The riotous play Oh, Mary! has found two new leads for its first North American tour kicking off this fall: drag queen Alaska Thunderf— and Broadway darling J. Harrison Ghee. When the show lands in Philadelphia next March, Ghee will take the spotlight as the delightfully mad first lady Mary Todd Lincoln.
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First, though, the titular role will go to Alaska, a winner of RuPaul’s Drag Race All Stars, who grew up in Erie, Pa., and graduated from University of Pittsburgh. While she stars as Mary, Ghee — a longtime New Yorker originally from Fayetteville, N.C. — will play “Mary’s Husband,” a.k.a. President Abraham Lincoln, becoming the first actor to play both roles in the play.
The 2026-2027 tour starts in Hartford, Conn., in September and runs through May, with stops including Washington DC, Boston, Los Angeles, and Detroit. Alaska will play Mary through Jan. 17 and Ghee will take over the lead role beginning Jan. 19 in Chicago. They will be the star during the show’s brief Philly run at the Miller Theater from March 9 to 14.
The camp comedy from actor/comedian Cole Escola follows a miserable, alcoholic Mary Lincoln just before her husband’s assassination in a satirical story that “finally examines the forgotten life and dreams of Mrs. Lincoln through the lens of an idiot.” Following Escola, several stars have put their own stamp on the role, including Tituss Burgess, Maya Rudolph, Jane Krakowski, and Jinkx Monsoon (another breakout star from the RuPaul’s Drag Race universe).
The play was a massive hit when it landed on Broadway in 2024, becoming a Pulitzer Prize finalist and receiving five Tony Award nominations. Oh, Mary! won two in 2025, including best direction of a play and best performance by an actor in a leading role in a play for Escola — who made Tony Award history as the first nonbinary actor to win in that category.
So it’s fitting that Ghee — a nonbinary actor who also achieved a historic first at the 2023 Tony Awards when they won best leading actor in a musical for playing Daphne/Jerry in Some Like It Hot — will get a chance to play Mary, too.
The two actors haven’t yet talked in-depth about the roles, but earlier this year they crossed paths when Ghee was waiting to hear back on their audition results. “We spoke briefly at the Tony [Awards] after party at the Carlyle [Hotel], and they had kind of given me a hint,” said Ghee, who’s currently playing Hermes in Hadestown on Broadway.
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“They were like, ‘I feel like I’m gonna see more of you coming up.’”
Ghee has seen Krakowski, Monsoon, and Hannah Solow play Mary so far and they can’t wait to take up the role. “I’ve seen a spectrum of Marys, and I’m excited to, as Billy Porter would say, ‘steal the good sh—,’ and also just bring myself to it and really have fun.”
They first auditioned for the role of “Mary’s Husband” but had eyes on the lead, too.
“It was very much a ‘yes, and’ [situation],” Ghee said. “A lot of my career has been based in duality. I am very that, and I love versatility. I don’t ever want to be pigeonholed…I want to show people the capacity — don’t let other people limit you.”
As for stopping in Philadelphia, Ghee said it’s one of the cities where they’re most eager to perform. They love visiting the city and enjoying the food culture.
“I love to take an Amtrak down to Philly because you still get city vibes, but it breathes a little easier,” they said. “So I’m even considering, like, is there a world where I live in Philly one day? I don’t know!”
Tickets are on sale now for ‘Oh, Mary!,’ which runs March 9-14, 2027 at the Miller Theater, 250 S. Broad St., Phila., 215-893-1999 or ensembleartsphilly.org.