Lolly Adefope makes her West End debut in 'Oh, Mary!'

Comedian and actress Lolly Adefope is taking on the incredible role of Mary Todd Lincoln in the West End hit Oh, Mary!.

Summary

• Lolly Adefope is leading the cast of Oh, Mary! in the West End
• The comedian is known for her screen roles in Ghosts and Shrill
• She stars in the cast alongside Lucy Frederick, J.R. Ballantyne, Vinnie Heaven, and Syrus Lowe

No show in recent times has a better casting track record than award-winning comedy Oh, Mary! – both on Broadway and in the West End. Succeeding writer and original star Cole Escola in the screamingly funny title role have been the likes of Jinkx Monsoon, Maya Rudolph, Mason Alexander Park, Catherine Tate, and now, leading the London production, Lolly Adefope, known for her razor-sharp stand-up and TV shows such as BBC sitcom Ghosts and HBO series Shrill.

Adefope has long been a fan of Escola’s, she explains. “I love everything they’ve ever made: all their videos, their specials, [TV show] Search Party. Cole is just so singular – their comedy is totally unique. But then Oh, Mary! is also really relatable: it brings audiences along for the ride. I first saw it in New York last year with Cole, and then I saw the first London run with Mason Alexander Park – both incredible.”

That latter trip, adds Adefope, sparked an idea. “Watching someone on Broadway, my brain doesn’t really connect with ‘Oh, I could be in that’. But seeing it in London, I really felt like ‘Wow, this would be amazing. I’d love to do it.’ Then I got the call a few months later, so it was kismet.” It’s the perfect vehicle for Adefope to make her West End debut, since Oh, Mary! – which offers an irreverent riff on American First Lady Mary Todd Lincoln as a thwarted cabaret performer – draws on both Adefope’s stand-up background and her comedy-drama experience.

“It’s such a privilege to get to flex all those different muscles,” Adefope says. “You get to do hilarious comedy and also have these emotional moments. It speaks to how strong the writing is: these characters are completely mad in lots of ways, but we see why. We see what’s bubbling beneath the surface to provoke them to react in erratic ways. They’re so fully fleshed out that you can earn those moments of pathos.”

Adefope admires Escola’s skill at “marrying loads of different extremes” in the play. She explains: “Mary’s personality is such a mishmash, but they do it in such a skilful, stylish way that it makes you completely buy it. There’s an underpinning of truth – as well as being really silly and really funny.” It means Adefope didn’t fret too much about overpreparing before beginning rehearsals. “It’s such a privilege getting to see the show you’re going into first, and knowing it’s this well-oiled machine. That’s a total luxury. I’m like the 12th Mary: we know this works!”

However, she appreciates that there’s also space within the production for each new Mary to explore. “It is interesting playing Mary Todd Lincoln as a Black woman – how does that come into it? It’s not that we’re necessarily making explicit that this is the tale of a woman of colour being the First Lady, but I think some of her intensity and rage resonates in a different way than it might with someone else playing her. It’s great that so many different kinds of people can bring their own truth to the role. There are definitely moments where I can put my little comic spin on her.”

Mary is a remarkably physical role too – all while the lead performer contends with a giant hoop skirt. “I feel like I had good training for this playing [18th-century noblewoman] Kitty in Ghosts, wearing a big dress and being really physical,” laughs Adefope. “There’s some crossover between them actually, but Kitty was more contained, and so was I because of the corset. So this feels like Kitty 2.0 where she’s more feral and gets to run around and let it all out. I was bracing myself for it to be really exhausting, but because it’s quite a short play and it moves at such a pace, it’s more exhilarating.”

Oh, Mary! is the latest fascinating choice that Adefope has made in a wide-ranging career that has taken her from the Edinburgh Festival Fringe to Hollywood. Born in South London to Nigerian parents, her comedy heroes included David Mitchell and Robert Webb, Armando Iannucci, Steve Coogan, and fellow Mary, Catherine Tate. She experienced a few setbacks when trying to follow in their footsteps, however, including not getting into drama school.

“But I feel like whenever something isn’t working, subconsciously I’m like ‘OK, well I can use this,’” Adefope says. “I had a boring office job that I was really bad at, and I wrote my first character around that: Gemma, who was doing her first stand-up gig and her friends from work haven’t turned up.” This became Adefope’s well-received debut Edinburgh show, Lolly, in 2015.

She hasn’t stopped working since, although she says she can definitely relate to Mary’s feeling of “having something that you want to show the world, but you’re not given the opportunity. As an actor, you have to be cast before you’re allowed to do it. You can feel a bit like you’re in a cage, the way that Mary feels trapped not realising her cabaret dreams.”

But, unlike Mary, Adefope has had plenty of enriching professional experiences, including the BBC’s beloved Ghosts. “It was heaven on earth,” she sighs. “We were like a family: a really odd family shoved together. It was devastating when it ended.” Happily, the cast have reunited for a movie, Ghosts: The Possession of Button House, which comes out later this month. “It felt like a school reunion,” says Adefope. “It was such a nice bonus.”

She speaks just as fondly of Shrill, starring Aidy Bryant as a plus-sized young woman; Adefope played her badass queer bestie, Fran. “That was also heaven,” she says. “Me and Aidy clicked straightaway, so it was very easy to play friends. It really chimed with people in the way we wanted it to, which was so rewarding.” Then there was the pinch-me moment of getting to act opposite her childhood hero, Coogan, in This Time with Alan Partridge. “It was a dream come true – I couldn’t believe it was happening,” says Adefope. “It was great playing a character who was the opposite of me: someone who was really unimpressed by Alan Partridge.”

It’s very freeing playing someone like that who “says whatever they want at all times”, notes Adefope – a quality that connects many of her characters, including Lady Daphne in the movie Saltburn, and of course her current role. “Lady Daphne and Mary Todd definitely have some ancestral connection,” quips Adefope.

She’s currently developing a pilot script with a friend, and observes that it’s rare to get a part like Mary “where you feel like ‘Wow, I didn’t have to write this myself, and it’s an amazing lead who’s so dynamic and layered’. I’ve felt for a while that I would love to be a lead after doing lots of supporting roles – I wanted to try something with more responsibility and that was hopefully more rewarding.”

Adefope feels both “scared and excited” about her Oh, Mary! debut, she adds, but mostly the latter: “I can’t wait to get going. The only weird thing is I love this show so much and I sort of wish I could be in the audience for it, but it’s amazing being part of this company. I’m having so much fun.”

Book Oh, Mary! tickets on LondonTheatre.co.uk

This article first appeared in the October 2026 issue of London Theatre Magazine.

Photo credit: Lolly Adefope and cast in Oh, Mary! rehearsals. (Photos by Manuel Harlan)