Playbill: Anyone familiar with the unique brand of idiocy that made Cole Escola a cult YouTube and TV star was anything but shocked that their first stage play Oh, Mary! was hilarious. That it's also become a major commercial hit on Broadway—so much so that the production has extended several times at the Lyceum Theatre and had no less than two replacement stars while Escola was taking a hiatus—has been anything but expected.
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I think that there's always this really interesting dichotomy when it comes to recasting a part. First, you don't want to constrain someone to someone else's role. you want them to be able to have their own experiences and connections with the character they're playing in the world that they're living in, otherwise it just sort of comes off as flat. But on the other hand, as someone with a vested interest in making the show survivable and making enough money to keep the show alive, you want to give the audience what they're paying for, which a lot of the time is the original rule. I think that there's no easy solution, unless you're in the very rare circumstance where someone has already gotten praise and recognition for their take on the character that you are trying to replace. I think that from what it sounds like, the director here handles it pretty well because they gave space for the character to remain the same, but with different takes, which makes it feel more authentic to the audience.
It must have been a challenge to handle recasting Oh, Mary! When Cole Escola went on hiatus last winter. When you have a part that is so closely associated to the person who originated it (think Idina Menzel and Kristin Chenoweth in Wicked, Lin Manuel Miranda in Hamilton, or Carol Channing in Hello, Dolly), how do you go about recasting the part in a way that stays true to the piece but doesn’t put it in jeopardy? Many productions have failed at this—Mean Girls put in a slew of stunt-cast internet celebrities in an attempt to generate buzz, but their lackluster performances disappointed audiences. At the same time, recasting has also saved productions: when Lea Michele took over for Beanie Feldstein in Funny Girl, sales skyrocketed and the show got rave reviews. I think Henry Russel, Oh Mary’s casting director, made the right choice by casting Gilpin and Burgess. Both actors reimagine Mary Todd Lincoln in completely different ways, giving the role new life instead of attempting to imitate Escola.
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