Live from New York, it’s Mary Todd Lincoln!
“Saturday Night Live” alum Bowen Yang announced he’s making his Broadway debut as the central character in “Oh, Mary!”
The comedian revealed the news via Instagram on Tuesday, sharing a hilarious video of himself dressed in character as Mary Todd Lincoln.
“OH, BOWEN! ⭐️ Bowen Yang will make his Broadway debut as Mary Todd Lincoln in OH, MARY! for a limited 12-week engagement beginning Tuesday, September 15,” the caption read.
“I’m not afraid to be masculine in this Mary,” Yang told Vulture of the shocking career move.
“Mary having a complete delusion about her skills versus how other people perceive her feels very male to me, in a way that I relate with.”
The show’s director, Sam Pinkleton, also teased that Bowen’s Mary Todd Lincoln “will be particularly intense.”
“Bowen’s Mary might be a real viper. She will be very strong,” he told the outlet.
Yang’s surprising announcement comes months after his abrupt exit from “Saturday Night Live” back in December.
The “Wicked” star — who joined the comedy sketch show for Season 45 in 2019 — departed the long-running program mid-season after the Christmas episode.
“It’s his choice. People have no idea what is really going on,” an insider told The Post at the time. “This has come out of the blue, but is no surprise.”
That same month, Yang announced he was leaving the Lorne Michaels-created show in an emotional Instagram post.
“i loved working at SNL, and most of all i loved the people. i was there at a time when many things in the world started to seem futile, but working at 30 rock taught me the value in showing up anyway when people make it worthwhile,” he penned at the time.
In Tuesday’s announcement, Yang told Vulture that he was given the opportunity to star in “Oh, Mary!” last summer, but turned it down because of “SNL.”
Now, however, Yang said the Broadway opportunity came at the perfect time in his career.
“I felt like I should leave ‘SNL,’ but then after I left it, I was like, ‘But I miss it already,’” he explained.
“There’s this weird dialectic thing Mary has in her relationship with the cabaret. She’s like, ‘I want nothing more than to go back to it.’ And then Abe calls out the fact that she did not enjoy it when she was in it.
“That is not reflective of my ‘SNL’ experience,” Yang insisted. “But there was a parallel: I’m currently in a transitional place in my life where I am trapped by my boredom.”
Back in June, the comedian admitted he was struggling to adjust after leaving the NBC show.
“I feel like I’m chopped, clapped … I’m done in this town,” the 35-year-old confessed on the “Therapuss” podcast, when asked how he was feeling following his exit.
“I think I’ll be in that mode for a while and that’s fine.”
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