Cole Escola wins 2025 Tony Award for Best Leading Actor in "Oh, Mary!"

CBS News

2 days ago

Cole Escola took home the 2025 Tony Award for Best Leading Actor in a Play for the role of Mary Todd Lincoln in "Oh, Mary!"
Escola, who also wrote the hit play, beat out George Clooney, Jon Michael Hill, Daniel Dae Kim, Henry Lennix and Louis McCartney to become the first openly non-binary winner in the category. CLICK HERE to see the full list of winners.
The story behind the Broadway hit "Oh, Mary!"
"It's really overwhelming that it's come this far. Now I'm here with my little Tonys pins," Escola told CBS News New York's Dave Carlin after the nominations were announced.
"I had the idea of what if Abraham Lincoln's assassination wasn't such a bad thing for Mary Todd, and then I sort of worked my way backwards from that and thought about what she might have wanted, and what's the stupidest possible thing she could've wanted, which I landed on being a cabaret star," Escola explained, adding, "Why not? You can do anything in theater."
Escola said the Mary Todd Lincoln House, a museum of the house where she lived, even sent the cast t-shirts and said its website saw a boost in traffic because of the show.
"Hopefully, at least some of the audience is learning something after they see our show," said Escola.
"People are wanting something that's surprising"
Conrad Ricamora, who plays Abraham Lincoln, was nominated for his role as a Featured Actor in a Play.
"I knew it was special, I thought it was going to be great downtown for a couple of weeks and then we were going to go on to trying to find another job, and here we are a year-and-a-half later," he said. "The thing that I feel like it's teaching me is that people are wanting something that is surprising, they want to be surprised and to have their entertainment be unexpected. And 'Oh Mary' is definitely surprising and unexpected.
"The fact that people are coming in droves and that we're sold out for show after show and breaking box office records for a small five-person play, that's unexpected," he continued.
As for what it's like sharing the stage with Cole, he said, "It's not hard to feel brave when you have somebody like Cole who's so true to themself and true to their comedy."
Sam Pinkleton won Best Director for "Oh, Mary!" and thanked Escola for teaching him, "Do what you love, not what you think people want to see."
contributed to this report.