Tituss Burgess Originally Turned Down OH, MARY!: 'It's Quite the Herculean Task'

Tituss Burgess has revealed that he originally turned down starring in Oh, Mary! on Broadway. While visiting Live! With Kelly and Mark, Burgess shared that although Cole Escola had shared that they wanted him to take over the role, he was hesitant to step into Mary Todd Lincoln's hoop skirt.

"I said no the first time because I couldn't divorce [Cole Escola] from the role. They're such a supernova in this thing and Mary Todd Lincoln is quite the herculean task."

Burgess – who will play a three week engagement in the play beginning March 18 – went on to discuss Oh, Mary! being the first play he has done on Broadway.

"Historically, I've done musicals on Broadway, I've never done a straight play. I don't know why we call them straight plays," Burgess joked. "With the musicals there's a certain construct that you're used to. You know the scene is leading into a song, only with a play, the scenes are leading into a scene. But it doesn't feel entirely distant. The preparation is still the same."

Burgess is the third actor to don the infamous bratty curls, following three-time Emmy-Nominee Betty Gilpin (“GLOW,” Netflix’s 2025 “American Primeval”) and playwright Cole Escola (Obie, Drama Desk, Theatre World, Outer Critics Circle Award winner).

Burgess returns to the Broadway stage following his work in musicals Moulin Rouge!, Guys and Dolls, The Little Mermaid, and many more.

The play, written by Escola and directed by Tony Award nominee Sam Pinkleton, 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 eleven times.

Oh, Mary! currently stars Betty Gilpin as a miserable, suffocated Mary Todd Lincoln in the weeks leading up to Abraham Lincoln’s assassination, alongside Phillip James Brannon as Mary’s Husband, Chris Renfro as Mary’s Teacher, Bianca Leigh as Mary’s Chaperone, and Tony Macht as Mary’s Husband’s Assistant, with Hannah Solow, Martin Landry, and Julian Manjerico completing the company.

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