Listen to article \u2022\u00a00:00 min<\/p>\n
The riotous play Oh, Mary!<\/a> has found two new leads for its first North American tour kicking off this fall: drag queen Alaska Thunderf \u2014 and Broadway darling J. Harrison Ghee. When the show lands in Philadelphia next March, Ghee will take the spotlight as the delightfully mad first lady Mary Todd Lincoln. <\/p>\n First, though, the titular role will go to Alaska, a winner of RuPaul\u2019s Drag Race All Stars, who grew up in Erie, Pa., and graduated from the University of Pittsburgh. While she stars as Mary, Ghee \u2014 a longtime New Yorker originally from Fayetteville, N.C. \u2014 will play \u201cMary\u2019s Husband,\u201d aka President Abraham Lincoln, becoming the first actor to play both roles in the play. <\/p>\n The 2026-27 tour starts in Hartford, Conn., in September and runs through May, with stops including Washington, Boston, Los Angeles, and Detroit. Alaska will play Mary through Jan. 17 and Ghee will take over the lead role beginning Jan. 19 in Chicago. They will be the star during the show\u2019s brief Philly run at the Miller Theater from March 9 to 14.<\/p>\n The camp comedy from actor\/comedian Cole Escola follows a miserable, alcoholic Mary Lincoln just before her husband\u2019s assassination in a satirical story that \u201cfinally examines the forgotten life and dreams of Mrs. Lincoln through the lens of an idiot.\u201d Following Escola, several stars have put their own stamp on the role, including Tituss Burgess, Maya Rudolph, Jane Krakowski, and Jinkx Monsoon (another breakout star from the RuPaul\u2019s Drag Race universe). <\/p>\n The play was a massive hit when it landed on Broadway in 2024, becoming a Pulitzer Prize finalist and receiving five Tony Award nominations. Oh, Mary! won two in 2025, including best direction of a play and best performance by an actor in a leading role in a play for Escola \u2014 who made Tony Award history as the first nonbinary actor to win in that category.<\/p>\n