Last month we got to check in with the last remaining original stars of Cole Escola's unlikeliest of wacky smash-hits Oh, Mary!—but we couldn't leave the Lyceum without chatting with another fabulous band of hilarious misfits: the understudies of Oh, Mary!
Unless you're lucky enough to catch them going on, Oh, Mary!'s understudies usually spend the bulk of their time at the Lyceum backstage. They're there to play the roles when the full-time cast has days off, or if someone is sick. And they're onsite during performances just in case a mid-show replacement becomes necessary (a scenario that hasn't played out yet).
But Hannah Solow, Martin Landry, and Julian Manjerico are certainly not hiding in the shadows. I've had the distinct pleasure of seeing all three perform in Escola's fabulous comedy, and they all give performances that are as hilarious as they are singular and unique. Sometimes people groan when understudy slips fall out of their Playbill, but trust me—if you're there when any of these three are on, you better get ready to laugh.
Oh, Mary! has been one of those rare moments when downtown fringe-type theatre—typically beloved by few, even if oh, so passionately—has become a true mainstream hit. The genre-defining play is the true definition of a surprise hit. And Solow, Landry, and Manjerico have had one of the most unique vantage points for that wild ride as offstage understudies.
READ: Camp and the Art of Being Cole Escola
It helps that none of this trio is the type to stay hidden in the shadows. They all have attracted their own fanbase, unusually so for a show's offstage understudies. Solow even went certified viral after posting a hilarious video of herself backstage uttering the now infamously beloved phrase, "We could see BOOP!" (We even got her to do the much anticipated follow-up.)
Each is just as hilariously off-beat as you would expect a member of the Oh, Mary! cast to be. And they've all had unusual seats to watch the show's wild ride to becoming a Broadway hit. Sitting down with all three backstage at the Lyceum before a recent performance, I got to cover all of the above and more. Read on for the full conversation, which has been edited for length and clarity.
Tell me about being a backstage swing, especially in this huge hit.
Martin Landry: For most of the show, it’s like how cats lay around most of the day and they’re super chill. And then every now and then they get the zoomies. I’d say, that’s a little bit of what understudy life is like. Usually it’s super chill—we have our rooms. We enjoy hanging out with each other, just chilling. And sometimes it’s crazy.
I assume sometimes you know in advance you’re going on, and sometimes you might find out moments before.
Hannah Solow: I think the latest noticed I’ve had was at half-hour. We were in a meeting, and Julian describes my reaction as if I was a robot that clicked into place when they were like, "Hannah, you’re on." I was like, all right, and I stood up and walked out of the room, put on my wig, and went onstage.
And are you good to go when that happens, or do you need time to prep?
Solow: I actually prefer to have less notice. The more time I have, my insane brain turns on and starts thinking, ‘What if you’re bad?’ With less notice, it’s just like pure adrenaline. I’m like, let’s fucking kick down the door and go.
Landry: Not to one-up you, but I had 15 minutes once.
Solow: He’s always one-upping me!
Martin, I’ve seen you go on for Mary’s Husband’s Assistant, and when you came on stage, I was shocked because you’re so much taller than Tony Macht. And yet you were completely hilarious in the role. How do you navigate that when there’s such a big physical difference from how the role is usually?
Landry: I understudy the three pants roles, as we call them around here, so Mary’s Assistant, Mary’s Teacher, and Mary’s Husband’s Assistant. And I’m very physically different from all of those people. We definitely had to check some things in the audition process, if one of the physical jokes was possible.
Yes! I know the moment you’re talking about. I don’t want to spoil it for our readers, but your version of it is so funny, and in a whole different way.
Landry: Yes, without giving anything away, let’s just say it’s like watching a baby giraffe stand.
But to that end, and this is clearly true for all of you, they must be encouraging you all to make these roles your own and not just fit into what the other actors are doing necessarily.
Julian Manjerico: Yeah, when I came here, I had this idea in my head of Broadway as perfection and clean and precise, almost like a machine. And our show is the complete opposite in the best way, just being able to try new things every time. And surrounded by a company that encourages that. There’s been other shows that my friends have been in, term and I hear stories of them trying something new and the other actors are not into it. Being in a space where you are allowed to play every night whenever we do go on, it just makes it more exciting and takes away the fear of “having to get it right.” It helps me relinquish control and just have fun, because the script is so funny already.
Landry: Yeah, just say the lines.
Julian, I know you joined at the beginning of this year when the show had been running for several months. What was it like joining this train that was already well underway?
Manjerico: I joined and I was in the back corner for all of the rehearsal process for the new cast that was coming in, and I basically didn’t talk. I knew how weird I am.
Solow: Yeah, you’ve really let that out slowly.
Manjerico: Like a pressure cooker.
Solow: But we know anyone who joins the show is a freak, and so it’s just a matter of time before the freak flag is allowed to fly, if I may borrow a phrase from Shrek The Musical.
Manjerico: Please do. I always tell people I feel like the little brother here, where everyone makes fun of me and gives me such tough love. And I know deep down they all love me so much.
Solow: We love Julian.
Manjerico: It’s amazing to come here and laugh with everyone.
Landry: Doing the show is hazing.
Manjerico: That’s so true. I felt like I got closer to everyone after my first time going on, especially when I went on for Abraham. Because it’s like, I did my job. I covered all the aspects of my job. And it felt like now the cast was like, okay, now you can hang. I feel like I finally earned my spot.
I know you’ve been juggling some screen work too while doing this, Adults!
Manjerico: Well, Adults came first, and then this happened before it came out. But Adults helped to re-encourage me to just be so… because my character in Adults is so stupid and silly. On set, I was able to do whatever I wanted—50 takes doing everything I wanted to do. And I definitely copy-pasted that into this performance. And it’s been lovely seeing people at the stage door, especially when I went on for Abraham. I came out and was signing things, and people were like, "By the way, we love Zack-Carlos." And I was like, “Oh, don’t bring that twink up right now.” [laughs] It’s been cool.
I think it speaks to just how big of a hit this show is. We usually think of understudies and swings hiding in the wings or whatever, but all of you have such active personas and fanbases. I mean Hannah, “We could see BOOP!” alone is for the ages!
Landry: I hear that all the time walking to the theatre. And not because Hannah is around. People just organically screaming it out.
Solow: I’ve signed multiple BOOP! Playbills at the stage door of Oh, Mary!
How did that take off? Like, whose fault is that?
Solow: Great question! I filmed it here in my dressing room, and I film stupid stuff in there constantly.
Landry: And during a super emotional scene! You can hear it in the background.
Sollow: Yeah, if you listen closely, you can actually kind of hear Cole. But I think it was Melody [Rose] from The Outsiders that quoted it, and then it just took on this life of its own, to the point where I became a little bit scared. You know, like when the internet becomes so big that it’s like, oh wait, turn it off. My ethos, ultimately, is if I think something is funny, that’s all I care about, and I post that on the internet. So any time I post something and other people think it’s funny, I’m like… wait, what?
There’s something I think about the energy of a show like Oh, Mary! and all of you, that loving it and loving the humor almost feels like an inside joke.
Solow: Totally. That whole thing and this show, too, it’s like everyone feels like they’re on in this secret, and now the secret is out there. I got to stage door last week, and there were tons of people at the stage door, which is still kind of shocking to me. And it was kids that wanted to tell me about their one-act play that they’re doing, or people that came for their friend’s birthday because they heard the show is funny. It’s truly baffling to think that we are here with, like, moms from New Jersey, when I still remember the first night of it Off-Broadway, [director] Sam [Pinkleton] going, “There’s too many gay people here.” [laughing] It really was how many gay people can we fit in one room.
READ: Director Sam Pinkleton On How He Recasts Oh, Mary!
Yeah, I remember it feeling like that Off-Broadway too. And on Broadway, now I tend to be surrounded by everybody, so many people that you just wonder how they decided to come to Oh, Mary! of all things. And yet they always laugh!
Solow: They always laugh!
Manjerico: The first two months that I was here, I would be in the back watching the show all the time, so I got to see the audience’s reaction. You get to see the crowd from the back, and you see everyone’s heads just go forward and wave.
Solow: And anyone who doesn’t laugh… something is medically wrong.
See more photos from Solow, Landry, and Manjerico's photo shoot with Playbill's Heather Gershonowitz below:
Martin Landry, Hannah Solow, and Julian Manjerico
Martin Landry, Hannah Solow, and Julian Manjerico
Martin Landry, Hannah Solow, and Julian Manjerico
Hannah Solow
Hannah Solow
Hannah Solow
Hannah Solow
Hannah Solow
Hannah Solow
Martin Landry
Martin Landry
Martin Landry
Martin Landry
Martin Landry
Julian Manjerico
Julian Manjerico
Julian Manjerico
Julian Manjerico
