Cole Escola is paying tribute to a Broadway great with their flair.
On Sunday, June 8, at the 2025 Tony Awards in New York City, the Oh, Mary! star wore a silvery-blue gown inspired by Bernadette Peters’ design from the 1999 ceremony, when she won Best Leading Actress in a Musical for Annie Get Your Gun.
“It’s my favorite blue, which I call Cinderella blue,” Escola told PEOPLE on the red carpet. The celebrity also mentioned that their pendant necklace includes renowned British actress Laura Keene, who appeared in the play Our American Cousin, which President Abraham Lincoln saw at Ford’s Theater in Washington on the evening of his assassination.
Escola’s unique Wiederhoeft design includes a pale blue taffeta lace-up corset with draping at the chest and hips, as well as hand-embroidered metallic blue glass beads. The skirt, embroidered in the same glass beads, features an ornate door design flowing down the entire front in silver glass beads, faceted crystals, and tarnished metal sequins, which, according to a press release, is “a nod to Bernadette’s medals and the significance of the passage of time.”
The skirt’s enormous train is fashioned of light blue taffeta.
Escola, 38, wore a reddish-brown wavy wig inspired by Peters’ characteristic style.
“When we first discussed this look with David and Cole, we were very inspired by Bernadette Peters’ look from the 1999 Tony Awards,” Jackson Wiederhoeft stated in a press statement. “We were all obsessed with the color of the wig and the medals on the front, which conveyed a sense of fake naiveté.”
The designer went on to say, “We were influenced by other motifs like fading crypticism, false innocence, fightfulness, womanly age-hold historically feminine clothes, queenly position, and antique doors.
Escola has been nominated for Best Performance by a Leading Actor in a Play for their performance in Oh, Mary!, the blockbuster Broadway comedy written by Escola himself. Cynthia Erivo will host the awards presentation.
Escola returned to the character of Mary Todd on Tuesday, April 8, after Betty Gilpin and Tituss Burgess took over. Conrad Ricamora (‘Mary’s Husband’) and James Scully (‘Mary’s Teacher’) also returned to the show on that day.
This event reunited the whole original Broadway cast. Bianca Leigh (‘Mary’s Chaperone’) and Tony Macht (‘Mary’s Husband’s Assistant’) have been in the absurdist comedy since it launched at the Lyceum Theatre in New York City in June 2024.
The play had its Broadway debut following an Off-Broadway run in February that garnered Escola several honors, including the Obie, Drama Desk, Theatre World, and Outer Critics Circle.