Tony-winning stage and screen star Jane Krakowski will be the next niche cabaret star of Broadway's Oh, Mary! at the Lyceum Theatre, with a limited, eight-week engagement running October 14-December 7.
Krakowski got her start on Broadway, making her Broadway debut in 1987's Starlight Express before making appearances in Grand Hotel, Company, and Once Upon a Mattress, among others. She won a Tony Award for her work as Carla in 2003's Nine, a performance that notably featured Krakowski singing "A Call From the Vatican" while descending from the top of the Eugene O'Neill Theatre in a sensual and acrobatic silks routine. Just three years later, she became the hilariously vain Jenna Maroney on NBC's cult favorite series 30 Rock, and she's made the bulk of her career on the screen ever since. Her most recent Broadway return was as Ilona in the 2016 revival of She Loves Me, which earned Krakowski a Tony nomination.
“Thank you, Cole, for giving us this madcap work of genius, directed to perfection by Tony Award winner Sam Pinkleton,” says Krakowski in a statement. “I am so honored to slip into the bratty curls previously worn by (my Tony Award–winning zaddy) Cole Escola, (my sister wife) Betty Gilpin, (my comedy brother) Tituss Burgess, and (mother) Jinkx Monsoon. From the first time I watched Oh, Mary! downtown I thought, 'how do I get myself on that stage in this role?' After watching Cole take the NYC taxi ride uptown and now worshipping it four times more, I made it! Oh, Mary! is a comedic work of genius that ends up in my dream version of seven minutes in heaven.”
Cole Escola's Tony-nominated comedy currently stars Jinkx Monsoon (Pirates!) as Mary, Kumail Nanjiani (Marvel's Eternals) as Mary's Husband, Michael Urie (Once Upon a Mattress) as Mary's Teacher, Jenn Harris (Elsbeth) as Mary's Chaperone, and Tony Macht as Mary's Husband's Assistant. That entire cast is set to perform through September 28, standby Hannah Solow to take on the role of Mary full-time September 30-October 12.
Oh, Mary! centers on famous First Lady Mary Todd Lincoln in the weeks leading up to the assassination of Abraham Lincoln. In Escola's demented take (or as press notes put it, "through the lens of an idiot"), Mary Todd becomes a madcap, cabaret-obsessed alcoholic.
The piece premiered at Off-Broadway's Lucille Lortel Theatre in 2024 in a run that was extended three times. It then opened on Broadway last summer, where it's been breaking box-office records at the Lyceum Theatre; it became the first show in the theatre’s 121-year history to gross more than $1,000,000 in a single week.
The show earned two 2025 Tony Awards: Lead Actor in a Play for Escola (who recently departed the play) and Director of a Play for Sam Pinkleton.
The play's understudies are Hannah Solow, Martin Landry, and Julian Manjerico.
READ: Director Sam Pinkleton on the Art of Recasting Oh, Mary!
Oh, Mary's creative team includes scenic designer dots, costume designer Holly Pierson, lighting designer Cha See, composer and co-sound designer Daniel Kluger, co-sound designer Drew Levy, wig designer Leah J. Loukas, and music arranger David Dabbon. Casting is by Henry Russell Bergstein. Bryan Bauer and Ryan Patrick Kane are production stage manager and assistant stage manager, respectively.
Visit OhMaryPlay.com.
Gavin Creel and Jane Krakowski in She Loves Me
