Betty Gilpin Will Succeed Cole Escola in OH, MARY! on Broadway

Oh, Mary! has found its next Mary! Emmy Award-nominated actor Betty Gilpin will take over the role of Mary Todd Lincoln. Taking over for Cole Escola, who also wrote the play, Gilpin begins performances on Tuesday, January 21, 2025 for a limited 8-week engagement through Sunday, March 16, 2025. The show has released a new block of tickets, with performances now on sale through Saturday, June 28, 2025.

Oh, Mary! marks Gilpin's Broadway debut, but she is no stranger to the stage, having appeared Off Broadway in Atlantic Theater Company’s 2015 production of I’m Gonna Pray For You So Hard, Signature Theatre’s 2012 production of Heartless, and more, 

“I have worshiped at the altar of Cole for years, but seeing their billion layered brilliance in Oh, Mary! was a new plane of demented genius I didn’t know was scientifically possible,” Gilpin said. “I am beyond honored to step in so that Cole can get back to tending their neglected passions: fracking and skincare. Diving in with the perfect Sam Pinkleton to play Mary will be one of the single greatest joys of my life, and I will say that to my two daughters’ faces.”

Written by Cole Escola and directed by Tony Award nominee Sam Pinkleton, Oh, Mary! opened on Broadway on July 11, 2024 at the Lyceum Theatre, where it became the first show in the theater’s 121-year history to gross more than $1,000,000 in a single week. Oh, Mary! has since broken its own box office record ten times, most recently the week ending December 1, 2024, grossing $1,286,789.

“I could not be more excited to see what Betty Gilpin does with the role of Mary,” Escola said. “She's a brilliant comedic actress who understands the heart of this character and knows the serious business of being a fool. I promise, you won't want to miss Betty as Mary.”

 Oh, Mary! currently stars Escola as a miserable, suffocated Mary Todd Lincoln in the weeks leading up to Abraham Lincoln’s assassination, alongside Conrad Ricamora as Mary’s Husband, James Scully as Mary’s Teacher, Bianca Leigh as Mary’s Chaperone, and Tony Macht as Mary’s Husband’s Assistant, with Peter Smith, Hannah Solow, and Martin Landry completing the company. The entire production is directed by Sam Pinkleton. Oh, Mary! is produced on Broadway by Kevin McCollum & Lucas McMahon and Mike Lavoie & Carlee Briglia.

About Betty Gilpin

Betty Gilpin is a three-time Emmy Award nominee, two-time SAG Award nominee, and three-time Critics' Choice Award nominee for her performance as Debbie Eagan/”Liberty Belle” in the hit Netflix series “GLOW,” from producers Liz Flahive, Carly Mensch, and Jenji Kohan. Gilpin can currently be seen opposite Shailene Woodley in the Starz limited series, “Three Women,” based on The New York Times best-selling non-fiction book by Lisa Taddeo. Gilpin plays one of the three women, ‘Lina,’ a homemaker in Indiana who has a passionless marriage until she has an affair that changes her life.

Gilpin recently completed production opposite Michael Shannon and Matthew Macfadyen on the Netflix limited series “Death By Lightning.” The series dramatizes the stranger-than-fiction true story of 20th U.S. President James Garfield and admirer Charles Guiteau, who assassinated him. Gilpin plays Garfield’s wife, Crete Garfield.

Early next year, Gilpin will star opposite Taylor Kitsch in the Netflix limited series, “American Primeval,” releasing globally on January 9, 2025. The six-episode series from director and executive producer Pete Berg takes place in 1857 during a prolonged period of ruthless Western expansion into the middle part of America. It is a fictionalized dramatization and examination of the violent collision of culture, religion, and community as men and women fight and die to keep or control this land.

In 2023, Gilpin garnered rave reviews for her lead performance in Damon Lindelof and Tara Hernandez’s series “Mrs Davis” for Peacock. The series follows Gilpin’s character, ousted nun Sister Simone, after she vows to destroy the powerful artificial intelligence responsible - “Mrs. Davis.” The series had its world premiere at SXSW before its debut on Peacock that spring.

Notable television credits include “Gaslit” (Starz), “Roar” (Apple), “Masters of Sex” (Showtime), and “Nurse Jackie” (Showtime). Notable film credits include Craig Zobel’s The Hunt (Universal/Blumhouse) and Chris McKay’s The Tomorrow War (Amazon).

On stage, Gilpin made her off-Broadway debut in 2008 in Second Stage’s production of Good Boys and True by Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa. Other stage credits include Boys Life (Second Stage), What is the Cause of Thunder? (Williamstown Theatre Festival), The Language Archive (Roundabout Theatre Company), That Face (Manhattan Theatre Club), We Live Here (Manhattan Theatre Club), Fish Eye (Colt Coeur Theatre Company), Sam Shepard’s Heartless (Signature Theatre), Where We’re Born (Rattlestick Theater), Lila Neugerbauer’s An Intervention (Williamstown Theatre Festival), Halley Feiffer's I’m Gonna Pray for You So Hard (Atlantic Theater Company) and Barcelona (Geffen Playhouse).

In Fall 2022, Flatiron Books, an imprint of Macmillan, published Betty’s debut collection of essays titled ALL THE WOMEN IN MY BRAIN: AND OTHER CONCERNS. Her essays have been published in The New York Times, Glamour, Lenny Letter, The Hollywood Reporter, and Vanity Fair.