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Mickey-Jo saw Catherine Tate in OH, MARY! | thoughts on the latest star of the West End comedy play
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when this rumor was first talked about that Catherine Tate might be going into O Mary in London, and when it transpired that it was in fact true, people were immediately very excited and they could see the vision and how this was going to work and that it was going to be chaotic and brilliant and unhinged and hilarious. And I saw the potential for all of that. But I I have seen Catherine Tate on stage on something like four previous occasions. One pantomime, one terrible play, two musicals. One of them is on time. And the thing with Catherine Tate is it's always easy to figure out whether or not she's having a good time on stage and whether or not you're going to have a good time watching her on stage is in pretty direct correlation to that. The inevitable question then, I suppose is do I think she's having a good time on stage in O Mary? And I'm going to let you know today as I reveal my full thoughts to you about Catherine and some other new members of the cast. In the meantime, a quick introduction to me for those of you who may be meeting me for the first time. Oh my God. Hey. Welcome back to my theatre themed YouTube channel, or hello to those of you listening to this on podcast platforms. My name is Mickey Jo and I am obsessed with all things theatre. I'm a professional theatre critic and a content creator here on social media. And today I'm going to be letting you know what I thought of Catherine Tate and the new cast of O Mary, the hit, campy comedy play created by Scola, currently running at the Trafalgar Theatre in the West End. While it continues to run very successfully over on Broadway, having recently announced another starry replacement cast member in the leading role. Yes, what the play has been able to achieve over on Broadway has been quite staggering and hugely unexpected and ongoingly, wildly successful. All of these huge comedy stars are lining up to have the chance to do this play, many of them perpetrating exciting anticipated Broadway returns, some of them Broadway debuts. And no one was really sure A, how O Mary was going to do when it arrived in London, not necessarily just because it has a connection in terms of its narrative to historic American politics, but also because the general tone and comedy sensibility of the thing is quite downtown Manhattan, but also B, whether it would be ongoingly successful enough that they would have the opportunity to recast, or whether the producers would even attempt to recast, or whether it would just be seen here as a little prestigious, Olivier Award winning limited run, which is what it has been thus far. And Mason Alexander park opened the production. And if you want to know all of my thoughts about oh Mary, that is the fullest review of the show that I have created. If you want to know a little bit more about how the recasting has been affecting the show over on Broadway, I made a separate sort of video essay about that as well. You can go and check out both of those. This is going to be an addendum to that. As I talk just about Catherine and the new cast. And this is something that I do when a lot of shows recast. I've been doing this, however many times for however many years now with the cast of cabaret at the KitKat Club, specifically the Rebecca Frecknell directed revival. Also with shows like Had Town, I tend to go back to those, to see new cast members to dig into differences in their interpretations, different choices that they made. I love shows like this that give performers the freedom to find their own new interpretations of these characters. We do not get successful performances by trying to find sort of similar individuals as close as possible to the original interpretation and trying to get them to emulate what was done in the first place. That is never going to be the key to success and it's not going to be satisfying for an actor or a creative team for that matter. So I love that O Mary is looking for something clearly distinct in each of its Marys that connects them to the material and certainly the ability to deliver this very challenging material. Mason, I think, compared it to a 100 minute anxiety attack trying to get through this show. But other than that, there seems to be an awful lot of freedom for these actors in terms of how they're going to bring this character to life. And what I like about having this conversation with Omari rather than Cabaret or her Hadestown is it reminds me of how pretentious I am to be talking about like the minutiae of nuanced acting choices. Because while this show does have a lot of genuine theatrical credibility and we can talk at length about how deceptively sophisticated and clever it is in its structure and its creation, it is also enduringly, deliberately stupid. And so it's refreshing to talk about something where it's not just like, and this is how the naivety is crafted and instead distilled. And it's more like this is how she decides to fall off a table. On which note, let's waste no more time talking about Catherine Tate and the cast of O Mary. So a little context on her casting to begin with. For those of you who don't know, perhaps those of you watching from outside of the uk. Catherine Tate is a British comedy icon best known to audiences in this country. For her own comedy character based sketch show. She played characters like a mouthy teenager named Lauren Nan, who would respond in a string of expletives, an upper middle class mother who was terrified of inorganic eggs. Oh, a gay man who is scandalized at the suggestion that he might be who? Dear me dear gay dear. No, dear. And that is probably the closest that Catherine Tate has officially come to the world of queer culture. She's someone who feels like a gay icon, but hasn't been exclusively referred to as such because she is so broadly iconic. And in many way this is maybe one of the biggest departures of Omari's casting thus far. From the sort of Venn diagram of specific queer iconography in terms of everyone who has come before in New York, Jinkx, Monsoon, John Cameron Mitchell, Jane Krakowski, Maya Rudolph. It does feel as though specifically there is some sort of inherent connection to the queer community, which I don't know if Catherine Tate has, and we can debate that at length. Regardless, she's doing a great job in the role and I do think she is having an awful lot of fun on stage, and that's because she gets to do more. I think she was a little dissatisfied doing pantomime at the London Palladium, and there's more that I could say about last year's pantomime at the London Palladium, but I don't think she really was challenged by it. She was basically walking on fairly infrequently. When Julian Clary was finished doing his smut and doing a few, like, caraboss lines and then coming back as one of her own characters, the audience lights up like a Christmas tree. But it was nothing new. And the last time she was doing something truly new on stage, it was the Enfield Haunting. And we all remember, or perhaps you don't exactly how that went. That's another review that you can find here on YouTube. And back then, I remember there was this real uncertainty about why she was doing that job in the first place. And she had made some sort of a very dry, offhand remark about getting paid an extraordinary weekly sum in order to be in that production. And no one could quite figure out whether she was being sarcastic or completely serious. But with a play like O Mary, and with a role like Mary Todd Lincoln, as it has been devised and written in this production by the ingenious and warped mind of Cora Scola and director Sam Pinkleton, this is not a character or a production that you go into for any sum of money if you don't really want to. This requires utter wholehearted commitment, the likes of which I don't think we've seen from Catherine Tate on stage in a very long time. I love that throws herself headfirst into this and that. It's really nothing like anything we've seen her do before. There is an American accent to begin with. I don't know that Mary necessarily feels akin to any of her past comedy characters. She doesn't really do a wink or a nod to them particularly. But you can still tell that it's Catherine Tate and her own particular style of humor that you're looking at in every moment. And I applaud that as well, because there is something of an O Mary roadmap. And I have seen performances that bear closer similarities and then others that deviate. The way in which Cole understands Mary is not wildly dissimilar from the way in which Mason understands Mary and the way in which Georgie, who continues to cover the role in this production, plays the character as well. What Titus Burgess did on Broadway, very tonally different. What Catherine Tate does is rhythmically different and musically different in every beat of the material, because there is a rhythm and a music to any kind of comedy language. It is as though she has taken a look at this script and reinvented every single joke. It's funny in the same places and for the same reasons, but we also get new laughs, different laughs, unexpected laughs, because what has sort of at this point become the standard cadence of O Mary is altered a little bit here. And she has years of comedy wisdom and experience experience to bring to this. So I'm fascinated about what that rehearsal process might have been like with her really reinterrogating the material and how it's going to work through her particular voice. I realize we've got fairly far down the rabbit hole without me giving you a broader description of what her Mary is like, and she is unhinged. She is an absolute monster. I think one of the sacrifices made here, perhaps, is that we don't get quite as much of the tortured humanity. There is scale on which you can really genuinely play the pain and vulnerability of Mary Todd Lincoln. And I imagine, without having had the joy of seeing her, that Jinx Monsoon fell at one end of the scale and that Catherine Tate probably falls towards the other. And your heart doesn't quite as sincerely break for her when she has that little monologue moment with Mary's teacher during the middle of the play when she says, like, have you ever had a great day? And then she expands on what she means by that a little bit. But she does really sell nightmarish behavior towards the start and then subsequently also. And I'm dancing all around the play at this point and going completely out of order. One of the things I loved about Mason and Georgie when I saw the COVID run is how connected to musical theatre they are and how solid and strong that made the cabaret section at the end. And like I said, I've seen Catherine Tate do a couple of musicals. She can carry a tune, but I really enjoyed in a new way, someone who is not from an out and out trained, practiced musical theater background, delivering their own version of that crazy cabaret medley. It connects Mary more closely, I think, to the version of her alleged cabaret stardom that was described by her husband, rather than the mythic version that she tries to pass off as the truth. But generally speaking, Catherine's Mary feels less petulant in a youthful, bratty way and more just sort of monstrous and maniacal and devious, with this real manic quality in the smile and behind the eyes as she enters, snarling. The physicality of her performance is also quite charming in its own way. She's that little bit less sprightly. She feels a little more fatigued and weary at the offset because, you know, she is this desperate alcoholic who is at the beginning of the play already being sort of emotionally caged and physically caged, really, and deprived. While we're on physicality, the way in which, and I guess this is something of a spoiler alert, she dismounts the table, which is this extended bit of wordless, usually physical comedy in which she has ended up in a romantic embrace atop the desk in the Oval Office, her husband's desk, and then she is left solo, having to dismount it. This has been reworked a little bit here and rather than the usual attempt of like, can I, I, can I get off this way? Oh, that seems a bit dangerous over there. And the build up to a truly ridiculous way of getting off this desk with some assistance, instead it becomes a bit about like getting tickled. And her repetitive little giggle that she does is so funny, as is the sort of rhythmic retching that she's done earlier on when she swallowed a bucket of paint thinner. And given the grotesque nature of some of the characters we have seen Catherine Tate play in the past, you hear about all of these details, especially if you're not familiar with the play and you get a sense of why she works so well in it. And I think there are very few other roles and other pieces like this. This is why so many actors are gravitating towards the Broadway production, because it is truly playful and ridiculous and unhinged and no holds barred. You get to bring so much silliness but also wild abandon to a role like this. All of this to say, having seen, I think now, five different Marys in the role thoroughly enjoyed with Catherine Tate, I definitely the biggest departure from Kola Scola's original performance. So if you want to see something distinctly different, this is your reason to return to o'. Mary. If you're a big Catherine Tate fan, you're not quite sure what to expect from the show, I would encourage you to go see it. It's a great showcase of her. You're going to have an awful lot to enjoy. It overlaps very much with her previous style of comedy. And if you want to find out more about the play. You can go and check out my fuller review of it to find out a little more without spoilers. And of course, if you're an Omar fan, I she does justice to it as well. Let me share a few more observations about new company members and another return visit.
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To the show. Now I say multiple new cast members. It's actually only Scott Kareem who has joined in a principal role as Mary's husband replacing Giles Torreira. They are getting ready, I believe, to welcome some new covers to the company, which is exciting, including Operation Mincemeat's Jerry Allen. I would love to see some more of them covering in those roles and I enjoyed Scott Karim. I think his version of Mary's husband is that little bit more contrived as it inherently I think is always gonna be in the West End production doing American accents from the other side of the Atlantic. And I know I'm hearing myself say all of this and again, I sound pretentious because it's Omari that I'm talking about here, but it feels less sort of natural. There's this thing with Mary's husband and I'm still trying to commit to what was asked of me by the show and their PR representation that we ref to him exclusively as Mary's husband. If you think I'm losing my mind here, I'm not. I'm just trying to do what I'm told. There is this thing with his character where he is quite guarded and tense and there is a facade that lowers. A couple of characters in the show have a similar sort of a trajectory, and a lot of times the way that he is played is when that facade drops down, it feels a little more genuine. Scott Karim's version of it still feels very much like a character performance. It still feels quite detailed and specific in terms of the choices that he is making to become this character. It felt that little bit less familiar from a queer perspective is probably about as much as I can say about that. But you'll find all of this out very quickly when you go and see the play for yourself. I'm not spoiling anything that doesn't become apparent within the first 15 minutes. I do very much want to sing the praises of the continuing company members. Kate o', Donnell, I think, has just about perfected every nuance of the delivery of Mary's Teacher. Every facial expression accompany the line readings, the just slightly suggestive quality, the like drop of golden Girls about it all. That little bit motherly, that little bit gossipy, the hint of naughtiness beneath the surface. And Dino Fetcher as Mary's teacher has just become so wonderful. I enjoyed him the first time I saw him in this role, but leaning even further in to the extremes of this character, who he is in the beginning, who he is by the end of it, and I think he is wonderful. He's become a real highlight of the production and a reason to go and see the performance in the West End specifically. I don't know that you will see a better Mary's Teacher wherever else you're seeing the play. And he does a great job, I think, of anchoring the tone of O Mary in a place of familiarity so that Catherine can sort of swim out and back from that a little bit and offer a different interpretation. Because what she's still going to be orbiting around for all of their scenes together, at least, is this consistent thing that sounds so much like O Mary as it was first performed with the original cast under Sam Pinkleton's direction. And it really works. Finally, then, what was I struck by returning to see O mary for the 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6th time, making this perhaps my most seen production of a play ever? I guess it is. Well, the thing that I keep thinking about is, you know, this tends to split opinion. The majority of people that I've heard from really love this. It's very well liked in New York, London audiences have been figuring out how they feel about O Mary. It still draws some criticism from people who think that it is just pointless silliness, a sort of an extended sketch. And a friend of mine named Will, who is one half of the theatre lovers on social media, who is this encyclopedic Broadway and theatre historian. Go and check them out all across social media, because if you enjoy listening to me at all, you're definitely gonna like, listen to everything that they say. But he, in a theater book in his collection, recently discovered that the entire artwork of O Mary, the yellow and with this font and with the sort of style of imagery and the face on the program that it's actually a direct visual reference to, I believe it's Tallulah Bankhead in The Little Foxes and so much of what Omar is makes more sense when you unlock that insight. It's also not purporting to be the highest art, but I do think that it is on a rather sophisticated level, spoofing a lot of these old fashioned plays structurally in terms of the way that it's directed, the scene transitions, the way that it is staged, the design of the whole thing. It harkens back to an earlier style of comedy, a sort of mid to early 20th century style of theatrical comedy. And you may think this is sacrilegious, but I'm not really willing to hear a London audience cry this as pointless or nonsensical when we uplift acborne as much as we do, when we uplift Pinter as much as we do. And this is spoofing that kind of a play, the kind of a play where the events aren't as important as the spiraling personality at the center of all of them. And O Mary offers you a version of that heroine in similar emotional hysterical distress, but who is also a sort of a knowing monster. A point which by now I dare say I have made abundantly clear. But that is how I have come to understand and think of
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This show. So then I said as much earlier but if you are a Catherine Tate fan, go see O Mary. If you're an O Mary fan, go see it with Catherine Tate. I think it is well worth worth a first visit or a re watch. She is having fun on stage and we are having fun falling apart with laughter in the audience. I enjoyed for the first time seeing this play laughing in unexpected places. One of the reasons why I don't try and see every single Mary is because I think it benefits from some sense of spontaneity and surprise which can be difficult to find if you go back to it regularly. But Catherine's performance offered me that because it took me by surprise in a lot of places. So so go have that experience for yourself. Go and check it out at the Trafalgar Theatre. I am hugely curious about whether we are going to continue to get replacement casting in the West End. There are some rumors about somebody who might be coming in next. You will have to watch this space and wait and see. Depending on who it is. I dare say I may be back at another performance of O Mary to let you know about their performance. In the meantime, stay tuned for more reviews that I'll be sharing very soon about other products productions here in the West End and over on Broadway. If you have had the chance to see Omar, particularly with new West End leading lady Catherine Tate, I would love to know what you thought. Let me know all of your opinions in the comments section down below. And if you would like to hear more of mine, make sure to subscribe here on YouTube or follow me on podcast platforms. And if you would like to keep abreast of every single piece of theater that I go see, as well as every piece of content that I share online about it, the best way to do that is to sign up to my free weekly email substack newsletter at the link in the description. That is it. I have nothing left to plug and so as always, I hope that everyone is staying safe and that you have a stagey day for 10 more seconds. I'm Mickey Jo Theatre. Oh my God. Hey, thanks for watching. Have a stagey day. Subscribe.
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