{"id":717,"date":"2025-06-21T00:12:42","date_gmt":"2025-06-21T00:12:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/717\/"},"modified":"2025-06-21T00:12:42","modified_gmt":"2025-06-21T00:12:42","slug":"oregon-raised-cole-escola-returns-to-seth-meyers-late-night-in-post-tony-victory-tour","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/717\/","title":{"rendered":"Oregon-raised Cole Escola returns to Seth Meyers\u2019 \u2018Late Night,\u2019 in post-Tony \u2018victory tour\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"

When Cole Escola<\/a> last appeared on NBC\u2019s \u201cLate Night With Seth Meyers\u201d <\/a>show last summer,<\/a> Escola was basking in a wave of praise and box-office gold for \u201cOh, Mary!\u201d<\/a> the farcical take on First Lady Mary Todd Lincoln that Escola both wrote and starred in.<\/p>\n

If things were looking good then, they\u2019re even better now. \u201cOh, Mary!\u201d has continued to be a smash on Broadway, and Escola recently won a Tony Award<\/a> in the category of best performance by an actor in a leading role in a play, becoming the first out nonbinary performer to win a Tony in that category. <\/p>\n

Escola, who grew up in Clatskanie, returned to \u201cLate Night\u201d this week for an appearance that Meyers referred to as part of a \u201cvictory tour.\u201d With just a few more appearances in \u201cOh, Mary!\u201d left to go before they depart the show, Escola talked about seeing other performers take the lead role in the play, which Escola described this way: \u201cIt\u2019s about Mary Todd Lincoln, and her dreams of becoming a cabaret star; meanwhile, she\u2019s a frustrated alcoholic.\u201d<\/p>\n

During an earlier break Escola took from the show, actress Betty Gilpin (\u201cGlow\u201d) took over the role of Abraham Lincoln\u2019s wife, and as Meyers praised Gilpin\u2019s performance, Escola jokingly said, \u201cYou liked her better.\u201d<\/p>\n

Tituss Burgess (\u201cUnbreakable Kimmy Schmidt\u201d) has also played the role, and is set to again take over after Escola\u2019s last performance, which happens June 21. Burgess will play the role for six weeks beginning June 23, and Escola\u2019s fellow Oregonian, the Portland-raised Jinkx Monsoon<\/a>, will then play the role for eight weeks, beginning Aug. 4.<\/p>\n

As a note on the \u201cOh, Mary!\u201d website says,<\/a> Monsoon won\u2019t appear in the Sept. 9-10 performances. On her Facebook page, Monsoon notes that she will be appearing in concert with the Oregon Symphony on Sept. 10 in Portland.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

Asked how they felt to see other performers play Mary Todd Lincoln, Escola said, \u201cIt was surreal, in that it was not surreal at all. I was in the audience expecting, like, \u2018Oh, this is going to be so weird, watching this play with this role that I did.\u2019 And I watched it, and I was, like, \u2018What a lovely show.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

Escola also talked about the gown they wore to the Tony Awards being inspired by one that actress Bernadette Peters wore. On \u201cLate Night,\u201d Escola was attired less formally, showing up dressed as a doctor, complete with \u201cDr. Escola\u201d name tag, surgical gloves, a stethoscope, and a physician\u2019s white coat. <\/p>\n

During the segment, Meyers read a quote from Escola that appeared in a New York Times story, in which Escola said, \u201cI didn\u2019t have money for school, and because I couldn\u2019t afford a conservatory or one of those big theater schools, I felt there wasn\u2019t a place for me in theater. I just kept doing my own things on the side — cabaret, sketch, solo shows. I feel like I snuck into theater through a side entrance, and then barricaded myself. I am not leaving.\u201d<\/p>\n

Escola joked about that, too, saying it wasn\u2019t true and was only said to win the Tony, adding, \u201cI\u2019ve got plenty of money, I come from — I don\u2019t know if you guys are familiar with the Sacklers,\u201d referencing the wealthy family that was sued over ownership of a pharmaceutical company,<\/a> and the role that company played in the country\u2019s opioid crisis. (As The Oregonian\/OregonLive has reported, <\/a>\u201cOregon is expected to get up to $66 million as part of a national multi-billion settlement reached against the Sackler family and their company, Purdue Pharma Inc., for their role in fueling the opioid crisis.\u201d)<\/p>\n

\u201cI changed my name to Escola,\u201d the actor and writer told Meyers. \u201cIt used to be Escackler. So, that was just part of the publicity.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"When Cole Escola last appeared on NBC\u2019s \u201cLate Night With Seth Meyers\u201d show last summer, Escola was basking…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":718,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[30],"tags":[999,1000,1001,1002,1003,171,1004,1005,1006,1007,1008,1009,173,1010,67,132,68],"class_list":{"0":"post-717","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-tv","8":"tag-2020s","9":"tag-2025-2026","10":"tag-air-date-06-18-2025","11":"tag-color-image","12":"tag-double","13":"tag-entertainment","14":"tag-episodic","15":"tag-horizontal","16":"tag-indoors","17":"tag-nup_207947","18":"tag-season-12","19":"tag-select","20":"tag-tv","21":"tag-two-people","22":"tag-united-states","23":"tag-unitedstates","24":"tag-us"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/114718464460173261","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/717","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=717"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/717\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/718"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=717"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=717"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=717"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}