Tag Archives: Godspell

Lindsay Mendez’s “Merrily We Roll Along” Broadway Cast Recording Debuts at No. 1 on Billboard’s Cast Albums Chart

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Lindsay Mendez is back on top of the charts…

The new Broadway cast recording of Merrily We Roll Along, featuring the 40-year-old Mexican American Broadway singer/actress, debuts at No. 1 on Billboard’s Cast Albums chart dated November 25.

Lindsay Mendez, Merrily We Roll AlongIn addition to Mendez, the musical also stars Daniel Radcliffe and Jonathan Groff, who have all been part of at least one top 10-charting Cast Album previously. (Groff, notably, performs on both the Nos. 1 and 2 titles on the latest Cast Albums chart – as Merrily We Roll Along bumps Hamilton: An American Musical from the top slot down to No. 2.) 

Billboard’s Top Cast Albums chart ranks the top-selling musical cast recordings of the week in the U.S., based on traditional album sales, as tracked by Luminate. The new Cast Albums chart dated November 25 reflects the sales week ending November 16.

Merrily We Roll Along has music and lyrics written by Stephen Sondheim, with a book by George Furth, based on the play of the same name by George S. Kaufman and Moss Hart. The musical premiered on Broadway in 1981 for a brief run, and the 2023 production is its first revival on Broadway. It’s slated to run through March 24, 2024.

The new iteration began off-Broadway in 2022 at the New York Theatre Workshop, with the same leading cast, and played through January 22, 2023. It then began previews on Broadway at the Hudson Theatre on September 19, and officially opened on October 10.

Mendez has appeared on five top 10-charting sets on Cast Albums: Grease (the new 2007 Broadway cast recording, No. 4), Everyday Rapture (original Broadway cast recording; No. 8, 2010), Dogfight (original cast recording; No. 2, 2013), Rodgers & Hammerstein’s Carousel (2018 Broadway cast recording; No. 2, 2013), Godspell (the new 2012 Broadway cast recording; No. 1) and now Merrily We Roll Along.

Mendez also scored a Grammy nomination for best musical theater album, for Carousel.

Manzano to Receive Lifetime Achievement Award at the Daytime Emmys

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Sonia Manzano is getting her Emmy moment…

The 65-year-old Puerto Rican actress and writer will receive the Lifetime Achievement Award at the National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences’ 43rd annual Daytime Emmy Awards on May 1 in Los Angeles.

Sonia Manzano

Manzano is best known for playing Maria on Sesame Street from 1971 until her retirement in 2015.

During her 45 years on Sesame Street, Manzano picked up 15 Emmys for her work as a writer on the groundbreaking public television show.

“My children and just about every child in America has grown up learning their ABC’s from the iconic character of Maria on Sesame Street played by Sonia Manzano,” said NATAS President Bob Mauro. “Sonia not only brought the life events of marriage, having a baby and being a mother to viewers young and old, she also brought a seldom-seen diversity, a Latin role model, unlike anything on television at the time.”

A borinqueña daughter of the South Bronx and graduate of NYC’s famed High School of the Performing Arts, Manzano made her professional debut in the original off-Broadway cast of Godspell before joining Sesame Street in 1971. Her own life — from teenager through growing up, marrying and becoming a mother — was integrated into the complex social fabric of Sesame Street, the Peyton Place of the pre-pubescent set.

A community activist, occasional stage actress and author, Manzano wrote a memoir, Becoming Maria: Love and Chaos in the South Bronx, that was  published in August by Scholastic Press.

Mendez Set to Star in Broadway’s Hit Musical “Wicked”

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Lindsay Mendez is preparing for a wicked role…

The Latina actress has landed the lead role of Elphaba in the Broadway company of Wicked.

Lindsay Mendez

Mendez, who earned a Drama Desk nod for her performance in Dogfight recently, will assume the role beginning on May 28, 2013.

She’ll take over the role from Willemijn Verkaik, who will play her final performance on May 26.

Mendez has previously worked with both the composer and director of Wicked, having appeared in the 2011 Broadway revival of Stephen Schwartz‘s Godspell, and, more recently in the Off-Broadway musical, Dogfight, staged by Wicked director Joe Mantello.

Wicked opened at the Gershwin Theatre on October 30, 2003 and is currently selling tickets through January 5, 2014.

Long before Dorothy drops in, two other girls meet in the land of Oz. One, born with emerald-green skin, is smart, fiery and misunderstood. The other is beautiful, ambitious and very popular. Wicked tells the story of their remarkable odyssey, how these two unlikely friends grow to become the Wicked Witch of the West and Glinda the Good Witch.

Mendez’s credits include the Broadway revival of Grease in 2007, Everyday Rapture and The Marvelous Wonderettes.

Martin to Perform at the Tony Awards

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Following his triumphant return to The Great White Way in Evita, Ricky Martin will be performing on Broadway’s biggest night.

The 40-year-old Puerto Rican singer/actor will bring his role as Ernesto “Che” Guevara to life at the upcoming Tony Awards, which will be hosted by How I Met Your Mother’s Neil Patrick Harris.

Ricky Martin

Martin, who made his Broadway debut in Les Miserables, has wowed audiences on Broadway alongside his Evita co-stars Elena Rogers, who plays Eva Perón, and Michael Cerveris, who plays Juan Perón.

To get in character as the controversial revolutionary icon—in a role that has taken him to “another place mentally, physically, and spiritually”—Martin has grown a moustache. But the experience has had more than a physical impact on him.

Evita

“I’ve felt emotions onstage that I never felt before, it has strengthened me as a person and as an artist,” Martin said in a press conference in March. “It’s been a great journey. I’m here to grow and to learn. It’s been a fascinating trip,” he added.

In addition to Martin, the list of performers at this year’s Tony Awards include

Cuban-American Broadway star Rául Esparza, Audra McDonald, Matthew Broderick and the casts of Godspell and Ghost The Musical, among many others.

The Tony Awards will take place on Sunday, June 10.