Darren Criss and Cole Escola on ‘Oh, Mary!’ and Their Broadway Connection

Darren Chris He broke out in a rotating chair, directly on the other side of “Oh, Mary!” creator Cole EscolaHis phone is deceived between pillows. The former “Glee” star, in Broadway in “Maybe Heading”, has a list of questions on his cell for Escola, who is terrified of forgetting any of them.

“I will leave and think,” says Chris, the straight student. “The duo sits to discuss their experiences that top the most productive production of this Broadway season. The most original products in Broadway. In a year overflowing with the wonderful revival and adaptations on the screen, the fans fell for” perhaps a happy end “, a very fate music about robots in love, and” Oh, Mary! “, A distorted comic look at Abraham Lincoln’s wife.

Anything original can be risky, but CRISS indicates the privileges: “No one feels a retreat or comparison.”

Escola tends back, a demonic luster in their eyes, and interferes, “Well, the people who know Mary Todd Lincoln … some of her friends came to see the show.”

In their fun conversation, Escola and CRISS talk about ridiculous facts in “Oh, Mary!” (“No one comes like,”I thought this was historic accurate“I literally do a robot?

Cole Escola: How did we meet?

Darren Chris: Allow me to prepare the scene: About 10 years ago, a joint friend, Beng Basque, and I went to see one of your shows in Duplex.

Escola: I will make a single offer, and I will write a new hour every month to challenge myself.

Chris: I remember very much. I have a short list on my phone for the people I want …

Escola: … kill.

Chris: killing. Immediately destroy. No, from the people who looked at them and I want to work with them. Your name was on my little list for a long time, and I asked Beni after that, “Do you mind linking us?” At that time, I was shot “Glee”, and I do not know in what world we were intersving, but part of me wanted to be in your life.

Escola: Well, we are now a block from each other. You destroyed me the other night. Not that way, guys, let’s …

Chris: I will not put myself.

Escola: I went to see the infantry from “Perhaps a Happy End” before I had to do so on, and I was crying. Then I walked one full mass until the Lisium Theater.

Chris: “Oh, Mary!” It appears to have been made in a laboratory for people who share this type of humor and aesthetic. I was like, “I don’t know if it would take to Broadway”-not in a pessimistic way, in a sincere curiosity.

Escola: No, a little of the pessimistic method. You always have for me, Darine. You have that list …

Chris: Why did you bring the show to Broadway? It was a huge blow off Broadway, and there should be a degree of fear.

Escola: We were afraid that we would become very large for Britches. When the producers asked, I was like, “Why do I say no?”

Chris: [His phone alarm goes off.] Cinnamon, sorry. If you hear Patti Lubon, I will be outside a ridiculous window.

Escola: Warning control over births?

Chris: It is too late for that – I have two children less than 3.

Escola: Two children less than 3 years and eight offers a week.

Chris: If I put jokes aside, this is the most beautiful arrangement. Because getting a schedule and with my children all day is nice.

Escola: It is good not to have children.

Chris: I hope you like this sleep. I love it for you. You are working your background.

Escola: thus. I love your bodies. But I also know when you do the same movement eight times a week over and over again, suddenly, you are like, “Oh my God …” [Escola winces] When I was watching, I wondered what hurts you when you wake up.

Chris: I must say that the offer is the easiest part of my daily, as a father has two under 3 years.

Escola: Oh, come on. Get out here.

Chris: This is correct. The life of the ballistic and uncontrolled young people. By the time you go to a width less than two hours, it is sweet and measured. I do not envy our colleagues who plow their lives for three hours, eight times a week.

I did not write this offer though. Because you are the leader of this ship, do you find Mary changing, like, “I will do this now”?

Escola: No, because we found the best version of the story, so I want to keep it as narrow as possible. But I did not write it, knowing that I will do it for a long time.

When I spoke to Tituss Burges and Betty Gilpin [both have substituted in, playing Mary on Broadway]TitUs was like, “You have to write in more water rest periods. There is no time to urinate.”

Chris: Why do you want to do “Oh, Mary!” As a written play?

Escola: I thought it was more seriously visually and gentle, it would be more entertaining. I wrote it in 2020, but I had the idea in 2009. I was afraid that as soon as I arrived in paper, it wouldn’t be good as I had in my head.

Chris: This is a healthy thing that has every artist.

Escola: To avoid this for 12 years? It is funny though. The middle age crisis started before this play-the early middle life crisis, by the way; I am very young for the real middle -aged crisis – and then while breaking from the show, completely returned. This play did not solve any personal problems for me.

Chris: There is just another mountain.

Escola: No, it’s the same mountain. Did you do the theater when you were growing?

Chris: Yes. “Feddler on the surface”. Were you in “Fiddler”?

Escola: You are Mendel, Ibn Al -Habham. My line was “Give me, Rob Tifai?”

Chris: I was a doubt Tivay. This was the leadership league. I had no leading roles.

Escola: I was 15 years old. I would like to come to the stage three hours ago to make my makeup. Dana Brown, the school theater teacher, left a great impression of me. Everyone was afraid of Dana Brown. He had these strange rules, as if you had died in the show, did not bow in Curtain Call because he was breaking magic. But it is clear how I want to protect the audience. It is like an evil witch for the West …

Chris: She died.

Escola: … do not get the bow. Sorry, sweetheart – this is the price you pay. There were moments in “Oh, Mary!” Where bits sometimes grow or not. But if you indulge a lot, you can take from the story, which is transferred from the gift to the audience. So sometimes I must hit the notes.

Chris: I can’t watch my show. But you moved your role to others. When Betty Gilpin entered, was this the first time you saw the show?

Escola: Yes. It was surreal because it was not surrealist at all. I was like, “What a beautiful play.”

In “Perhaps a Happy End”, your movements are echoed in the way the scene changes – the way the boxes are slipped around you. Are there technical accidents?

Chris: They happen, and they knock on a few years [director] Michael Jordan’s life. He is upset with these things, but it happens. I heard that Stephen Spielberg came to your offer.

Escola: He came to the city center to Lortel with Tony Kushner and Sally Field. It was very sweet. I was previously tense – because they did “Lincoln” – they would be like “,”This is in a weak taste.“But they were completely fine.

Chris: Stephen also just came to our offer. It is difficult not to be Starstruck completely. It is part of the fabric of entertainment. He appeared, and for two hours of his life, we had his time and interest.

Escola: I heard that he was on his phone all the time. I’m kidding. It reminds me of this clip from Nancy Silveron, making this dessert for Julia Childe.

Chris: And cry? I love this clip.

Escola: Me too. Because I am like, “Oh, you should feel satisfied to the point that Nancy Silveron is, which makes Julia Child cry with your delicious dessert?” Get a shrapnel from this feeling when someone admires him to see “Oh, Mary!” It is like, “You have given me a lot. I want to return something small.”

It was filmed in the rainbow room and the top of the rock at the Rokirviller Center

Escola: Melody: Winning of Winning and Loss; Make -up: Sasha Burax/Geralin; Chris: Designer: Ashley Weston + Scarlette Weston; Construction: Edward Cruz and Michael Levisi; Chris, clothes: Brooks Brothers