Oh, Mary!, the wacky and irreverent Tony Award-winning play about first lady Mary Todd Lincoln, will stop in Philadelphia on its first national tour next spring, and tickets go on sale this week.
Following a record-breaking box office Broadway run, the Philadelphia premiere of Oh, Mary! will be one of the buzziest theater tickets of the season. Its brief run at the Miller Theater from March 9 to 14 will likely sell fast given the show’s massive popularity.
Written by actor/comedian Cole Escola, the play focuses on the Lincolns in the weeks leading up to the assassination of President Abraham Lincoln (here called “Mary’s husband”). The dark, campy comedy first featured Escola in the role of Mary — which led them to win the 2025 Tony Award for best leading actor in a play — and has since hosted special guest stars like Maya Rudolph, Tituss Burgess, Jinkx Monsoon, and Jane Krakowski. The show also won the Tony for best direction of a play, and was named a Pulitzer Prize finalist.
Tituss Burgess and Phillip James Brannon in “Oh, Mary!” on Broadway. The Tony Award-winning comedy about Mary Todd Lincoln runs March 9 to 14, 2027, at the Miller Theater.EMILIO MADRID
“Oh, Mary! is exactly the kind of bold, inventive Broadway sensation that we want to bring to Philadelphia,” said Frances Egler, Ensemble Arts Philly’s vice president of theatrical programming and presentations, in a statement. “The play is both razor-sharp and delightfully idiotic, an absurdist, whip-smart comedy … And given Mary Todd Lincoln’s well-documented fondness for shopping in Philadelphia, it feels only right that she finally gets top billing here.”
Casting for the tour has not been announced yet. Presale tickets are available for Ensemble Arts Philly members; tickets go on sale to the general public at 10 a.m. on Friday, June 26.
“Oh, Mary!”, March 9-14, 2027, Miller Theater, 250 S. Broad St., 215-893-1999 or www.ensembleartsphilly.org.
AristaCare at Meadow Springs, a Plymouth Meeting nursing home that specializes in patients who need ventilators to help them breathe, has started doing a key lung procedure in-house that used to require patients to be transferred to a hospital.
The effort is part of a broad trend in healthcare to provide more care outside of hospitals, which are the most expensive sites of care.
Meadow Springs’ goal in doing the lung-clearing procedures in-house is reducing the number of times its residents are hospitalized, the facility’s administrator Rob Nealon said.
Keeping residents in the facility benefits Meadow Springs financially even though it doesn’t charge for the treatment because it doesn’t lose revenue to hospitals, Nealon said. It’s also better for residents to avoid difficult transitions and long hospital stays, he said.
The treatment, called a bronchoscopy, uses suction tubing with video to go deep inside a patient’s lungs to clear out secretions and mucus plugs that make it hard for ventilator patients to breath, said Lejoy Mathew, respiratory director for the facility.
The nursing home with 153 licensed beds has the capacity to care for 72 people on ventilators.
AristaCare did its first bronchoscopy in February and has done four more since then, Mathew said.
Patients who are dependent on ventilators often have a chronic respiratory disease, neuromuscular or neurodegenerative diseases, or traumatic brain injuries.
The company, based in Cranford, N.J., also owns AristaCare at East Falls, another ventilator facility it acquired in 2024, and plans to start doing bronchoscopies there as well. The East Falls facility has 66 beds.
U.S. Rep. Brian Fitzpatrick (R., Pa.), who represents Bucks County, and Fox News senior White House correspondent Jacqui Heinrich got married Saturday in New York City.
The wedding was attended by high-profile figures in politics and media and featured a nighttime cruise around the Statue of Liberty.
The celebrations for the newlyweds and their 302 guests included a ceremony at St. Patrick’s Cathedral and a reception on a yacht called Horizon’s Edge,witha 10-piece brass band and the toasts of former GOP House Speaker Kevin McCarthy and former Sen. Joe Manchin (I., W. Va.), People magazine reported.
The nuptials of Fitzpatrick, 52, and Heinrich, 37, comes almost a year after their engagement and amid the Republican’s high-stakes reelection campaign to represent Pennsylvania’s 1st Congressional District against Democratic challenger Bob Harvie.
Fitzpatrick and Heinrich said they chose New York for their wedding because of its significance in jumpstarting their respective careers as an FBI agent and a network news reporter and its connection to their families’ immigration journey, People reported. It was also a central meeting point for the couple’s families from New England and Pennsylvania.
The reception featured other nods to family — Heinrich’s parents got married on a chartered cruise and the couple’s cake-cutting song was an “Irish tune,” People reported, written by Fitzpatrick’s great-uncle, an NYPD officer who was killed in the line of duty, according to People.
Former Sen. Joe Manchin (I, W.Va) and former GOP House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (right) give a toast to U.S. Rep. Brian Fitzpatrick and Fox News reporter Jacqui Heinrich’s nuptials.Charming Images
Fitzpatrick and Heinrich met in Washington when Heinrich was a correspondent on Capitol Hill. After she switched beats to cover the White House, Fitzpatrick asked her on a date to the Kennedy Center Honors.
They are one of the most high-profile couples on Capitol Hill, sometimes earning the ire of Trump.
Last month, after Fitzpatrick won his GOP primary unopposed, Trump threatened Fitzpatrick, without saying his name, when asked a question by Heinrich, who is vice president of the White House Correspondents Association.
“Her husband votes against me all the time. Can you imagine? I don’t know what’s with him,” Trump said. “You better ask what’s with him. She’s married to a certain congressman. He likes voting against Trump, You know what happens with that? It doesn’t work out well.”
When Preston Mattingly took a job with the Padres in 2017, his famous dad, Don, was managing the Marlins. After Preston joined the Phillies’ front office in 2022, Don began coaching the Blue Jays.
“You’re in the same industry,” Preston said, “but you’re light-years apart.”
Over the last few years, the Mattinglys figure they were together for a total of about 10 days. So, they need not be reminded, especially on Father’s Day weekend, of the uniqueness of their proximity as the first father-son manager-general manager combination in baseball history.
Last week, Preston Mattingly joined Phillies Extra, The Inquirer’s baseball podcast, to discuss working with his dad. In addition, he talked about Andrew Painter’s demotion to triple A, the state of the Phillies’ farm system, and preparing for the Aug. 3 trade deadline.
Watch the full interview below and subscribe to the Phillies Extra podcaston Spotify or Apple Podcasts.
Q: The fastball was really Andrew Painter’s bread-and-butter pitch in the minors, especially before he had Tommy John elbow surgery in 2023. Major league hitters are hitting .404 and slugging .660 against it. Why do you think he struggled so much with it during his first experience in the big leagues?
A: Yeah, it’s a good question. I think a lot of different factors go into it, whether it’s his arm slot … I think it ultimately comes down to command. I think when you’re behind in counts, and when you throw balls in the middle of the plate, no matter how hard you’re throwing or who you are, you’re going to get hit. But there’s definitely some things we can clean up in his development plan that he’s going to be working on. But we’ve seen him in the past to where he can command the ball to all four quadrants, the shape on the fastball pre-injury was significantly different, so we’re working as an organization to get back to that.
Q: So, where do you guys go from here for a fifth starter?
A: I think, as an organization, we’ve done a pretty good job over the last few years of coming up with guys, either optionable guys or depth type of arms. I think all options are on the table right now. We feel really good about our pitching, in general, about our pitching depth in terms of our relievers. So, I think there’s different ways to get creative in how we do it. We’re still talking through it as a group, but I’m sure we’ll sit down and put the pieces together how they fall out.
The Phillies are hoping rookie outfielder Gabriel Rincones Jr., can give them some production after losing Adolis García for the season to shoulder surgery.Yong Kim / Staff Photographer
Q: There have been two notable injuries within the last week in Adolis García and Brad Keller. How much do you feel like the depth of the 40-man roster is going to be tested here between those injuries and now Painter going to the minor leagues?
A: Yeah, I’ll touch on the pitching, the Keller side first. Obviously, we felt [his right forearm strain] was pretty minor, and something we, as an organization, we wanted to knock out, not let linger. So, don’t expect him to be out long term. We have some other guys coming back too, as well. Kyle Backhus shouldn’t be too far away here. So, in terms of relievers, we felt really good. I already touched on Andy, and how we’re going to get creative to do that. And then touching on the Adolis injury, obviously unfortunate. He was an elite defender in right field, showed a little bit of strides with the bat, and was getting to some power before the [strained lat muscle near his right shoulder]. But I think we, as an organization, believe in Gabriel Rincones. We’re excited to see him, a lot of good underlying skills that translate to major league success. He’s got to go out and do it. But we feel like he’s a guy that hits the ball really hard. In the minor leagues he put together really quality at-bats, controls the strike zone, and we think he’s got a chance to have some power.
Q: I think there are two factors that make this trade deadline on Aug. 3 fascinating. One is that, in the American League, you have only five teams that are over .500 right now, so a lot of teams that are ordinarily leaning toward the sell column are hanging in there. But really the one that I’m fascinated by is this looming labor fight that we have at the end of the season. Is there any sense yet for whether that’s going to change the market dynamics at all?
A: It’s not something we talk about internally. I think it kind of depends. The next six weeks will [determine] which way teams fall. Obviously, it’s pretty quiet right now. You’re still talking to teams and checking in, and more just having conversations to kind of lay some groundwork. But pretty quiet right now. You have the draft coming, too, so teams are having their focus in a lot of different areas. But I’m sure over the next two to three weeks to a month, things will start to pick up a little bit.
After the Phillies fired manager Rob Thomson (left) on April 28, bench coach Don Mattingly (right) was elevated to interim manager.Jose F. Moreno / Staff Photographer
Q: What was that first conversation like with your dad after Dave Dombrowski made the decision to elevate him to interim manager after Rob Thomson was fired?
A: It was definitely a unique situation. I know Dave spoke to my dad and talked to him about stepping into the role. I followed him up with a call, and just kind of made sure he was comfortable. And I think the great thing is we’re both here for the same reason, which is to help the organization win a championship. He’s been around the game a really long time. He’s built a lot of relationships with the players in our clubhouse already, so it’s definitely been unique. But it’s been really gratifying, too. I think I’ve said this a couple times, but getting texts from people around the league, in the moment it may have been a little bit … awkward, is maybe the word. But I think after the first couple days it was kind of business as usual. A lot of people around the league said some great things. ‘Just enjoy the moment. It’s not every day you get to work with your dad. And you’ll look back five or 10 years, 20 years later, and remember how special that was.’ So, I definitely have taken that to heart. He’s been great to work with, along with the rest of our coaching staff. So, yeah, it’s been really fun.
Q: Your dad said something when he was hired as bench coach in January about the importance of establishing trust with the players in the clubhouse, that he wasn’t going to go upstairs and talk to you about what was being said there. How have you two gone about navigating that balance?
A: Yeah, it’s definitely a topic that came up. I think we just want to be prepared. Front offices are pretty involved downstairs. We’re around a lot more, probably, than years ago. Obviously, my dad’s a professional. Things that are between him and the players stay between him and the players. We’re not looking to gather information, and, like I said, we’re just looking to try and win, and so there’s none of that going on.
Preston Mattingly (right), with Phillies president of baseball operations Dave Dombrowski, has been general manager since 2024.Yong Kim / Staff Photographer
Q: What has it been like after all those years on opposite sides and different teams in different cities to actually be around each other almost every day?
A: When I was in San Diego, he was in Miami the entire time. I felt like I had two teams to follow. I’ve always followed his teams very closely, probably pretty opinionated on what they should do with their roster, who they should acquire. And then obviously he goes to Toronto and I come to Philly … you feel like you’re in the same industry, but you’re light-years apart. So it’s been great, just the daily conversations. I told somebody a couple weeks ago, over the last three years, just because what I’m doing, what he’s doing, I think I’ve seen him for maybe 10 days. Holidays, a couple days, a special day here, day there. So, it’s been great just to spend time together, have a daily conversation.
I’m sure for him, every off-day at home, he’s come over to my house and enjoyed my family a little bit, which he doesn’t get to see as much. So, just things like that. It’s just really cool to spend time together. Since I left the house at 17, we haven’t really spent much time together. So, it’s just been fun in that regard, and then just working on the same team. Sports are great competition. Working as a group is as good as it gets, so getting to do that with your dad is pretty special.
Nurses at Virtua Mount Holly Hospital have voted in favor of a new contract ensuring raises and safety enhancements under a deal reached with employers at the South Jersey hospital after their union threatened to strike last week.
Under the contract approved Friday, the hospital will enforce minimum staffing ratios to ensure a certain number of nurses are caring for a given patient at all times, and hire new staff in some areas.
Nurses will receive pay raises at an average of 16.5% through June 2028.
The three-yearcontract also includes provisions for new safety measures at the hospital, including panic buttons and wearable devices for staff, and increased visitor screening for weapons, the union said. The hospital will also implement a visitor ID system. Protocols will be improved to notify nurses when they have been exposed to an infectious disease.
“HPAE nurses are not willing to tolerate the status quo anymore so we are proud that we have won strong language to ensure nurses can care for their patients the way they were trained,” HPAE president Debbie White said in a statement.
The contract ratification comes after Mount Holly nurses, a local chapter of the Health Professionals and Allied Employees union, voted earlier this month to strike on June 16 if they could not come to an agreement with Virtua officials.
Both sides had been negotiating for two months, including in a 21-hour session the night before the strike vote. More than 700 unionized nurses work at the Burlington County hospital.
Staffing levels, a concern raised by nursing unions across the country, were a particular sticking point in bargaining. Many nurses say that the number of nurses assigned to care for a given patient is a safety issue.
Nurses last week said the strike vote — in which 92% of nurses threatened to walk off the job — helped the union reached a tentative contract agreement with Virtua.
In a statement Monday, Chrisie Scott, senior vice president and chief marketing officer, said the three-year contract “will enable Virtua Mount Holly to continue delivering safe, high-quality care for our patients, while providing wage increases, enhanced safety measures, and updated staffing levels for our nurses.”
“We look forward to moving ahead together,” she said.
The Norristown school board plans to vote Monday to hire Delaware’s Superintendent of the Year as the district’s next leader.
The board announced Sunday that it had selected Dorrell Green, the superintendent of the Red Clay Consolidated School District in New Castle County as its pick for superintendent.
Green is expected to start as superintendent in the Norristown Area School District on July 20, under a five-year term with an initial salary of $270,000, according to an agenda for Monday’s meeting.
Dorrell Green, the superintendent of the Red Clay Consolidated School District in New Castle County, Del., is to join Norristown Area School District as superintendent on July 20, 2026.Red Clay Consolidated School Dis
Throughout the superintendent search process, “our community made it clear that they were seeking a visionary leader who is committed to student achievement, educational excellence, and meaningful engagement with all stakeholders,” the board’s president, Jeremiah Lemke, said in a statement.
He said Green’s “experience, leadership record, and commitment to serving diverse school communities” set him apart during a search process that was led by a consulting group and attracted 88 applicants.
Green has worked in public education for more than 25 years, including as a teacher, principal, and assistant superintendent.
In Red Clay, Delaware’s largest school district with 15,000 students, Green has served as superintendent since 2019. He expanded early childhood education during his tenure there and increased access to advanced course work, according to the Norristown board.
Before that, Green was the first executive director of the Delaware Department of Education’s Office of Innovation and Improvement, an office created by former Delaware Gov. John Carney to support the state’s neediest schools.
Green has a bachelor’s degree in elementary education and master’s degree in educational leadership from the University of Delaware. He has a doctoral degree in organizational leadership from Wilmington University.
The Eagles are headed to the shore on Wednesday for Jason Kelce’s sixth annual celebrity bartending fundraiser event at Ocean Drive in Sea Isle City.
The Team 62 at Ocean Drive fundraiser will raise funds for the Eagles Autism Foundation. During last year’s event, Kelce and the Birds raised a record-breaking $1 million — surpassing the prior year’s total of $865,000. Since 2021, they have raised more than $2.4 million for the foundation.
Ahead of this year’s Team 62 fundraiser, which is set to take place between 4-8 p.m., there will be a family-friendly event hosted by the Eagles Autism Foundation at Excursion Park between 12-3 p.m. It will feature activities like mini football as well as cheer and drum line clinics. A $25 donation will grant families access to the event.
In addition to the bartending session at Ocean Drive on Wednesday, the fourth annual Beer Bowl starts at 11 a.m. Thursday at the Sea Isle City Yacht Club, where guests can watch teams compete for a $50,000 cash prize.
For general admission to the bartending session, there will be a $10 cover charge on a first-come, first-served basis. Ticket packages for early admission are available online with all proceeds from the evening benefiting the Eagles Autism Foundation.
A Philadelphia woman pleaded guilty Monday to voting twice in the 2024 election — first in northern New Jersey, then in the city.
Miya Pack, 40, said little beyond responding to routine legal questions as she pleaded guilty to a charge of voter fraud before U.S. District Judge Joshua D. Wolson.
Pack has been registered to vote since 2004 in Bergen County, N.J., prosecutors said in court documents, and she’s also been registered to vote in Philadelphia since 2016. She is not affiliated with any political party, voter records show.
On Oct. 26, 2024, prosecutors said, Pack cast a ballot in that year’s presidential election in Bergen County. Then, 10 days later, prosecutors said, she cast a ballot in the same contest in Philadelphia on Election Day.
They did not say whom she voted for, and she declined to comment as she left the courtroom Monday.
Pack was charged by federal prosecutors last September. Prosecutors announced her indictment alongside the indictment of another man, Matthew Laiss, who was separately charged with voting twice in the 2020 election.
Laiss later said in court documents that he voted twice for Trump, and unsuccessfully sought to claim that his actions were covered by pardons Trump extended to people who tried to help him overturn the results of the 2020 election.
Laiss was convicted of voter fraud earlier this year at trial and is awaiting sentencing.
Pack is scheduled to be sentenced in October. She faces the possibility of prison time, although prosecutors said in court that federal guidelines suggest a term of no jail time to six months.
Devan Kaney is saying goodbye to Philadelphia, at least for now.
Kaney anchored her final Fox 29 sportscast over the weekend and and is leaving town for a yet-to-be-announced job opportunity in a bigger market. Though she hinted she would still appear on Fox’s airwaves.
“I’m so grateful for the support all of my colleagues at Fox 29 have given me during my time there, but especially in the last few months,” Kaney said.
“As much as I would have loved to return as the sideline reporter, they never reached out,” Kaney said, “and I’ll be covering a different NFL franchise moving forward.”
Kaney had been with Fox 29 since 2023, serving as a part-time sports anchor and reporter. She also appeared on Good Day Philadelphia and featured prominently on the station’s Eagles coverage.
She’ll be replaced in part by former 6abc sportscaster Jamie Apody, who just landed an expanded role at Fox 29 and will anchor the station’s Saturday 10 p.m. newscast.
“I was absolutely not expecting Jayson Werth,” Kaney told The Inquirer earlier this month. “He’ll just drop the most insane stories, and it’s awesome to work with him.”
When Carson Benge’s home run ball started heading in his direction on Sunday at Citizens Bank Park, 14-year-old Josh Kirsch knew exactly what to do.
The eighth-grader from Royersford was planning for this moment for years, hoping to catch a home run ball in his glove.
After he actually got his hands on the Mets outfielder’s home run, he was expected to do what most other Phillies fans do when they catch the opposing team’s home runs — throw the ball back onto the field. Instead, Kirsch was caught on camera swapping out the ball, pocketing the home run ball and throwing a different one back out on the field.
The Kirsch family has had Sunday season tickets in the outfield since 2022, purposefully on the aisle to give Kirsch a better chance at one day catching a ball. But there’s obviously no guarantee that even if you do get a home run ball, it’ll be a Phillies home run, and you’ll get to keep it. So Kirsch had a backup plan.
“He knows that the Phillies fans will cheer for about 10 seconds, and then be like, ‘Throw it back! Throw it back!’ so he had brought this ball with him to every game we went to,” said his father, Matt Kirsch. “It’s a Little League ball that he wrote in Sharpie in his little chicken scratch, ‘Not the home run ball.’”
Sunday was the first time Kirsch has been caught on camera swapping out the ball, but it’s not the first time he’s “thrown back” a home run. On April 20 last season, Marlins rookie Javier Sanoja hit his first career home run against the Phillies, right into Kirsch’s glove. Kirsch, not knowing it was Sanoja’s first major league home run, threw back the ball he’d stowed away in his pocket, wanting to keep his first home run catch.
Josh Kirsch meeting Javier Sanoja after catching his first career home run on April 20, 2025.Courtesy of Matt Kirsch
But after one of their season-ticket neighbors, listening to the game on the radio, learned that it was Sanoja’s first major league home run, Kirsch wanted to find a way to give the ball back. Ballpark staff was able to verify that the ball Kirsch had was in fact the home run ball, and he got to meet Sanoja and trade it for a signed bat.
“That’s how his mind works,” Matt said. “He’s always thinking about every angle, like, ‘Oh my gosh, what if this happens?’”
Kirsch has always been an avid baseball fan. The family started going to Phillies games in earnest during the 2021 season, and after seeing just how much Kirsch loved to be at the ballpark, they invested in season tickets.
He plays in the Spring Ford Babe Ruth baseball league, and at home, Kirsch has a collection of baseball and other Phillies memorabilia, including balls he’s had signed during warmups, jerseys, and bats. That’s part of why he wanted to keep the ball — with how baseball works, who knows if Sanoja or Benge might end up being Phillies one day?
So, no regrets, even after he went viral for pocketing the ball, which will now get a place of pride nearby his Sanoja bat. It was still surprising for the family to see the video gain more than a million views across various channels, but they’re taking it in stride.
“My daughter committed to play field hockey at Northwestern,” Matt said. “If you were to ask me which of my two kids was gonna make the Instagram reel for ESPN, I’d be like, ‘Oh, my D-I athlete.’ My Little League eighth-grader made it.”
