Catherine Tate is the West End’s second Mary Todd Lincoln in Cole Escola’s Tony and Olivier winning comedy Oh, Mary! And Tate was nothing short of refreshing in the best possible ways.

Oh, Mary! set during the last weeks of Abraham Lincoln’s life told through his wife Mary Todd in the queerest and uniquely humourist way imaginable. This play is history turned on its head. It’s told from a women’s perspective with outrageous language, incredible dance numbers and female insanity in situations that make you go “yeah that’s a fair”.

Tate is the first non-American performer to don the bratty curls which works in her favour immensely. Performing with a flawless southern American accent Tate’s Britishism’s come through with her cheeky delivery and dry sarcasm which gave Mary a uniquely different depth of character compared to previous performers in the role.

It was both signature Catherine Tate style but also far different from other comedic performances she has given. Tate found the balance between her brand of comedy and embodying the role of Mary in a way that separates her from the first lady entirely.

This balancing act in a 90 minutes play where she is rarely off the stage you have to commend greatly. Audience’s and performers have infamously learned how easy it is to appear as yourself from role to role and with a character driven comedy legacy such as Tate’s it is reasonable to think it would be easy for her to fall to the fate.

Notably my favourite part of this rendition of Mary Todd was the self-aware cheekiness and playful nature of Mary. Our cabaret legend title character would be an easy role to make unreasonable, neurotic and difficult. Tate gives us an unhappy, bored, sneaky, fun and curious Mary. She is kind to her. She doesn’t judge but made the effort to understand why Mary is the way she is.

You can catch Catherine Tate as Mary Todd at the Trafalgar Theatre until July 18th. I cannot stress enough that it should be a priority Mary to witness in pair with Cole Escola’s brilliant writing and charm.

Published: 08/06/2026

Written by Lara Edwards