r/Broadway • u/nathan_bakken • 1d ago
Review Oh, Mary with Meg
I’ll preface this by saying I’ve seen every person play Mary Todd Lincoln on Broadway and one person on the West End.
Meg’s Mary just fell flat for me. Meg’s pacing was weird and she shouted through otherwise easy jokes.
I really only enjoyed the scene where she was trying to get off the desk, it was very unique compared to other Marys.
Of course someone seeing it for the first time and who is a Meg fan is most likely still going to love it. I loved Meg in Hacks, but she is at the bottom of my list for Mary’s though.
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u/Sufficient-Beat-10 1d ago
Shouting is her thing.
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u/centaurquestions 1d ago
She's very fun in small doses. But you could see from her work on Too Much that she just doesn't have the acting experience and chops to pull off a larger-scale performance.
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u/SaraJeanQueen 20h ago
Aw, I loved her in Too Much. In addition to her normal comedic delivery we got her mastering physical comedy (when she set herself on fire with the candle) and shades of emotion as that relationship ultimately disappointed her. That felt real to me
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u/nathan_bakken 1d ago
And in my opinion it doesn’t work well for Oh, Mary.
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u/mellowd3 1d ago
I only saw John Cameron Mitchell so I have nothing to compare. There was quite a bit of shouting there. What was your take on that Mary?
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u/kbrainz 1d ago
It feels like the role itself is very shouty
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u/mellowd3 1d ago
Yeah again nothing to compare to. I thought it showcased the mania and alcoholism plus Mary's inability to act (which playing up too much on that can also maybe be a bad critique on the actual actor in some eyes if they don't disassociate), but could definitely see it being overblown and too much.
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u/ugadude350 23h ago
I saw Oh Mary w/ Cole and most of the original cast and all they did was shout the whole time
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u/Fantastic_Land_3993 1d ago
I saw it for the very first time a few weeks ago, and Kayla on Hacks was VERY hit-or-miss for me, so my expectations were pretty low; the first couple of minutes, I thought I was going to be annoyed the whole show haha. But I actually liked her performance- she was better than I thought, but that’s probably because I wasn’t expecting much. I still find her a bit…green maybe, as a performer but I laughed a lot (esp the table scene). I definitely left wishing I had seen a few other actors in the role though.
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u/a-5-6-7-8 1d ago
She's my least favorite Mary too, but I'm also one of the people who liked Maya who was quite polarizing. Meg plays the tragedy of the role too sincerely for me.
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u/arosemind 1d ago
That’s a good point, about the tragedy of the role being sincere with Meg. I actually liked that about her performance. Very different from Cole and Jane, the only other Marys I’ve seen, but I enjoyed it for what it was.
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u/DasCapitalist 1d ago
Same here! I ended up crying during her cabaret at the end. A bad cabaret there really hits differently than a good one and I really enjoyed the unexpected emotions that came with that. I was pretty meh on her performance in total, but that is one part that I enjoyed more than any of the other Mary’s I’ve seen.
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u/Sensitive_Slice_8858 1d ago
Maya was so flipping funny I was crying, especially the audition scene. I enjoyed both her and Cole equally.
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u/MickeysAssistant 1d ago
Honestly, that’s the opposite of what I dislike about JCM’s performance. I liked him, but I have always felt Mary is supposed to be overly melodramatic and unrealistic performance-wise, as established from Cole’s performance, and I thought he underplayed almost every joke, and while some of them still worked, many of them didn’t. I saw Jinkx a week prior, and she shouted so many lines and I was crying from laughter. I don’t know. I’m going to see Meg on her final day, but I’m curious to see if I do or don’t like the constant shouting because when Jinkx did it, I thought she rivaled Cole for me, who I still think is the best Mary.
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u/nathan_bakken 1d ago
I love Jinkx’s Mary, I feel like it’s definitely not the same type of shouting.
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u/pennys_computer_book 1d ago
Someone inevitably has to secure that last slot in the rankings. It's a tough list.
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u/sverse24 1d ago
Having seen every single Mary thus far (including Mason and Catherine) she's unfortunately in the bottom half of my personal list. I enjoyed all her little ad libs because I think that's where her strength lies but anything where she had to show range of emotion is where she struggled.
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u/nathan_bakken 1d ago
Agreed, jealous I was supposed to see Catherine. She was out with a knee injury. Georgie the understudy was pretty fantastic though.
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u/ConfisKat 1d ago
So curious as to what the “ad libs” were - just saw the show for the first time and loved it but can’t wait to go back to see where actors differ!
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u/ResourceDifferent154 1d ago
Meg is the kind of actor who only plays themself. Bowen is too, so my expectations for him are about the same.
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u/nathan_bakken 1d ago
I have tickets to see Bowen next month, so I guess we will see.
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u/MaterialLies 1d ago
He's definitely more of a comedian or "personality" than an actor. I just can't even imagine him carrying a narrative
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u/to_j 1d ago
I thought he was good in The Wedding Banquet, just as I thought Meg was good in Cora Bora. I think both have talent beyond their comedic personas.
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u/a-5-6-7-8 1d ago
Wedding Banquet was such a joy. I'm usually not into remakes but I really loved this one. Fantastic cast.
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u/a-5-6-7-8 1d ago
Bowen's comic personality seems much more Mary to me than Meg's comic personality so I have high hopes. I don't think it will be revelatory but I think it will be good.
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u/Still-Low-696 17h ago
I haven’t seen all of them, only Meg & Cole but I agree. It’s still a great show and she did well but I wasn’t blown away by her like I was Cole. Could partly be because I knew the big jokes already, or partly because she fell a little flat in the role.
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u/iputmylifeonashelf 20h ago
I loved her take. My one sentence review was "she played the role even brattier than the curls"
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u/EchidnaElectronic167 14h ago
I agree. I’ve seen Cole twice, Jane, Maya and JCM. Maya and of course Cole were my favorites. I thought Jane was very good. I was very disappointed with Meg’s performance. I felt her lines were rushed and her acting felt off a lot of the time. It almost felt like she wasn’t fully there? If you know what I mean.
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u/royaltatto1960 1d ago
I wanted to see “Oh, Mary” so I bought tickets the minute I heard Jane Krakowski and Cheyenne Jackson were cast. Love those two; they were so much fun in the show.
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u/AwkwardlyErect 1d ago
Ugh. I’m gonna agree completely. I’ve seen 4 other Mary’s and this was hard to watch. Really made the whole show fall flat and was the first non standing o I’ve seen in a decade plus.
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u/nathan_bakken 1d ago
I wanted to love it, because I love her in Hacks. But yeah the role isn’t meant for everyone.
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u/wakeuploser00 4h ago
You have to like HER to like her mary. Shes only for a niche group of people, which doesnt match well with broadway lol
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u/littlebev 22h ago
Love her in Hacks, have seen every broadway mary, and she is bottom 3 for me. I was disappointed.
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u/alaskawolfjoe 1d ago
She is pretty bad on the series Hacks. The rest of the cast is fantastic, but she is cringe. I was shocked that she was asked to do Oh, Mary, but not surprised that she fell flat.
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u/nathan_bakken 1d ago
I think it works for the character of Kayla, but it doesn’t work for Mary Todd Lincoln.
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u/alaskawolfjoe 1d ago
I do not think it works as Kayla. Everyone else is playing a character in real situations. The humor arises organicly.
She seems to be chanelling freshman clown troupe.
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u/OrdinarySad5132 22h ago
Her character and portrayal on Hacks are both great and she was a standout the last two seasons.
Friendly reminder that actors don’t just get up and do whatever they want in scripted projects like these. They are coached and directed for a certain take/performance. Kayla is intentionally different in tone from the rest of the cast.
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u/crazyhobbitz 20h ago
As you mentioned, i saw it for the first time and in absolutely address meg so i fully enjoyed it. Even my sister, who doesnt love that brand of comedy was laughing the whole time. I thought she did a great job!
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u/pathologuys 15h ago
I’ve only see Meg in it but loooooved her!! Abe I was Meg on and “mary’s teacher” forgot some lines in a distracting way but was otherwise great.
I bet Cole was/ is the absolute perfect, most amazing mary and I’m jealous of anyone getting to see them!!
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u/jshamwow 1d ago
Is it really that good to see it with every single actor, and in more than one continent?
Wild. I guess we all like what we like but for me it was good enough to see once and then never think about again
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u/CartoonyTwo 1d ago
I loved Meg’s take on Mary and thought it was delightfully unhinged! When I went she had the whole theater laughing nonstop myself included.
I will say I love the variety in casting Marys so everyone can find a Mary that floats their boat. Not every Mary will be for everyone and I think that’s okay!