Alaska Thunderf*ck and J. Harrison Ghee Will Lead OH, MARY! National Tour

RuPaul’s Drag Race All Stars winner Alaska Thunderf*ck and Tony Award winner J. Harrison Ghee will both take on the role of “Mary Todd Lincoln” in the upcoming 2026-27 National Tour of Oh, Mary!, directed by Tony Award winner Sam Pinkleton. Alaska will launch the tour as “Mary Todd Lincoln” beginning September 19, 2026, at The Bushnell in Hartford, Connecticut, and will play the role through January 17, 2027, in Saint Paul, Minnesota, including the Los Angeles engagement at the Ahmanson Theatre later this year. During Alaska’s run, Tony Award winner J. Harrison Ghee will star opposite her as “Mary’s Husband.”

Beginning January 19, 2027, in Chicago, Illinois, J. Harrison Ghee will trade the top hat for Mary’s hoop skirt, stepping into the role of “Mary Todd Lincoln” through May 16, 2027, in West Palm Beach, Florida. With this transition, Ghee will become the first actor to play both “Mary Todd Lincoln” and “Mary’s Husband” in the Tony and Olivier Award-winning and Pulitzer Prize finalist hit comedy. Additional casting for the tour will be announced in the coming months.

“I’ve often been asked what my dream role would be. As an 8-foot-tall Drag Queen from outer space, I never really had an answer. Mama Rose? I’m too tall. Evita? I’m too short. Willy Loman? Wait… that might actually be amazing. But the point is, I never had a dream role. Until I saw Oh, Mary!. So, it is an actual dream come true that I, Alaska Thunderf*ck, get to play Mary F*cking Todd in the greatest play of the generation. This is an honor. This is unbelievable. Also, my fiancé, Matt Herrmann, is a celebrated Abraham Lincoln impersonator so… destiny,” said Alaska Thunderf*ck. “I am infinitely grateful to the inspired genius known as Cole Escola for creating the best role in the best show ever to exist. (How did you do it? Are you a time traveler perhaps?) And to my dear pal and confidante Sam Pinkleton: Thank you for bringing this play to life with such brilliance and bombast. I can’t wait. And since this is the national tour, I will be the first-ever Mary to don the hallowed hoop skirt in Las Vegas–an accolade which will surely make it into my obituary.”

“I have seen Oh, Mary! three times and relished the beauty of this show—how different people shine so brightly in these roles, and yet you see the influence of Cole all over the production. The opportunity to get a crack at Mary’s Husband and Mary Todd Lincoln is beyond a dream come true. I love getting to switch it up and show multiple sides of myself,” said J. Harrison Ghee. “We all possess so much within us. If we surrender to circumstances, we will find the possibility for expansion beyond belief. I’m so excited to play opposite Alaska; there are bound to be some brilliant moments, and we are going to set the road on fire with this electrifyingly hilarious play.”

Written by Tony Award and Olivier Award winner Cole Escola and directed by Tony Award winner Sam Pinkleton, Oh, Mary! opened on Broadway on July 11, 2024, and continues to play at the Lyceum Theatre, where it became the first show in the theatre’s 121-year history to gross more than $1,000,000 in a single week. Oh, Mary! has since broken its own box office record thirteen times and became the first show of the 2024-25 Broadway season to recoup its investment. Oh, Mary! opened to rave reviews in London’s West End on December 18, 2025, and won the 2026 Olivier Award for Best New Entertainment or Comedy Play.

Oh, Mary! is a dark comedy about a miserable, suffocated Mary Todd Lincoln in the weeks leading up to Abraham Lincoln’s assassination. Unrequited yearning, alcoholism, and suppressed desires abound in this one-act play that finally examines the forgotten life and dreams of Mrs. Lincoln through the lens of an idiot (playwright Cole Escola).

The full creative team for the Broadway production includes dots (Scenic Designer), Holly Pierson (Costume Designer), Cha See (Lighting Designer), Daniel Kluger (Sound Design and Original Music), Drew Levy (Sound Designer), Leah J. Loukas (Wig Designer), Addison Heeren (Props Supervision), and David Dabbon (Musical Arrangements). Casting by Henry Russell Bergstein, CSA.

Tour Dates

09/19/26 – 09/23/26 — Hartford — The Bushnell, Belding Theater 

09/29/26 – 10/04/26 — San Diego — San Diego Civic Theatre

10/06/26 – 10/11/26 — Las Vegas — The Smith Center

10/13/26 – 11/01/26 — San Francisco — Curran Theatre

11/03/26 – 11/08/26 — Seattle — The Paramount Theatre

11/10/26 – 12/06/26 — Los Angeles — Ahmanson Theatre

12/21/26 – 01/03/27 — Boston — Emerson Colonial Theatre

01/06/27 – 01/17/27 — St. Paul — Ordway Center for the Performing Arts

01/19/27 – 02/07/27 — Chicago — CIBC Theatre 

02/09/27 – 02/21/27 — Washington, DC — The National Theatre

02/23/27 – 02/28/27 — Detroit — Fisher Theatre

03/09/27 – 03/14/27 — Philadelphia — Miller Theater

03/16/27 – 03/28/27 — Charlotte — Blumenthal Arts, Knight Theater

03/30/27 – 04/04/27 — Cleveland — Connor Palace

04/06/27 – 04/11/27 — Tampa — Straz Center

04/27/27 – 05/09/27 — Houston — Hobby Center