Tituss Burgess never thought he'd star in 'Oh, Mary!' — but its playwright did

Through April 6, the Emmy nominee leads the hit comedy play written by and originally starring Cole Escola, who envisioned Burgess in the title role months ago.

In a Variety interview last July, just before Oh, Mary! opened on Broadway after a hit Off-Broadway premiere, playwright and original star Cole Escola hoped the show would continue to run after they departed the title role.

"I fantasize about Tituss Burgess," Escola told Variety of their dream replacement. "I think he would be incredible."

Having seen the Broadway production, Burgess got wind of this and thought, "Oh, that's kind," he later told New York Theatre Guide. "The truth is, I never thought I would do it. Full stop. In fact, when they called me [with an offer], I literally said, 'Fuck.'"

Escola had made an indelible mark on the theatre world with their hilariously unhinged portrait of Mary Todd Lincoln. In Oh, Mary!, she's a repressed, restless hurricane of a woman who cares little for the rules of decorum set by her (also repressed) husband and would rather be a cabaret star.

Escola exited the play on January 19, though they'll return alongside the full original cast on April 8, after Burgess departs. GLOW star Betty Gilpin earned audience acclaim as Escola's first replacement and cemented Oh, Mary!'s staying power beyond its writer. Burgess is poised to do the same.

He proved his own comic chops with a five-time Emmy Award-nominated turn as Titus Andromedon on Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt, plus performances in Broadway shows such as Moulin Rouge! The Musical and The Little Mermaid. But being the first Black actor to play Mary, Burgess said, adds an extra dramatic layer to the show.

"It's not lost on me that the Lincoln family [me and Phillip James Brannon as Abe] is of African American descent, and that's where I start," Burgess said. "That's where it will start to be different."

Escola's "wonderful" writing remains unchanged, though, Burgess enthused. As he dons Mary's curls starting March 18, Burgess spoke with New York Theatre Guide about playing the role he never expected.

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What was it like to watch Oh, Mary! for the first time from the audience?

Oh my God, it is replete with everything you want as an audience member. It's horribly dramatic. Obviously, it's incredibly funny.

It is just a good play. I'm hard-pressed to recall anything funnier that I've seen in the last 10 years. And I really am not just saying that because I'm going into the show. Really, I laughed the entire 80 minutes.

What is the biggest challenge of playing Mary?

When you see it, it's so athletic. Even now, having gone through it a few times, when it's over, I still am like, "Did I just do it?" [...] But I'm having a wonderful time doing that and living in Cole's beautiful world of delusion.

What do you bring to the role of Mary?

I mean, there's the obvious: I'm a Black man, and I bring all of that into that theatre, all that is baked in historically.

It starts there for me. We are singled out. We are often told no at every turn, and that is exactly what Mary's journey is like. And it leads to other traumas, and it leads to a world of delusion.

What has been your favorite part of performing the role so far?

The reckless abandon that she gets to walk around with and how, even inside her prison, she gets to unleash some demons in the most extreme ways. And that is horribly satisfying.

What should fans of your TV work be excited about when they come to see you on stage?

If you're coming just to see me, you will be in for a pleasant surprise, because you will quickly realize you are coming to see this play. I am the most of it and the least of it. And I really mean that — it is such a good time that I hope that you'll both forget that it's me up there and just dissolve into the world of Oh, Mary!

Have you been in contact with Cole since getting the part?

Yes, of course. They reached out and were pleased and offered nothing but lovely superlatives and encouragement. Cole is a very, very busy person. I think they chose me because they knew I wouldn't need coddling. I would take care of their piece.

Did they give you any advice?

Not really, no. Cole wrote such a wonderful, wonderful play. All the information is there. You just have to show up and say the text and be honest about what you're doing and bring all of you.

I didn't want to be too heavily influenced by what I saw. It's really easy to adopt certain eccentricities or whatever, but it makes more sense to find my own way. That's what the audience is going to want from me, is something completely different. Otherwise, they could have gone to see Betty or Cole.

What would you want to go down in history for?

Being an excellent conduit for transmuting energy, and that's what I do very easily.

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Photo credit: Tituss Burgess. (Photo by Nina Duncan)