Fordham Theatre grad Tony Macht had no idea that Oh, Mary! would become this Broadway season’s runaway hit comedy when he landed a role in the play early this year. Written by and starring comedian Cole Escola, the play had a short run at New York City’s Lucille Lortel Theatre before opening on Broadway in July. It’s a parody featuring Mary Todd Lincoln and Abraham Lincoln, set during the Civil War.
Macht sat down with Fordham Magazine to discuss the bawdy production and his whirlwind experience as the show transformed from little-known downtown play to Broadway smash hit.
How did you get involved with the production?
I literally just auditioned. It wasn’t supposed to be this big show. It was supposed to be six weeks off-Broadway, so it was a pretty low-key audition. I was like, “Well, that went fine,” and I didn’t expect to hear about it ever again. Then I lucked out and I got it.
I had actually been in a TV show called At Home with Amy Sedaris, and Cole Escola was in the same episode, but we never met each other. I remember watching it andCole would pop up, and I’d be like, “That person’s funny. If only I could be that funny.” And I still feel that way, because they’re the funniest person that I’ve ever seen. So it is a full-circle thing to be working with them on this.
Can you describe your role in the show and how you approached it?
My character is Mary’s husband’s assistant. Cole plays Mary Todd Lincoln, so you can figure out who Mary’s husband is. I am the assistant, sort of his bag boy.
How I approach the role is to take it as truly seriously as possible. So, the play is pure farce. But to allow Cole and the others to be the funniest, I have to pretend I’m in an HBO miniseries about Lincoln, and not this übersilly play. That’s the approach—like, this guy’s life is on the line.
The subject matter is fairly edgy.
What’s actually so fun about the show is, while it is edgy—we’re making fun of the president, we’re making fun of these revered political figures from American history—the jokes are actually like Three Stooges jokes. So it’s both very subversive but also strangely comforting because it’s a style of comedy that is so ingrained in all of us just from watching any sitcom ever.
Your show has become a bit of a phenomenon. Have you had a favorite moment?
The one that’s the most amazing is, we had only been open off-Broadway for a week, and Steven Spielberg, Sally Field, and Tony Kushner all came as a little trio. That was truly surreal. Even Cole was starstruck, and we were all just like, “This is so amazing.” And I was just thinking to myself, imagining Sally Field, Tony Kushner, and Steven Spielberg—I guess they still have an active group text from filming the movie Lincoln—and they’re like, “Should we go see this silly show?” And they all said yes. That’s so cute to me.
Any other favorite people you’ve met backstage?
Melissa McCarthy came and was so unbelievably effusive in her praise. She did a classic Melissa McCarthy thing and she literally knelt down before Cole and bowed to them. It was just so funny and you could just tell how much [McCarthy] was touched by it.
Earlier this year, Frank DiLella talked about the multigenerational Fordham posse that exists on Broadway. What has your experience been like as one of the newest members?
I do feel the Fordham presence on Broadway, and the New York theater scene at large. I’m in a fantasy football league with [2017 Fordham grad] Celina Lam, [an associate company manager with Wagner Johnson Productions, co-led by 2002 Fordham grad John Johnson] and I walk by her show The Roommate every night to go home, so I see her all the time. It’s amazing how much stuff Fordham people are producing and acting in and writing. Most of my collaborator friends who I do workshops and things with are still people I met at Fordham. It makes me very proud.
You’ve gone on to grad school, worked in film and TV. Do you feel like your Fordham experience laid a path for the things you’ve done since?
I learned how to act at Fordham. I always had a natural liking of acting, but I had no idea really what I was doing until I came to Fordham. What Fordham was so good at is there’s opportunities to act in front of people constantly. If you don’t get cast on the main stage, you do the studio shows, or you are in class. You just get the reps in. Like an athlete, you just get better by doing it. That’s what allows you to jump in quickly when you get an audition, or when you get a part. That’s the gift of going to a theater school like Fordham.
Interview conducted, edited, and condensed by Franco Giacomarra, FCLC ’19.
