Tony Macht on Oh, Mary!’s Broadway Success and Playing Lincoln’s Harried Assistant

Tony Macht is the last remaining principal cast member to have followed Cole Escola’s farce Oh, Mary! from its original off-Broadway inception to the ongoing run on the Great White Way. Macht plays Mary’s Husband’s Assistant, the harried helper of President Abraham Lincoln. The Broadway Show correspondent Charlie Cooper walked with Macht to work at the Lyceum Theatre, chatting about the revolving cast of Mary Todds and the show’s runaway success.

“Everyone is through the prism of Mary,” says Macht of the title character, the fictionalized First Lady who dreams of cabaret grandeur. “In this world, she is God, essentially, which is kind of beautiful and in a way that she doesn't get to be centered in any other story.” For his role, Macht takes inspiration from a lineage of bit players. “I always looked at those historical dramas where there's a really earnest, self-serious army of soldiers or generals or random military men and they take it so seriously, these actors acting so hard with their 10 lines.”

Regarding the play's irreverent tone, Macht says, “The director, Sam Pinkleton, when we were first rehearsing, always said that everyone in this play is in a state of emergency. So Mary's husband is in the emergency of the Civil War and my character is in the emergency of serving this high-strung, impossible man and Mary's in the emergency of trying to fulfill her dream of doing cabaret. All of these are given equal weight. The Civil War and cabaret are actual equals in this play, which is insane but funny.”

Oh, Mary! currently stars John Cameron Mitchell, the Tony-winning creative force behind the cult classic rock musical Hedwig and the Angry Inch. The role was originated by Escola, who was succeeded by the likes of Betty Gilpin, Tituss Burgess, Jinkx Monsoon, Hannah Solow and Jane Krakowski. Though Macht spends most of his stage time with Lincoln, currently being brought to life by John-Andrew Morrison, he says that the performer who embodies Mary makes a profound impact on his performance. “Who Mary is dictates the energy in the room entirely. Even though it has been going on a long time and I've been in it for a long time, the energy shift with whoever's playing Mary does truly change the show in its entirety. From the beginning to the end, just based on that person's specific idiosyncrasies, it changes everything.”

Those who've been with Oh, Mary! from the beginning could not have anticipated the tremendous heights the show would reach, which includes being shortlisted for the Pulitzer Prize for Drama. “This was supposed to be literally 12 weeks downtown and I'm here two years later, so I don't know. It's absolutely insane that it's gone where it's gone,” Macht says.

Though we won’t give too much away, Mary’s Husband’s Assistant gets a special moment with the grande dame at the end of the show. “The part of the show that I look forward to the most is the end every single time," Macht shares. "It's the time of the show where whoever's playing Mary gets the most freedom to interpret the play in their own way. Watching and responding and reacting and creating that moment with the Mary of the moment is so joyous and beautiful and set to their personalities in this lovely way.” Intrigued? Find out for yourself by catching a performance of Oh, Mary! at the Lyceum Theatre.

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