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Oh, Mary! The Play Was Hilarious, Mrs. Lincoln
Cole Escola goes berserk as the First Lady.
But if you’re already an Escola fan — the type is, generally, queer coastal medicated comedy snob — you’re probably also familiar with their maniacal twinks on Difficult People and Search Party or their parodies of true crime and western TV kitsch like Little House on the Prairie. Cabaret, Mary insists to Abe, is a world-class art form: “People traveled the world over for my short legs and long medleys!” Escola has written scenes that resemble hoary old melodrama and then punctured them with bursts of broad, filthy comedy. They are climbing the ladder built by Mike & Carlee Productions — the power-broker producers who have propelled a number of comedians, including Alex Edelman and Kate Berlant, to prestigious theatrical acclaim — but they haven’t buttoned up this material for a wider audience or pretended to rise above it.
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