As Cole Escolas Oh, Mary! Sidekick, Bianca Leigh Is Smashing Barriers And Getting Her Due

LOADINGERROR LOADINGAs one of the stars of “Oh, Mary!” on Broadway, Bianca Leigh is thrilled to be performing to sold-out crowds and garnering some of the best reviews of her career.Still, she’s aware it could very well be a “once-in-a-lifetime” experience that never happens again.“It’s a funny feeling, saying that this is as good as it gets,” the actor, who is transgender, told HuffPost.

“It’s odd when it’s happening in real time.I’m not a spring chicken, as my grandmother would say, so I’m very lucky this has happened, and I get to do what I want to do for the foreseeable future.” Advertisement Directed by Sam Pinkleton, “Oh, Mary!” broke box office records when it opened at New York’s Lyceum Theatre in July following an off-Broadway engagement earlier this year.

On Thursday, the show ― originally set to close this month ― formally extended its run through January.The historical farce depicts first lady Mary Todd Lincoln (played by actor-writer Cole Escola, who uses they/them pronouns) as a booze-swilling, lovesick woman who yearns to be a cabaret performer, and President Abraham Lincoln (Conrad Ricamora) as a closeted gay man with a predilection for trysts in the Oval Office.

Leigh’s character, Louise, is Mary’s chaperone and sole confidante in the White House.As it turns out, Louise is hiding a few secrets of her own beneath her demure, buttoned-up appearance.Cole Escola and Bianca Leigh in Broadway's "Oh, Mary!" Bianca LeighAdvertisement Unlike many “Oh, Mary!” characters, Louise has no real-life counterpart.

Instead, Leigh said, she represents “the model of 19th-century womanhood” that Mary Todd Lincoln was believed to have rejected during her lifetime.“I sometimes think Louise is like Glinda the Good Witch or Olivia de Havilland in ‘Gone with the Wind’ because she’s just goodness and light and love,” she explained.

“The more she wants to be close to Mary, the funnier it is when high ...