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

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.

Lopez to Provide Original Songs for Disney’s “Frozen”

Robert Lopez is preparing to experience the wonderful world of Disney

The 37-year-old composer and lyricist—who has won three Tony Awards for his first two Broadway musicals, Avenue Q and The Book of Mormon—and his wife Kristen Anderson-Lopez will be bringing their musical talents to Walt Disney Animation’s upcoming animated film Frozen.

Robert Lopez

The film, loosely based on 1845′s The Snow Queen by Hans Christian Andersen, will feature original songs by the musically inclined couple, which worked on Disney’s 2011 Winnie the Pooh.

Idina Menzel, who won a Tony award for originating the role of misunderstood Elphaba in Broadway’s Wicked, will play the Snow Queen in Frozen, while Kristen Bell will co-star as Anna, a young girl who ventures to find Menzel’s character and end the perpetual winter that has befallen their mythical kingdom, according to the studio.

The Snow Queen

Still uncast in the movie is the role of the leading man, Kristoff, a mountain climber who leads Anna on her quest through snowy peaks and dangerous cliffs to find the legendary Snow Queen.

The digitally animated feature will open in November 2013.