Cole Escola’s wildly off-kilter historical comedy Oh, Mary! is headed from the stage to television. HBO is set to debut a filmed edition of the Broadway and West End hit in 2027, preserving a London performance that reunited Escola with the title role: a spectacularly unhappy, entirely unconventional Mary Todd Lincoln.
The special was recorded during the production’s July 28, 2026 performance in London. Escola plays Mary alongside Giles Terera as Mary’s Husband, the show’s deliberately sideways version of Abraham Lincoln. Bianca Leigh appears as Mary’s Chaperone, Tony Macht plays Mary’s Husband’s Assistant, and Michael Urie takes on the role of Mary’s Teacher.
For theater fans, the announcement means that a work built around live timing, heightened performances and a compact one-act structure will soon have a version that can reach viewers far beyond the seats available in any one run. For television collectors and pop-culture viewers, it also puts an especially theatrical comedy into HBO’s continuing tradition of presenting performance work at home rather than asking everyone to somehow acquire a plane ticket, a ticketing account and the reflexes of a competitive speedrunner.
A chaotic Mary Todd Lincoln heads for the small screen
Oh, Mary! is not presented as a conventional historical drama, biography or reverent lesson on the Lincoln administration. Its 80-minute, one-act story places Mary Todd Lincoln in the period shortly before Abraham Lincoln’s assassination, then filters her interior life through Escola’s broad, absurdist comic perspective.
The official description frames Mary as trapped and miserable, with longing, drinking and bottled-up desires driving the farce. The show focuses on the imagined dreams and frustrations of a figure who is frequently treated as a supporting presence in stories centered on Abraham Lincoln. In Escola’s hands, that shift does not result in a restrained corrective. It produces a deliberately ridiculous dark comedy whose historical setting operates as the launchpad for escalating behavior.
That premise is central to why the filmed version matters. A recording of a play is not exactly the same object as a live performance: the camera determines the viewer’s focus, editing can shape pace, and the audience at home does not share the room’s moment-to-moment energy. But this particular production is grounded in a tightly constructed performance and a clearly defined comic voice. A filmed presentation should allow audiences to see the staging, the cast’s interplay and Escola’s take on Mary in a complete form, rather than encountering the show solely through clips, descriptions or tales from friends who will not stop saying, “You had to be there.”
The teaser brings Sarah Jessica Parker and Cynthia Nixon into the joke
HBO announced the 2027 presentation with a teaser that finds Escola, in character as Mary, hurrying into HBO’s offices to ask for the network to put on the play. The bit initially plays as a small workplace encounter. Then a request for water triggers a very different pop-culture association: the familiar theme from Sex and the City arrives, and Sarah Jessica Parker is revealed as the person addressing Escola.
Cynthia Nixon then enters carrying water on a silver tray. Escola’s Mary refuses the offer and races off, while Parker dryly observes that the water will be useful to keep nearby. It is a brief promotional sketch, but an efficient one. It establishes HBO as the new destination for the production, acknowledges the network’s history, and lets Escola’s frantic version of Mary collide with two performers closely tied to one of HBO’s most recognizable series.
Related coverage includes ‘Oh, Mary!’ Filmed London Performance Heads to HBO in 2027.
The cameo also fits the show’s sensibility. Oh, Mary! is already built on intentional anachronism and a refusal to behave like a traditional period piece. Putting Mary Todd Lincoln in a contemporary HBO hallway before an encounter with Parker and Nixon is less an interruption of that approach than an extension of it. Historical accuracy was never invited to manage the guest list.
Sam Pinkleton directs the filmed special
Sam Pinkleton, who directed the original Broadway staging, also directs the HBO special. Retaining the original stage director is a meaningful point of continuity, particularly for a work whose comic rhythm and visual choices are part of its identity. A television capture still has to translate a live work into a screen format, but Pinkleton’s involvement connects the filmed edition to the creative approach that established the production onstage.
Pinkleton has described a longstanding affection for filmed theater, citing childhood viewings of Cats and Into the Woods on VHS. That context gives the upcoming HBO presentation an appealing lineage: not an attempt to replace the live experience, but a chance to make a distinctive stage work endure in another format. It is easy to understand the value of that idea for anyone who has ever worn out a taped performance, a concert special or a favorite comedy recording because the physical media player inexplicably understood what mattered.
Escola’s own response to the announcement matches the production’s mischievous tone. While expressing excitement about reaching more people, Escola joked that becoming aware of Oh, Mary! is the first stage of getting rid of it. That is exactly the kind of anti-victory-lap language one might expect from a show that turns historical prestige into a delivery mechanism for chaos.
The cast captured in London
The July 28 filming documents a specific London company rather than functioning as an abstract record of every version the show has had. Escola’s Mary is surrounded by performers playing characters named with intentionally blunt labels: Mary’s Husband, Mary’s Chaperone, Mary’s Husband’s Assistant and Mary’s Teacher.
- Cole Escola as Mary Todd Lincoln
- Giles Terera as Mary’s Husband, also known as Abraham Lincoln
- Bianca Leigh as Mary’s Chaperone
- Tony Macht as Mary’s Husband’s Assistant
- Michael Urie as Mary’s Teacher
Those names signal the show’s comedic architecture. Rather than attempting to create the illusion of a solemn presidential household populated by painstakingly researched historical figures, the play foregrounds Mary’s warped point of view. The people around her are defined by the roles they play in her pressure cooker of a life, and the stripped-down titles leave plenty of room for the performers to make those roles vivid.
The production’s executive producers are Escola; Alex Bach and Daniel Powell for Irony Point; Carlee Briglia and Mike Lavoie for Mike & Carlee Productions; plus Kevin McCollum and Lucas McMahon for Alchemation. Their involvement joins the creative and producing teams behind the stage production with the effort to bring it to HBO.
Why this is a notable screen moment for theater
High-profile stage productions frequently generate enormous interest that can outlast individual casts, cities and limited engagement windows. Yet access can remain difficult. Touring helps, transfers help, and word of mouth definitely helps, but none of those automatically place a show in front of people who live far from major theater centers or cannot attend at a particular time. A filmed special makes a different kind of access possible without pretending that a television is secretly Row G.
For Oh, Mary!, HBO provides a platform with an audience accustomed to signature comedy, prestige drama, performance documentaries and specials. The play’s form may be theatrical, but its sharp premise and compact running time can also be welcoming for viewers who do not approach it as homework. The central idea is immediately legible: here is Mary Todd Lincoln, except the version on screen will behave nothing like the one a textbook trained you to expect.
There is also a broader preservation angle. Live theater is ephemeral by design, and that impermanence is part of its magic. Still, recordings can retain a particular performance, cast chemistry and staging for future audiences. The London capture will preserve Escola in the lead role, with this supporting company, at this point in the play’s evolving life. It becomes a document as well as an entertainment release.
HBO has not provided a specific 2027 premiere date in the announced details. Until that arrives, the teaser gives viewers a concise preview of the special’s tone: Mary Todd Lincoln, played by Escola, navigating an HBO office with the urgency of someone who has a one-act dark comedy to deliver and absolutely no time to sip the water.
Viewers looking for more television programming news can also check this roundup of notable streaming picks. For now, Oh, Mary! has a clearly marked next stop: HBO in 2027, with a filmed London performance ready to introduce Escola’s gloriously unhinged Mary to a much wider audience.
