“Oh, Mary!”:  a skewed view of that fun couple, the Lincolns!

You’d think, after all these years, that there’s nothing new to learn about Abraham Lincoln, his relations with wife Mary Todd Lincoln, and the last night they went to the theater together. But you’d be wrong.

Author and actor Cole Escola has turned their talents to dish the tea about Abe, Mary, theater acting vs. cabaret performance, and that pesky Civil War. They do it with high style, off-the-wall humor, and just a tinge of madness in the new comedy Oh, Mary!

Escola, swathed in voluminous black skirts, claims the stage for themselves as Mary Todd Lincoln. A former “niche cabaret legend,” she was persuaded by her husband (Conrad Ricamora) to leave cabaret after their marriage, forced into acting the role of dutiful wife and proper First Lady to a closeted gay President. Out of boredom, or so Mary claims, she has become a drunk — one that blurts out whatever is on her mind, no matter how scandalous, innuendo-laden, or hurtful it may be.

Although her female chaperone Louise (Bianca Leigh) tries to divert her with needlepoint and art, and Abe and his military aide Simon (Tony Macht) try to uncover her secret caches of booze, Mary plots to return to the cabaret world. To delay this, Abe arranges for Mary to take acting lessons from a down-on-his-luck actor (James Scully) to prepare for a career on the legitimate stage.

Oh, Mary! is a whirling, non-stop barrage of gags and slapstick situations, gleefully subverting the conventional view of the Lincolns. Aside from Mary’s drunkenness, there is Abe’s preoccupation with Simon’s manly charms and casual references to mild sexual kinks (you’ll never think of ice cream in the same way again). And, of course, there is that fateful night in Ford’s Theatre.

Director Sam Pinkleton has encouraged his cast to go big in their performances, delivering all of playwright Escola’s best lines and business as verbal and comedic pyrotechnics. The set, by a three-person design collective calling themselves dots, handily meets the demands of Escola’s plot. Holly Pierson’s costumes allow for a lot of rough-and-tumble stage action.

Oh, Mary! is a madcap romp, the perfect salty confection for a summer’s evening at the theater. It is a comedic triumph for “leading lady” Escola and the rest of the cast, conveyed with an energy that pulls you along with every off-the-wall twist and turn, surrendering logic in favor of laughter. Go along with this brisk farce, and you’ll soon find yourself going Oh, Mary!

Oh, Mary! is presented at the Lyceum Theatre, 149 W. 45th St., in New York, through November 11th, 2024. For more information, go to ohmaryplay.com; to purchase tickets, go to telecharge.com.