Oh Mary! (Betty’s Version) ★★★★★ / The Picture of Dorian Gray (Sarah’s Version) ★★★★★ / Glengarry Glen Ross ★★★★½
I usually focus on seeing Broadway musicals over plays, mainly for the spectacle, but also because Broadway plays seem to offer less bang for the many bucks you spend. A lot of celebrity casting leads to astronomical prices for mediocre plays that people lap up to see their favourite film stars on stage. But these three (two of which I’ve seen before) were the highlights of my trip.
Oh Mary! (for the second time) ★★★★★
Written by Cole Escola. Lyceum Theatre.
Oh Mary was one of the highlights of my last trip to New York, and I was drawn back to it to see if the show could work without creator Cole Escola in the lead. This time, Betty Gilpin stepped into the role of Mary Lincoln, flipping what had been a drag character into a cis-gendered role.
I think Betty Gilpin is a great actress with a unique, intense comedic energy (see her performance in the one-season 2023 TV show Mrs. Davis, where she plays a nun on a mission to find the Holy Grail and destroy an AI—it’s bonkers). I knew she’d be able to fill Escola’s shoes and bring a similar-but-different energy to the role.
One of the advantages for me was that Gilpin wasn’t the same draw as Escola was and tickets were more easily accessible at a sane price. Where as I paid handsomely for a restricted view seat (admittedly up-close in row G of the Orchestra/Stalls last time), this time I paid less and sat in the Mezzanine with a clear view.
Gilpin was AMAZING as Mary. It was one of the best takeovers of a role I’ve ever seen. Usually, when you see another performer replace the originating lead you’re always conscious of the way their copying their predecessor, especially when that person is also the writer. Gilpin managed to embody all the elements Escola did as Mary, but made them feel organically her own, as if she had originated the part. She was more intense than Escola, but equally as funny. With drag there is always a level of metatextual commentary on gender, in this case on womanhood, but with a cisgendered woman in the lead you could focus on the woman herself, if that makes sense.
As a test run for how Oh Mary could continue in other cities, it proved that with the right casting, anyone—and I mean anyone—could be Mary Lincoln. After Gilpin the role was taken over by Titus Burgess before Cole Escola and the original cast all returned for a final run (I hope they filmed it!).
The Picture of Dorian Gray (Sarah’s Version – for the second time, fourth time overall) ★★★★★
Based on the novel by Oscar Wilde. Adapted by Kip Williams. Music Box Theatre.
FYI – this isn’t a review of the show, mainly because I assume most of you reading have seen it, but if you’d like a full, fresh review of the production head to The Queer Review where editor James Kleinmann watched it with fresh eyes.
Here’s the funny thing about me: When I know a show is really good—like, mind-blowingly, heart-wrenchingly good—I get a real kick out of watching other people experience it for the first time. I took almost sadistic pleasure in seeing/hearing audiences cry while watching The Inheritance. Similarly, when I was in London last year, I loved watching the West End crowd’s jaws drop as The Picture of Dorian Gray unfolded. So, when the show transferred to Broadway, crossing over with my holiday by two days, I knew I wanted to see it again. I bought a ticket to the very first Broadway preview and crossed my fingers.
I got a real kick out of walking into a Broadway house and hearing so many Australian voices in the foyer and bar—all production crew who were finishing up before running out of sight. The show had a lot more merch than I’d seen in London as well—this was our STC hitting the big time. In the auditorium, we were greeted with complimentary copies of Kip Williams’ adaptation script and a thank-you card. Overhearing the chatter around me, it was obvious that everyone here was a fan of Succession. There were some classic “this was big in London, but we’ll see” vibes from some of the “ladies who botox” beside me.
Then the show began. It started with an odd gasp as the audience started to experience Williams’ cine-theatre for themselves, seeing Sarah Snook interact with her pre-recorded self—and that first moment Lord Henry touches Dorian’s shoulder sent a ripple of excitement through the room. You can feel when a show has either won or lost the audience, and this was the moment you felt the room lean in. From there, it was a bullet-train to the finale, full of laughter and surprises.
A minor technical glitch (the screen froze for a few seconds during one of the more active scenes) actually worked to the show’s advantage, proving to the audience that this was live and there were real stakes involved. You could feel the room hold its breath in anticipation, waiting to see how Snook would handle it. And she powered through, the technology worked itself out (I imagine the crew were frantic behind the scenes), and the show didn’t skip a beat.
The standing ovation at the end was instant and rapturous—none of the usual polite clapping and “I’m only standing up so I can walk out faster”. The women beside me looked at each other, slack-jawed: “Oh my god! I’m texting the group now, they have to see this!” There was a chorus of “I knew she was good, but that’s insane” and “What do you mean she doesn’t have an understudy?” as the audience filed either to the merch stand or out onto the street.
There’s just a great feeling knowing that the best show on Broadway came from our own STC. Australian excellence for the win!
Glengarry Glen Ross ★★★★½
Written by David Mamet. Palace Theatre.
So here’s a funny story—bear with me.
I wasn’t going to see Glengarry Glen Ross. It was having its first preview on my last night in New York, and I’d already booked a ticket to another show that was also having its first preview that night—Boop: The Musical. But during my week in New York, I hadn’t had a chance to catch up with a friend of mine but he was suddenly free on that one night.
The plan was for me to sell my good $160 Boop ticket (on resale app Theatr) and we’d buy two cheaper tickets for Boop to see it together. So I listed the ticket, and we went out for dinner. An hour later, the ticket wasn’t selling. But the worst-case scenario was that he’d buy a cheap ticket, and we’d meet up during the interval and after the show. Then, I kind of forgot about it.
Thirty minutes before curtain, someone snapped up my ticket, but when we looked, we couldn’t see ANY other seats for the performance, let alone two together. So… panic! He’s an avid theatre-goer and had seen most of the up-and-running shows already, but on another resale website, there were tickets for the first preview of Glengarry Glen Ross still available for astronomical prices ($500–$1100—just stupid prices). But he figured that as we got closer to showtime, the prices would drop—there were stories that $600+ tickets for Denzel Washington’s Othello could be snapped up for $100 if you were prepared to wait till the last second. So we walked up to the theatre and kept an eye on the tickets… and waited… and waited… and no luck, they never dropped.
We ended up walking in to the box office as the bell was ringing and asked if there was ANYTHING available, to which the box office manager smiled and said, “You’ll be happy.” He sold us two tickets for a reasonable-for-Broadway $150 (less than my original Boop ticket). We ended up in the premium seats, dead center, 8 rows back—tickets that usually sell for $500+.
So, from the best seats in the house, I settled in to see this star-studded (Kieran Culkin, Bob Odenkirk, Bill Burr, and Michael McKean) overblown production of David Mamet’s toxic masculinity drama. And you know what? It was brilliant!
I thought this relatively small play (set in a Chinese restaurant and a small office) would get completely swallowed up by the enormous Palace Theatre, which is usually home to large musicals. The intricately detailed set of Act One’s restaurant felt overblown and a bit ridiculous compared to versions I’ve seen before. But once the actors started speaking, and comedian Bill Burr hit his rhythm—it’s a fantastic Broadway debut for him—it all just clicked.
Director Patrick Marber is one of the best in the business, and he’s made this production different from the classic reading of the play, thanks to the casting of Culkin, who undercuts the usual manipulative alpha-male vibes of Richard Roma with his disarming, impish charm. McKean delivers some beautiful comedic readings as the older salesman George Arronow. But it’s Odenkirk’s skilled but desperate Shelley Levene that really made this show for me. He channeled the “faded superstar trying to get his second wind” desperation to its heartbreaking conclusion. None of these are good men, so it’s a wonder we care for any of them as much as we do.
All in all, this was a terrific last-minute surprise and a great final show before I hopped on my Qantas flight home.
Cultural Binge 
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