West End spoof about President Lincoln's First Lady

Catherine Tate is to star in the West End hit Oh, Mary for three months.

The comic will play the lead as ‘America’s most tormented First Lady’, Mary Todd Lincoln from April 27 to July 18 – extending the show’s run at the Trafaglar Theatre. 

Oh, Mary is an outlandish pantomime-spoof of the lives of Abraham and Mary Todd Lincoln, set in the days leading up to the Presidents assassination at Ford's Theatre in Washington DC.

The show portrays Mary as a temperamental alcoholic, stuck in an unhappy marriage with the deeply closeted President Lincoln and desperate to return to her past glory days as a cabaret star.

The original 2024 New York run of the show was shortlisted for Pulitzer Prize for Drama and nominated for five Tony Awards, winning two.

It transferred to London in December, with  Mason Alexander Park taking the lead role, who Tate is replacing. 

Tate was recently seen the Wicked Fairy in the London Palladium’s extravagant pantomime Sleeping Beauty. 

The Broadway run has featured a guest stars, including Jane 30 Rock’s Krakowski, drag queen Jinkx Monsoon and Tituss Burgess from The Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt.

Published: 24 Feb 2026