Cole Escola wins 2025 Tony Award for Best Leading Actor in "Oh, Mary!"
Escola, who also wrote the hit play, beat out George Clooney, Jon Michael Hill, Daniel Dae Kim, Henry Lennix and Louis McCartney to become the first openly non-binary winner in the category. CLICK HERE to see the full list of winners.
The story behind the Broadway hit "Oh, Mary!"
"It's really overwhelming that it's come this far. Now I'm here with my little Tonys pins," Escola told CBS News New York's Dave Carlin after the nominations were announced.
"I had the idea of what if Abraham Lincoln's assassination wasn't such a bad thing for Mary Todd, and then I sort of worked my way backwards from that and thought about what she might have wanted, and what's the stupidest possible thing she could've wanted, which I landed on being a cabaret star," Escola explained, adding, "Why not? You can do anything in theater."
Escola said the Mary Todd Lincoln House, a museum of the house where she lived, even sent the cast t-shirts and said its website saw a boost in traffic because of the show.
"Hopefully, at least some of the audience is learning something after they see our show," said Escola.
"People are wanting something that's surprising"
Conrad Ricamora, who plays Abraham Lincoln, was nominated for his role as a Featured Actor in a Play.
"I knew it was special, I thought it was going to be great downtown for a couple of weeks and then we were going to go on to trying to find another job, and here we are a year-and-a-half later," he said. "The thing that I feel like it's teaching me is that people are wanting something that is surprising, they want to be surprised and to have their entertainment be unexpected. And 'Oh Mary' is definitely surprising and unexpected.
"The fact that people are coming in droves and that we're sold out for show after show and breaking box office records for a small five-person play, that's unexpected," he continued.
As for what it's like sharing the stage with Cole, he said, "It's not hard to feel brave when you have somebody like Cole who's so true to themself and true to their comedy."
Sam Pinkleton won Best Director for "Oh, Mary!" and thanked Escola for teaching him, "Do what you love, not what you think people want to see."
contributed to this report.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Digital Trends
24 minutes ago
- Digital Trends
If you want underrated Netflix shows, then watch these three programs (August 1-3)
While Netflix and TV mean the same thing for some people, that doesn't necessarily mean that finding something worth your time is all that easy. If you've ever found yourself scrolling through Netflix searching for just the right movie or show, then you know that the recommendations you get aren't necessarily always perfect. In light of the limitations of the algorithm, we've pulled together a list of three underrated shows that are all available on Netflix and all well worth your time. Take a look: Recommended Videos We also have guides to the best new movies to stream, the best movies on Netflix, the best movies on Hulu, the best movies on Amazon Prime Video, the best movies on HBO Max, and the best movies on Disney+. Outlander (2014-) Although this show debuted to critical acclaim and has maintained a devoted fandom throughout its long run on the air, Outlander is no longer as beloved or popular as it once was. The series is romantic high fantasy and follows a woman living in the 1950s as she's transported 200 years into the past. She finds herself torn between the husband she left behind and the new man she's falling for in the past. Breathtakingly romantic, Outlander is definitely a show about love and all of its many complications and dramas, but it's incredibly good at being that. You can watch Outlander on Netflix. Wet Hot American Summer: First Day of Camp (2015) The 2001 film Wet Hot American Summer remains, in some ways, the ideal gonzo comedy of its era. Nothing in the movie makes much sense, and none of it really has to, in part because it features a cast filled with people who would go on to become major stars. First Day of Camp attempts to recapture the magic of that original film and succeeds to a larger extent than you might expect. Not every single joke lands, but as a vehicle for laughs, you could do a lot worse than this revival series, which managed to get even Paul Rudd to show up for a moment. You can watch Wet Hot American Summer: First Day of Camp on Netflix. Chef's Table: BBQ (2020) A show that's guaranteed to make even the vegetarians amongst us hungry, Chef's Table: BBQ is a food travelogue that hones in on barbecue in all of its various forms and travels all around the world to sample them. While Netflix offers many excellent food documentaries, this season of Chef's Table uniquely enhances your appreciation for a type of cuisine that has been integral to most people's lives for years. Barbecue has plenty of long, beautiful traditions, and Chef's Table: BBQ shines a spotlight on all of them. You can watch Chef's Table: BBQ on Netflix.
Vogue
25 minutes ago
- Vogue
A New Label From an Industry Veteran 'Less About Fashion, More About Life'
'I went from Tome to Emote,' says Ryan Lobo. 'It was a deliberate choice, and a heartfelt choice.' Lobo was indeed one half of the design duo Tome along with Ramon Martin, a label renowned for its poetic romanticism and its political engagement; the clothes were as exquisite as the activism was sincere. Now Lobo has returned to live and work in New York with his latest…let's say project; label sounds too industry, too commercial, in a way. Wearing the world: An upcycled striped shirt from Paros, Greece, just one of the locales that Emote celebrates. Photo: Courtesy of Emote That project is Emote — 'It's Tome backwards, with an extra 'e'', says Lobo—a living, breathing orchestration of clothes fueled by wanderlust in collaboration with artisans around the world: easy dresses, tunics and shorts of his own design mixed with vintage Lanvin, YSL, and Christian Dior Monsieur jackets retailored and cut down, pants and scarves made from silks sourced in Florence, and jaunty block-striped shirting upcycled from a deadstock batch he found in Paros, with everything released in slow-drip drops rather than in collections. Nothing costs more than $800, but plenty of pieces, most in fact, are priced well below that. Emote is dedicated to the idea of what happens when a designer stops thinking about fashion and turns instead to life. Emote, in the designer's view, should be clothes which you wear—not which wear you. Photo: Courtesy of Emote Photo: Courtesy of Emote Tome shuttered a month before the pandemic in 2020, and Lobo, rootless and untethered, experiencing what he calls, 'the dark night of the soul that so many of us went through,' took to the road: to Mexico, to Greece, to Spain, to Morocco, and, 'oh, to Vietnam,' he says. 'I forgot about that!' By the end of Tome he and Martin had already realized, 'the deeper we got into thinking and working as sustainably as we could we needed very little. It's a paradox in fashion: You're trying to trade while the apocalypse of climate and culture and politics rages around you. [During the pandemic] I had had the time and space of traveling and not working, it was just me and my thoughts, and the realization [that] I had this little bag with everything I needed, and that started the ideas flowing. It was less a lightbulb moment,' he says, laughing, but more of a solar panel moment, a really slow burn.' With Emote, there's ease and elegance in equal measure—and an eye to sustainability. Photo: Courtesy of Emote Photo: Courtesy of Emote That Emote provides a, well, emotional connection to its offerings is in part because it evokes a sense of memory, the feeling of clothes we always love and return to and wear forever, most usually on vacation. 'The precious things that you collect along the way that perhaps weren't expensive or investment pieces,' says Lobo. 'Something you bought on a beach in Oaxaca, or visiting Athens, and which has become part of your style vernacular." Perhaps that's when, away from the pressured existence in towns and cities, we're more forgiving of aging and imperfection and wear with our clothes. Emote holds no truck with status or showiness. Instead, Lobo has come up with the likes of genderless travel sets, which comprise a tunic-y tee, pull on pants, and shorts—exciting for him, since he was able to finally design and make something that he could wear after a lifetime of designing womenswear. 'Everything is made of a deadstock rayon with vintage Italian ribbon trim and elastic,' says Lobo. 'The fabric travels well, as it is very light, packs tight, and wrinkles will drop out with shower steam.' The Florentine silks come from Angelo Stanganini, whose grandparents started the business in 1932. Alpaca sweaters are from a collective in Peru, while surf shorts and pants are made by artisans in Chiapas.
The Verge
25 minutes ago
- The Verge
The LeapMove is a gamified camera designed to get kids off the couch
LeapFrog has announced a new electronic learning system that swaps controllers for a camera. In fact, the LeapMove looks like an oversized, kid-friendly webcam, but is designed to connect to TVs like a console and get kids off the couch using educational games that require full-body movements to play. It's reminiscent of the Xbox Kinect or the PlayStation 2's EyeToy, but simpler and much cheaper than competitors' products like the $249 Nex Playground. The LeapMove will be available through retailers including Target, Walmart, and Amazon for $69.99, and comes with 25 motion-based games designed for kids aged 4 to 7. It might be hard to pull the older end of that demographic away from games like Roblox, Among Us, and even Fortnite, but in addition to motion detection, the LeapMove uses its camera to make players appear as themselves or 'whimsical characters' in several games, which may appeal to younger kids. The games cover 'foundational school subjects' including math, reading, and spelling, and require players to do everything from dancing around to waving their arms and even attempting to catch on-screen objects. The LeapMove connects to a TV over HDMI, and instead of rechargeable batteries it needs access to a power outlet. It can be used either sitting beneath a TV or perched atop it like a webcam using a fold-out support. LeapFrog says additional games will be made available for the LeapMove at a later date, which can be loaded by connecting the device to a computer and using the company's LeapFrog Connect desktop app. They won't be free, but unlike the Nex Playground, the LeapMove doesn't come with any subscription fees. Parents concerned about privacy, particularly with devices that rely heavily on a camera, may appreciate that the LeapMove has no wireless connectivity. In 2018, VTech, LeapFrog's parent company, agreed to settle for a $650,000 fine after the FTC alleged it collected kids' personal information, including names, emails, and genders, through its KidiConnect mobile app. The LeapMove is completely standalone and keeps track of up to three players' progress locally. Posts from this author will be added to your daily email digest and your homepage feed. See All by Andrew Liszewski Posts from this topic will be added to your daily email digest and your homepage feed. See All Gadgets Posts from this topic will be added to your daily email digest and your homepage feed. See All Gaming Posts from this topic will be added to your daily email digest and your homepage feed. See All News Posts from this topic will be added to your daily email digest and your homepage feed. See All Toys
