Bianca Leigh Has Survived Seven Marys in Oh, Mary!—and She’s Loving Every Minute

In Oh, Mary! on Broadway, Bianca Leigh has a difficult job: keeping up with Mary. Since returning to the production for a double scoop in April, the original cast member has played Chaperone to Marys including Maya Rudolph, Meg Stalter and, currently, Bowen Yang, with each bringing a new flavor of chaos to the Lyceum Theatre. Leigh sat down with Broadway.com Editor-in-Chief Paul Wontorek to talk about the show’s rotating stars, the career that brought her here and a future beyond ice cream.

Leigh has played opposite seven Marys so far, including understudy Hannah Solow. What makes the role work with so many performers? “Each actor brings something different,” Leigh says. For example, "Tituss [Burgess] is like a comedy cavalcade. It was like the biggest gay rodeo you could imagine. It was so surprising and exciting every time you went on stage."

If she has to pick a favorite, Leigh is partial to Oh, Mary! creator Cole Escola. They developed countless moments together, took the show to London and became friends. “Cole hired me. You know, changed my life,” she says. That history doesn’t make her any less impressed by the performers who have followed. “They're all a little petrified, because it's the Mama Rose of comedy. It is a mountain to climb,” she says of playing Mary. And though she’ll be comin’ ‘round the mountain, she won’t do it without a little help from the company: “We're there to support them and to guide them, literally, sometimes. [Mary is] a human baton. And we're doing a relay race,” Leigh says.

Leigh was first introduced to the play at a developmental reading in early 2023. She couldn’t have predicted its trajectory, but she sensed something was there. “I knew something was very special,” she says, "and I know that Cole is special." The unmistakable sign of a hit came later, when tickets became impossible to find. “Then I knew. If you can't get a ticket, something's happening.”

On Broadway, Leigh was introduced to audiences who may not have experienced her decades of downtown theater work. After beginning her transition, she found that large commercial productions would not offer opportunities to trans actors. Smaller stages gave her room to grow, working with artists including Taylor Mac and Basil Twist. Now, she gets to make her living in a role where Mary’s Chaperone can simply be Mary’s Chaperone. “There are days where I literally say, ‘I'm doing this. I'm doing this for a living, and this is all I have to do,’” she says. “It's beautiful, and it's wonderful, and it's really hard work.”

Leigh has a story for young actors wondering whether that kind of break will ever arrive. Escola had seen her in Transamerica on Christmas Eve years before they met. Escola said, “I couldn't go home for Christmas. And I saw you, and I said, ‘I want to work with her.’” Leigh’s response? “Why did you wait 20 years?” It taught her a valuable lesson: “You don't know. You never know who's going to see you.”

Soon, audiences will also be able to see her performance in the filmed London production on HBO. The prospect of a permanent record brings its own nerves. “It's just like, if I make a mistake, it's out there in perpetuity.” Still, Leigh is excited about the result, and to be memorialized in a role she never thought she would play. “I tell young actors, there's a role for you,” she insists. “It might be being passed around in a script. It might be halfway written on a computer. It might be in the back of a playwright's head. You don't know where it is, but it'll come."

Until then, there’s Broadway, HBO and a potential business opportunity with a former Mary. “I would love to be in a three-camera sitcom in front of a live audience,” Leigh reveals. “I would love that more than anything. And there's not many left. So, Maya [Rudolph] and I, we're hoping to bring them back.” If you regret not investing in Oh, Mary! off-Broadway, might we suggest you support this endeavor?

Watch the interview below!

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