The GLOW of WHERE?! Betty Gilpin, the actress best known for starring in women’s-wrestling dramedy GLOW and bonkers AI masterpiece Mrs. Davis, is replacing Cole Escola in Oh, Mary! on Broadway. Escola, who wrote the show and has starred in it since it premiered Off Broadway in February, is leaving the production with a head held high after making the biggest hit play of the year (and being a Reason to Love New York). This will be Gilpin’s Broadway debut, though she was an Off Broadway regular in the early 2010s, starring in I’m Gonna Pray for You So Hard in 2015 and as a near-silent nurse in 2012’s Heartless. She will play the role for eight weeks, beginning January 21, 2025, and running through March 16. Notably, the show has released tickets for sale through June 28, so it likely has someone else lined up as well.
To those who know Gilpin primarily for her TV work, this may seem like a surprising choice, but she’s kinda been an “if you know, you know†performer for years now — just like Escola pre–Oh, Mary! She’s also had a long-expressed love of queer alt comedy: She expressed a deep love for Las Culturistas and Seek Treatment way before those shows hosted Emmy nominees with regularity. “I have worshiped at the altar of Cole for years, but seeing their billion layered brilliance in Oh, Mary! was a new plane of demented genius I didn’t know was scientifically possible,†Gilpin said in a statement. “I am beyond honored to step in so that Cole can get back to tending their neglected passions: fracking and skincare. Diving in with the perfect Sam Pinkleton to play Mary will be one of the single greatest joys of my life, and I will say that to my two daughters’ faces.†Well, it sure seems like she gets the spirit of the show: true callousness toward one’s children.