Cole Escola poses in the press room with the award for best performance by an actor in a leading role in a play for "Oh, Mary!" during the 78th Tony Awards on Sunday, June 8, 2025, at Radio City Music Hall in New York.
Evan Agostini / AP
While an acclaimed show on Broadway exclaims “Oh, Mary!”, a takeaway from Sunday night’s Tony Awards in New York City is “Oh, Cole!”
Cole Escola, originally from Clatskanie, Oregon, won the award for best performance by an actor in a leading role in a play.
Escola, who uses they/them pronouns, is the first nonbinary actor to win the category. Others nominated in the category were high-profile celebrities George Clooney and Daniel Dae Kim.
“Oh, Mary!” is a one-act comedy that asks, “What happened to first lady Mary Todd Lincoln after her presidential husband’s assassination?”
Escola’s answer: She becomes an alcoholic and dreams of becoming a cabaret star. They wrote and starred in the show as Mary.
In total, “Oh, Mary!” received five Tony nominations: best play, best performance by a leading actor in a play, best performance by a featured actor in a play, best direction of a play and best costume design of a play.
In addition to Escola’s acting win, Sam Pinkleton won for directing.
“I can’t believe that my big break came from doing what I wanted to do, like not compromising,” Escola told NPR in May. They also described their hometown of Clatskanie as “1,500 people, lots of trees, and nothing much else.”
Earlier this year, Escola was also a finalist for a Pulitzer Prize for Drama.
