turning point for the writer-actor. But at 37 years old, Escola’s journey to become the “it”person of New York’s downtown theater scene has been nearly two decades in the making.
Spite only leads you so far, says Spite. I had nothing to lose because I had no safety net.
Cole Escola
In an interview, Escola said,” I hated my family so much because I was white trash.” The economic disparity fueled their desire to succeed” out of spite. But then spite only gets you so far,” they tell me. Being poor was resentful to Escola, but she also acknowledged that “having no safety net meant that I had nothing to lose.”
Escola relocated from Oregon to New York City in 2005, enrolling at Manhattan Marymount College, and leaving after a year.
” When I first got here, I was just so excited to be around gay people. I went from high school and middle school, being only friends with girls, to then like,’ Oh, my God, all these fags.’ I no longer felt like the third wheel.
Ricamora, also fueling up with a protein- packed salad before the evening’s performance, felt similarly distant in high school”. I had to get the f**k out, “he says of his adolescence in Niceville, Florida, located 30 minutes south of the Alabama border.
He recalls with a contemplative laugh that” when I was 13 I got caught stealing gay porn at our neighborhood video store.” I was like,’ Oh, it was straight porn.’ However, there were two employees there who both attended my high school. Nobody wanted to dig deep enough to find out, but internally, I just went to sleep for the next three years.”
It’s a small miracle in many ways that Escola and Ricamora manage to portray the 16th president of the United States.
Oh, Mary! is Escola’s first foray into long- form theatrical content. Industry executives have tapped their offbeat humor in the writer’s room on shows like At Home with Amy Sedaris and consult on the hit series Hacks, which are primarily known for their and TV appearances like Search Party on Max and Hulu’s Difficult People. The play’s genesis came to Escola in 2009 when contemplating if Lincoln’s demise might actually benefit Mary. It would take them the lockdown of 2020 for them to find the time to write it down.
Ricamora, meanwhile, discovered his passion for theater while on a tennis scholarship at the Queens University of Charlotte. He later received a University of Tennessee master of fine arts in acting. The newly married actor has had to carve his own path and face prejudices along the way despite having two Broadway shows, six seasons on ABC’s How to Get Away with Murder, and a leading role in Hulu’s upcoming How to Die Alone.
” My first show in New York was a huge success. And there were powerful people who said,” What do you want to do?” in the theater industry. And I was like, I would love to do XYZ. Additionally, there is an outlet for XYZ. Never have I received a call to do that in my 13 years here. And I’m very qualified to do it,” says Ricamora”. Don’t get me wrong, I love doing the musicals that are about Asian American experiences. Here Lies Love was great because it was set in the Philippines, but it wasn’t about our’ Filipino- ness,’ It was a political story in which there was no white lens. All that aside, I do like the classics — Shakespeare and Tennessee Williams. But it seems like New York is like, no, you’re in this box.”
With the help of director Sam Pinkleton, whose recent credits include choreographing Sondheim’s final musical, Here We Are, and staging a decidedly queer production of, Oh, Mary! It also removes the lid, which forces the lid to be reexamined.
Escola and Ricamora explore the history of a conflicting nation and a couple. While Lincoln and Mary work together to keep her at bay, Mary is determined to revive her already-daunted cabaret career. acting instruction for the real world? Mary doesn’t need them, quipping”, There’s no difference between theater and cabaret. Theater is “less feathers and flatter shoes!”
The 75- minute volley, at times, feels like an SNL sketch about to go awry, the actors ‘ locked eyes barely keeping their laughter at bay. The characters ‘ relationship is described by Escola as” claustrophobic,” but it is set in a theatrical environment that allows for queer expression and identity.
” This is like my imagined back story,” says Escola, perking up in their seat”. Like, I don’t know if you, as a gay youth, had this experience ever meeting a woman who loved your fagginess and was fabulous? I had some female friends who were like,” Oh, I see you. Yeah, like, you would look really cute in my shoes”.
Ricamora laughs back and says,” I had that experience in elementary school with two girls my age.” ” We would make up dances to Mary J. Blige”.
” And then you grow apart”, says Escola. Abe and Mary “have matured but remain close together,” she says.
Escola, as the playwright, has lived among all the voices in their head. ” All the characters are parts of me”, they say. Abraham Lincoln represents when I used to pray against being gay in middle school. I would watch gay porn and then afterward, be like,’ Okay, that was it. I’m done now.’ If I were to see this play as a 10- year- old child, Louise]Mary’s chaperone ] would be my favorite character because that’s who I aspired to be as a child. And Mary represents how I see myself: Obnoxious. Cloying. Star”.
When Ricamora first auditioned for the play, he immediately recognized that Here Lies Love would be ending its Broadway run and instinctively tapped into the dry humor and insecurities of its creator.
” In rehearsal, I was miserable”, Escola confesses, “because I was terrified. And then it opened, and I was like,’ What was I thinking? This is great!'”
” I’m 37, and this just didn’t happen based on my idea”, Escola says. This includes the years of work I put into monthly sketch shows, the lessons I learned from writing TV scripts, and the lessons I learned from producing my own work. I’ve read in some pieces about the show is’ new’ or ‘ emerging,’ and I’m like, this is my life’s work. After this, I should be able to retire.