Tony Award winner J. Harrison Ghee is set to make theater history in Chicago this winter, stepping into the hoop skirt of Mary Todd Lincoln when the raucous Broadway comedy Oh, Mary! opens at the CIBC Theatre on January 19, 2027. Ghee will spend the earlier legs of the show's national tour playing Abraham Lincoln opposite drag performer Alaska Thunderf*ck's take on the title role, before swapping parts once the production reaches the Loop — making Ghee the first actor in the show's history to play both leads.
The dual casting is a rare theatrical feat, according to TheaterMania, which reports Ghee will play Mrs. Lincoln's husband before stepping into her role once the tour reaches Chicago. Alaska Thunderf*ck, whose real name is Justin Andrew Honard, opens the tour as Mary Todd Lincoln when it kicks off in Hartford, Connecticut, on September 19, according to Block Club Chicago. From there, the tour will hit 17 cities — including Los Angeles, San Diego, Seattle, St. Paul and Boston — before Ghee's Chicago transition and an eventual close in West Palm Beach, Florida, next May.
A Broadway Phenomenon Lands at the CIBC
Chicago audiences will catch the show at a storied address: the 1,800-seat CIBC Theatre at 18 W. Monroe St., built in 1906 as the Majestic Theatre and once Chicago's first venue to cost more than $1 million to construct, per Chicago Traveler. The venue has hosted long-running blockbusters like Hamilton and The Book of Mormon, and Oh, Mary! is scheduled to run there through February 7, 2027, per Block Club Chicago. Tickets for the Chicago engagement go on sale November 12, per Ticketmaster, and groups of 10 or more can book by calling (312) 977-1710.
Written by Cole Escola and directed by Sam Pinkleton, the 80-minute, no-intermission comedy imagines a suffocated, alcoholic aspiring cabaret star of a First Lady stuck in a marriage with a deeply closeted president, who hires a handsome actor to give her acting lessons just to keep her occupied, according to Concord Theatricals. The five-actor show examines Mrs. Lincoln's forgotten life and dreams, per its official synopsis, and unfolds in the White House during the weeks leading up to Lincoln's assassination.
From Off-Broadway Sleeper to Record-Breaking Hit
Oh, Mary! debuted off-Broadway at the Lucille Lortel Theatre in February 2024 before transferring to Broadway that July, according to Wikipedia. At the 121-year-old Lyceum Theatre, it became the first show in the venue's history to gross more than $1 million in a single week and broke its own weekly box-office record 12 times, according to Deadline. The production also became the first show of the 2024-25 Broadway season to recoup its initial investment, according to Deadline.
The show has since expanded internationally, opening in London's West End at the Trafalgar Theatre in December 2025, where it won the 2026 Laurence Olivier Award for Best Entertainment or Comedy Play, according to Wikipedia. At the 2025 Tony Awards, the play won two trophies — Best Actor in a Play for creator Escola and Best Direction of a Play for Pinkleton — and was named a finalist for the 2025 Pulitzer Prize for Drama, according to The Pulitzer Prizes. Escola became the first openly non-binary actor to win Best Lead Actor in a Play.
A Revolving Door of Mary Todd Lincolns
Broadway's production has built a reputation for star-studded rotations in the title role. The part has previously been played by Jinkx Monsoon, Tituss Burgess, Jane Krakowski, Escola himself, Betty Gilpin, John Cameron Mitchell and Meg Stalter, according to Block Club Chicago's reporting. Saturday Night Live star Bowen Yang is set to make his Broadway debut as Mrs. Lincoln for a 12-week run at the Lyceum Theatre starting this September.
Ghee's turn as Mrs. Lincoln adds to an already historic résumé. In June 2023, Ghee won the Tony Award for Best Performance by an Actor in a Leading Role in a Musical for originating the role of Jerry/Daphne in Some Like It Hot, becoming the first openly non-binary performer to win a Tony Award, according to CBS Mornings.
Mary Todd Lincoln's Real Chicago Ties
The satire's Chicago stop carries an added layer of local resonance. After Abraham Lincoln's assassination in April 1865, Mary Todd Lincoln moved to Chicago with her sons that May, living in local hotels and homes before a high-profile Cook County jury trial in May 1875, in which her son Robert had her declared legally insane and committed to a private sanitarium, according to NPR Illinois. That history gives Escola's irreverent portrait of the First Lady an unexpected hometown connection as the tour finally makes its way to the city where the real Mrs. Lincoln once lived.
