Trafalgar theatre, London Arriving from Broadway with much fanfare, Cole Escola’s play about Mary Todd Lincoln is loaded with obvious jokes and squanders the talents of its cast Oh, my! Mary Todd Lincoln is a drunken wannabe cabaret star! Her husband Abraham, the 16th US president, is a closet homosexual! And her acting tutor – also Abraham’s ex – is a hunk in tight breeches who might have wandered off the set of a 70s porn film! They all variously swear, sing and engage in acts of sexual desperation! Oh, why, when Cole Escola’s play comes garlanded from Broadway for its send-up of the 19th-century first couple, did this critic sit with a frozen face through the whole sorry fandango? Billed as an uproarious black comedy about Mary’s life and times in the lead-up to Abraham’s assassination, the original production starred Escola as Mary . This transfer features Mason Alexander Park as the obstreperous lush, with Giles Terera as her civil war-fielding husband. Continue reading...