To John Cameron Mitchell, Mary Todd Lincoln Isn't All That Different From Hedwig Schmidt

John Cameron Mitchell is pulling the wig down from the shelf—but this time, he’s trading his infamous blonde rocker rolls for brunette bratty curls. The theatre veteran, who originated the role of Dickon in The Secret Garden and co-created Hedwig and the Angry Inch, has returned to the Main Stem for the first time in 11 years—this time as the volatile Mary Todd Lincoln. Mitchell joined the cast of Oh, Mary! on February 3, making them the seventh actor to take on the mantle originated by creator Cole Escola.

Before making his way to the Lyceum Theatre to sniff out bottles of whiskey and drink paint thinner, Mitchell is unwinding in a bath in his New York apartment—he's relaxed, and reflecting on how Jinx Monsoon’s time in Broadway’s Oval Office inspired him.

“The second time I saw [Oh, Mary!] was with Jinkx, and it was so different,” Mitchell tells Playbill in a call from his bathtub. “I realized the character was quite flexible in the way it could be played. The actual play is pretty tight, but her interpretation can be quite variable. That’s borne out by seeing a lot of other people do it.”

After seeing the drag superstar as Mary Todd, Mitchell posted online about how much he loved the show and tagged Oh, Mary! director Sam Pinkleton. The director responded through DMs, and the pair started working on ways to collaborate. With the combined minds of a Tony honoree and a Tony winner, of course magic is bound to happened. Mitchell recalls, “I said, 'Well, I’ll throw my wig in the ring for Mary,’ among other things. And lo and behold, a couple of months later, I was asked to do it.”

​Reflecting on his version of the former First Lady, who bears little resemblance to the one we know from the history books, Mitchell is very precise: “My approach is that she has more pretensions to highfalutin stardom. Maybe she homeschooled herself in elocution and finishing school, so she puts on airs—and then they quickly collapse. She’s not very good at them, and she’s quite a drunk.” Mitchell laughs. “But she has an incredibly relatable need to be seen and appreciated, to the chagrin of many people around her.”

Unlike what many might assume, Oh, Mary! isn’t just a slapstick comedy. Underneath the hoop skirts and Victorian dresses, there is a complex sadness to the character of Mary. Mitchell seeks to convey that wholeheartedly. “I'm emphasizing her vulnerability. Yes, she's very cool, but comes out of this incredible insecurity,” he says fervently. “She talks about the pain finally making sense, she says it a couple of times. So, I honor those passages by giving them emotional weight.”

True to any renowned actor taking a new role very seriously, his character study of Broadway’s “rather well-known niche cabaret legend” expands beyond the page. “I have a feeling that the sequel to Oh, Mary! is she's running for president, and perhaps her platform is unconventional. Everyone in the whole world, country has to take tap dance lessons, and the only war she would sanction is probably against closet cases who have made life very difficult,” he laughs.

Unlikely as it sounds, Mary Todd Lincoln actually shares striking parallels with John Cameron Mitchell’s most famous creation, Hedwig Schmidt from Hedwig and the Angry Inch—the glitter-drenched, sharp-tongued East German rock star who undergoes a botched gender reassignment surgery to marry an American sergeant and escape to the United States. Created by Mitchell and composer Stephen Trask for their 1998 Off-Broadway musical (a role Mitchell later played in the 2001 film and 2015 Broadway production), Hedwig became synonymous with her creator. Despite their vastly different worlds, both Mary and Hedwig are shaped by nations torn apart by war. Both channel their pain into performance, harbor anger forged by trauma, and are driven by a fierce desire to be seen, understood, and connected in a fractured world.

Reflects Mitchell: “They both feel unappreciated. I think maybe Hedwig is probably a bit more talented, yes, but not for lack of trying. Being a woman in her world, being unintentionally gender fluid in a way that was sort of forced on Hedwig. There's a kind of, ‘Look what the world has done to me.’ They both start out as victims, but I think by the end, they let go of that.”

The invisible strings between the Oh, Mary! and Hedwig family weave into quite the web. In a bit of kismet, Jenn Harris—currently delighting audiences as Mary’s Teacher—was subleasing Mitchell’s apartment before he stepped into the production himself. He has also previously shared the screen with Betty Gilpin, the first actor to take over for Escola in Oh, Mary!

Two Hedwig and the Angry Inch alums have also played Mary: Monsoon and original West End Mary, Mason Alexander Park. The former played Hedwig in her hometown of Seattle while the latter understudied the role of Hedwig on the national tour. In fact, according to Mitchell, Monsoon and Park were once neck and neck for that tour slot.

What makes Mary Todd and Hedwig stand out from most leading theatrical roles is that they have been brought to life by performers of a variety of races, nationalities, sexualities, and points on the gender spectrum—each interpretation adding something bold and unexpected. It’s only fitting that the fans are just as vibrant and varied. “I love that Hedwig remains a flagpole for all misfits, including trans people, including non-binary people, including anyone who didn't fit in. It's always been a mixed crowd,” Mitchell proudly proclaims.

In his last Broadway outing—starring as the fourth replacement in the Tony-winning Broadway premiere of Hedwig and the Angry Inch—Mitchell severely injured his knee. The mishap gave birth to the now-famous “crate” performances where he performed sitting on a bar stool with a brace strapped to his leg and a wooden crate placed under his foot (in Tommy Gnosis’ Converses instead of Hedwig’s gold heels) to keep it elevated. “Ripping my knee out was an advantage, because I didn't have to do choreography. I can focus on the acting and singing,” jokes Mitchell.

In that moment, he chose to turn pain and injury into comedy gold. Mitchell turned to his friend Eric Gilliland, former showrunner of Roseanne, who helped him concoct an absurd explanation for the brace: Hedwig was attacked outside of the 6th Avenue Dress Barn by an assailant in a Michael C. Hall mask. Luckily, Hedwig’s husband Yitzak was there to save the day. Gilliland, who passed away in 2024, was more than an admired television writer. He was also a mentor to both Cole Escola and their longtime collaborator Jeffrey Self.

Rest assured, Mitchell has no interest in pushing his body to the brink this time. “I’m getting very different modalities to keep myself going,” he says proudly. During his limited 12-week run through April 26, he is adhering to a strict routine: clean eating, regular cardio, and sessions with the production’s on-call physical therapist. Onstage, he opts for flats instead of traditional character heels and wears knee pads for the show’s more physical moments.

The journey to the Oval Office started well before the eight put-in rehearsals Mitchell had prior to his opening night. After he was cast, Mitchell began memorizing his lines on long bike rides and with the help of friends in one of his favorite cities, New Orleans.

“To me, that New-Orleans-to-New-York railroad is very vital right now,” Mitchell exclaims. He has carved out quite the home for himself in “The Big Easy”; literally, he owns a home there. He refers to it as one of the last American cities “with its soul intact,” saying, “it reminds me of New York in the past. It has its problems, but artists can still afford to make work there—though insurance everywhere is very expensive now.

The clubs, back rooms, and scrappy downtown venues where artists like Mitchell once had the freedom to experiment have almost all disappeared in New York. Mitchell names two venues that have continued to hold that torch: “Joe's Pub created a place where we were welcome—where the weirdos were welcome—and we made our stuff. Another is Ars Nova, which Jason Eagan, who was actually my assistant on Short Bus, ran. And it's a kind of community.”

Hedwig and the Angry Inch emerged from that vanishing ecosystem. The theatre, which once hosted the show’s Off-Broadway run, was converted into a ballroom when the building was converted into The Jane Hotel, which has also closed its doors. The workshop performances that shaped the show were done at Squeezebox, an influential punk-rock drag club in Tribeca, which closed in the early 2000s.

“There’s an unsung thread in New York theatre history—drag theatre,” Mitchell states with a deep nostalgic veneration, citing John Vaccaro, Charles Ludlam, and Charles Busch, along with performers such as Jackie Beat, Sherry Vine, and Lady Bunny. “These people would do plays, sometimes very sophisticated like Busch, and that inspired me to make Hedwig.”

Mitchell sees Oh, Mary! as the latest sensations in the legacy of drag theatre. “Cole is part of that tradition,” proclaims Mitchell. “It's just a long time coming for a play like this to be on Broadway, because Charles Brewster's plays should have been on Broadway. It was homophobia and fear of drag that killed it. Hedwig was never on Broadway back in the day because it wasn't ready for it. And now we realize that there’s nothing more Broadway than drag theatre.”

With all eyes on Cole Escola and Oh, Mary!’s triumphant Broadway run, the show has now crossed the Atlantic for a West End debut and is preparing to launch a national tour—bringing drag theatre to new audiences while thrilling the devoted fans who helped it get there.

Mitchell recalls a similar turning point for Hedwig and the Angry Inch when it transferred to Broadway 15 years after the closure of its Off-Broadway run. “We’re so grateful to our Broadway producers, especially David Binder, and to Neil Patrick Harris,” he says. Harris’ star power, Mitchell notes, made the show feel accessible to a wider audience—“[He] made it okay for moms to watch Hedwig and say, ‘Oh, this is a person I like.’ And now it's all over the world.” Hedwig has exploded far beyond its cult beginnings, cementing itself as a global phenomenon. And now, Oh, Mary! is doing the same.

And artists like Mitchell continue to help light the way—happily passing the fabulous wig to the next generation. Supporting emerging talent, especially within the queer community, is something he takes seriously. “It's very important for me when I see young artists who excite me, to promote them, to connect them on Instagram. I'll just DM some queer, lesser-known talent and say, you're amazing,” he says.

After decades of carving out his own space in the world of queer art with musicals, concerts, and movies, Mitchell finds himself carrying a different hammer and chisel to help carve out the much newer formation that is Oh, Mary! Though believe it or not, this seasoned performer still gets anxious. “I'm a little nervous about Cole coming, and I've made sure they don't tell me when they are. I hope they'll be pleased that I'm trying new things within the world of the play that might enrich it. I think future Marys borrow from earlier Marys, and that's part of the tradition.”