Tony First-Timers: For Oh, Mary!'s Conrad Ricamora, Getting Cole Escola to Behave Is the Only Win He's After

Exactly one year ago, Conrad Ricamora, Oh, Mary!’s Tony-nominated Abe Lincoln, learned his lesson: “I made the mistake of listening to friends.”

He was in contention for a 2024 Tony nomination, having played Ninoy Aquino in the Broadway production of the disco-pop Imelda Marcos musical Here Lies Love. The show had closed in the fall, but between the supportive voices in his inner circle and his devoted fans who kept sending messages assuring him of his place on the Tony short list, he let the fantasy seep in. Then, his name wasn’t called. He discovered the hard way, “It's a little heartbreaking when you think too much about it.”

Little did he know, the project that would usher in that career milestone—and put him at the center of a cultural obsession—was already cued up. Here Lies Love ran only five months, much shorter than was hoped or expected. But immediately after the show announced its final performance, Ricamora got a phone call from director Sam Pinkleton: “I hear your show’s closing,” Ricamora remembers Pinkleton saying, just apologetic enough for etiquette’s sake. “I’m so sorry, but would you want to come in and read with Cole?”

Cole, of course, was Cole Escola, a performer and comedian Ricamora had been following since their days of YouTube videos and solo shows at Joe’s Pub. The “yes” was instant. Four weeks later, he was in rehearsal for what became the hit downtown production at the Lucille Lortel Theatre. A Broadway transfer and too many extensions to count later, Ricamora got his Tony nomination—and for a queer, nonmusical, madcap farce about the Lincoln assassination, of all things. But this year, he let it be a pleasant surprise. “For my own mental health, I had to stop thinking about the Tonys,” he says, instead sticking to the simple rule: “Show up when you need to show up and go home when you need to go home.”

Aside from navigating the unexpected phenomenon that Escola’s bratty-curled, incessantly sauced Mary Todd Lincoln has become, everything about being inside Oh, Mary! has taught presence. “It is one of the most maddening things to try to contain Cole Escola's Mary Todd Lincoln every single night,” says Ricamora—the straight man (irony intended) to Mary’s loose cannon. The show gives him one simple task: “To get this crazy, wild animal to behave.” Every night, then, is an exercise in “accepting the fact that I fail, but then showing up at the theater the next day and being like, ‘Tonight's the night that I'm going to win.’”

Now back at the Lyceum Theatre with Escola and the original cast after a few months away, Ricamora is still after that elusive W. And that’s the joy, the hilarity and the stupidity of Oh, Mary! “I don't get to laugh myself,” says Ricamora. “But to know that I'm giving that laughter every night to an audience at a time where there's not a lot to laugh about feels so great right now.”

GET TO KNOW THE TONY FIRST-TIMERS
Left to Right: SADIE SINK (John Proctor is the Villain) | JUSTINA MACHADO (Real Women Have Curves) | DARREN CRISS (Maybe Happy Ending) | CONRAD RICAMORA (Oh, Mary!) | NICOLE SCHERZINGER (Sunset Boulevard) | JEB BROWN (Dead Outlaw)

Watch the June 4 episode of The Broadway Show with Tamsen Fadal, highlighting all six of our first-time Tony nominees, and flip through the complete gallery of photos from our exclusive Broadway.com photo shoot.

The Broadway Show Credits: Directed by Zack R. Smith | Producers: Paul Wontorek and Beth Stevens | Senior Producers: Caitlin Moynihan and Lindsey Sullivan | Videographers: Eddie Lebron, Nick Shakra, and Ryan Windess
Photo Credits: Photography by Emilio Madrid | Photo Assistants: Eric Hodgman, Farley Schilling and Leandra Worth  | Location: Corner Studio
Grooming by Tameeka Lee Walker
Styling Credits: Styling: Emma Pritchard  | Styling Assistant: Rina Andreatta | Blazer: L.B.M.1911  | Shorts: Boss  | Pocket Square: The Tie Bar