\n<\/p>\n
\u201cOh!\u201d Tituss Burgess said, the curls of his Mary Todd Lincoln wig bobbing as he spoke. \u201cI need kneepads.\u201d<\/p>\n
Fully in costume, wearing the wig and a bell-shaped black dress, Burgess was about to rehearse Cole Escola\u2019s hit comedy \u201cOh, Mary!\u201d<\/a> onstage at the Lyceum Theater on Broadway, just days before stepping into the starring role on Tuesday.<\/p>\n And, yes, he really did need those kneepads. When Escola played Mary Todd, they channeled their sprung-coil energy into a performance of relentless hilarity and chaos. Burgess\u2019s take on the role is no less physical; if anything, he is upping the ante with the cartoonish expressions and belted high notes fans know from his earlier Broadway appearances and shows like \u201cUnbreakable Kimmy Schmidt<\/a>.\u201d<\/p>\n Burgess\u2019s turn in the play, a demented fantasia of Mary Todd Lincoln as a frustrated and thwarted \u201crather well-known niche cabaret legend,\u201d will run through April 6. After that, Escola will return to the part.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n When they do, it will be with a fantasy having come true. Last May, Escola was a guest<\/a> on Bowen Yang and Matt Rogers\u2019s podcast \u201cLas Culturistas,\u201d and said that they \u201cwould love for someone else to play Mary Todd\u201d before adding, \u201cMy dream is Tituss Burgess.\u201d<\/p>\n Yang and Rogers let out an exclamation just short of a gay gasp, and Rogers said, \u201cThat would be fab.\u201d Escola joked that they were worried Burgess would be \u201ctoo good,\u201d but also couldn\u2019t help but imagine him in the show\u2019s famous curly wig.<\/p>\n Sam Pinkleton, the play\u2019s director, said that watching Burgess in the role \u201chas opened up a joyous new dimension in a thing I thought I knew. He\u2019s made a gusty, hilarious, surprising Mary that is somehow both utterly new and deeply rooted in the DNA Cole created for Mary.\u201d<\/p>\n In an interview last week, Burgess shared what happened when he heard the \u201cLas Culturistas\u201d episode, and how he has prepared for his Broadway return. Here are edited excerpts from the conversation.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n What was your response to Cole saying they wanted you to play Mary Todd?<\/strong><\/p>\n I was like, absolutely not. I\u2019d seen the show, and I couldn\u2019t divorce Cole\u2019s performance from the character. What they are able to accomplish \u2014 it was such meteoric energy. The offer hadn\u2019t even come in yet, but I told my team no. And then we got the call in December asking me to do it.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n So when you agreed to do this, you knew how athletic it would be.<\/strong><\/p>\n I wasn\u2019t prepared for that part. They make it look so easy. But when I said yes, I said, \u201cI need that script right away.\u201d Because while the show is only 90 minutes, it\u2019s a herculean undertaking. So I convinced myself that I needed to be off-book at least before rehearsal started. I started teaching myself the role and teaching myself the blocking so that rehearsal could actually just be rehearsal. Perhaps I should have spent more time at the gym.<\/p>\n How many calories do you think you burn in this performance?<\/strong><\/p>\n I would say at least 600 or 700. By the end, it\u2019s like having to run a marathon. I get home and I am starving<\/em>. The trick is, behind the scenes, you have to stay as hydrated as possible. But I only have one opportunity for a bathroom break. So it\u2019s, like, trying to not consume too much water because that is a terrible predicament to be in \u2014 having to find a moment to use the restroom.<\/p>\n Even though you\u2019re running all over the stage, there is so much specificity to it. And on top of learning that, you\u2019re joining a well-oiled cast.<\/strong><\/p>\n Theater is always teched within an inch of its life; it\u2019s such a puzzle, one tiny thing can throw off an entire moment. What Mary Todd has to do is so physical, but within finely implemented parameters. To find something inside it that is organic is a whole other feat. It\u2019s a dance. You work together with a creative team and try to build something new inside something that already exists, and that\u2019s hard.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n Now that you\u2019ve proverbially walked a mile in Cole\u2019s wig, what do you think about what they\u2019ve created with this show?<\/strong><\/p>\n They say write what you know, and man did they ever. I just marvel at what they were able to accomplish, not just playing to their strengths, but having the opportunity to show the full breadth of what they\u2019re capable of.<\/p>\n And yet it\u2019s so elastic. Mary Todd has been played by Cole, Betty Gilpin and now you. The lines are the same, the delivery is completely different, and it remains funny.<\/strong><\/p>\n It\u2019s a really good script. I honestly think it\u2019s one of the funniest plays of my generation. It\u2019s so witty and impossibly clever, and as you said, depending on who\u2019s in it, it just takes on an entirely new life. Cole deserves the Tony \u2014 deserves best play, deserves best actor at the very least \u2014 and I don\u2019t say that lightly. It\u2019s tricky to make this performance look so seamless and so effortless. People undervalue that sometimes, but it takes a great deal of control.<\/p>\n How much were you encouraged to add Tituss-isms and make the role your own?<\/strong><\/p>\n We talked about this at length, because I was getting stuck in the thought of: \u201cYou hired me. You\u2019re using my body as the vessel for Mary Todd.\u201d So I didn\u2019t understand how she could go through the whole play and not have a real facility for performance. But we also went back with just how much of me I would use, because I didn\u2019t want that to be the<\/em> reason I am doing the part. I\u2019m equally good with dialogue as I am with music, and I was excited for the chance to show that.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n You could hear, over time, how hard this show was on Cole\u2019s voice. Mary Todd Lincoln is up there with Elphaba. You\u2019ve had big sings before, like in \u201c<\/strong>The Little Mermaid<\/a><\/strong>,\u201d but how are you caring for your voice now?<\/strong><\/p>\n This weekend I will be with my vocal coach, for sure. I don\u2019t want to say that I\u2019m nervous about it, but I\u2019ve noticed a different type of fatigue than I\u2019ve experienced before. Cole has a lighter voice than I do; mine has a great deal of heft to it. So for me, this is taxing. I\u2019m actually kind of relieved that it\u2019s only for three weeks. I think that\u2019s all the stamina I have.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n