Cole Escanola’s Oh Mary has been a hit in New York for awhile, and has now made the journey to the West End, with the first Mary played by Mason Alexander Park. The pre-show sets us up for a party, with dance music versions of music hall cabaret and musical theatre classics. The play opens following this in big, broad strokes - featuring silly, sex-driven bawdy humour, and larger than life performances from the cast. It is funny at first, however for me, it didn’t have enough variety in its approach to the bawdy and crass humour, hitting a majority of the jokes at the same pitch, meaning it grew old and samey. This is unfortunate. It isn’t easy to direct this style and keep it interesting across 90 minutes, and indeed, this production didn’t manage it.
The changes in pitch when things change for Mary were lost to that sameness, meaning the play continued along at that level. It clearly worked for some in the audience, but the production lacked that unifying capability of a truly good comedy show where the audience’s incredulity at the jokes reaches a fever pitch.
That’s not to take away from the performers themselves — I think the issue for me lay in the direction.