Bowen Yang went to Maya Rudolph for advice before he took over the title role in “Oh, Mary!” on Broadway. He was hoping for a deep talk about craft. He told Seth Meyers on the Oct. 27 episode of “Late Night with Seth Meyers” that he got four words.
“I thought we were gonna, like, really get granular with it. And all she had to say to me was get the knee pads,” Yang said. “Like, there’s just a lot of like physical stuff where you’re getting on the floor.”
Meyers showed a photo of him in costume. Yang pointed out that he’s “the first Mary with TMJ.”
He called himself a “theater-adjacent lurker” in his Playbill bio and admitted the nerves haven’t gone away. “I feel like a fraud,” he said. Meyers told him that wasn’t true.
Six Former Marys Came to See Bowen Yang at the Lyceum Theatre
Cole Escola, who wrote the play and originated Mary, came to a performance with five other Broadway Marys: John Cameron Mitchell, Hannah Solow, Rudolph, Betty Gilpin and Jane Krakowski, BroadwayWorld reported. Meyers put up the group photo.
“Look at that though. Like, I look like a bedridden child with rickets,” Yang said.
They all went for drinks afterward. Hearing Rudolph and the others call it the best comedy job in performing sealed it for him, he said. “They’re gonna have to drag me out kicking and screaming,” he said. “It’s the best, best, best comedy gig.”
He’s been saying it’s his favorite play for a while. “It’s my favorite play of all time. If you haven’t seen it, please come. It’s so much fun,” he told Meyers, who said he’d seen it four times. Yang’s pitch for the plot: “This is about a woman who is trying to free herself at the hands of the man who ended slavery.”
He also recalled his high school director in Colorado, who scolded him as a freshman for checking off every “Once Upon a Mattress” role he wouldn’t play. “You’re not in a position to make demands, young man,” she told him, he said.
Bowen Yang’s ‘Oh, Mary!’ Run Extended Through Jan. 17, 2027
Yang began his run at the Lyceum on Sept. 15, according to the production’s announcement. He signed on for 12 weeks, through Dec. 6. In September the production added six weeks, keeping him through Jan. 17, 2027, Broadway.com reported. The show’s official site lists the extended dates.
He’d said no to the part a year earlier, while he was still on “Saturday Night Live.” “I was too yoked to that time frame to give myself the proper runway,” he told Vulture, according to The New York Times. He left “SNL” in December.
Bowen Yang Voices Gary the Intern in ‘The Cat in the Hat’
Warner Bros.’ animated “The Cat in the Hat” opens in North American theaters Nov. 6, according to the film’s official site. Bill Hader voices the Cat. Quinta Brunson is also in the cast. Meyers noted the release falls on Yang’s birthday.
Yang plays Gary the intern, who he said has “a very important role to play in terms of mirroring society back to itself.”
“He calls himself a nepo person, not a nepo baby,” Yang said.
