From Depraved to Merrily We Roll Alongside: A Journey By Musical Storytelling

Although the revival of Merrily We Roll Alongside ended its restricted Broadway run in 2024, the present will stay on within the type of the brand new filmed model, now in theaters. To have fun the discharge of the hit Stephen Sondheim musical, we’re looking again on the storied careers of its three main stars, together with Tony Award-winner Lindsay Mendez.

Earlier than the Godspell star was identified to audiences as Elphaba in Depraved or Carrie Pipperidge in Carousel, Lindsay Mendez made her Broadway debut as Jan within the 2007 revival of Grease. The manufacturing was notable for changing into the primary Broadway present to solid its lead performers on nationwide tv. After twelve weeks within the competitors sequence Grease: You are the One That I Need!, Laura Osnes and Max Crumm have been chosen to play the long-lasting roles of Sandy and Danny, respectively. Mendez remained with the present till the manufacturing closed on January 4, 2009.

That April, she started previews within the off-Broadway manufacturing of Sherie Rene Scott‘s jukebox musical, On a regular basis Rapture, and instantly after, stepped into the off-Broadway manufacturing of The Marvelous Wonderettes because the character of Betty Jean. When On a regular basis Rapture moved to Broadway in 2010, Mendez went with the present, that includes a solid that additionally included Betsy Wolfe.

Her return to Broadway got here in 2011, with the primary Broadway revival of Stephen Schwartz‘s Godspell as a most important performer in “Bless the Lord.” Led by Corbin Bleu, the manufacturing was reimagined within the spherical and ran on the Circle within the Sq. Theatre by means of June of 2012. She departed the manufacturing that Could. 

The next yr, she appeared in the unique off-Broadway solid of Pasek & Paul’s Dogfight. Primarily based on the 1991 movie, the present opened at Second Stage in 2012. Mendez acquired rave opinions for her efficiency as Rose, additionally snagging a Drama Desk nomination.

Mendez’s subsequent Broadway outing was as Elphaba in Depraved, taking up from Willemijn Verkaik in 2013. Starring reverse Alli Mauzey, her run within the present coincided with the tenth anniversary of the Stephen Schwartz hit that October. She was later featured as a background vocalist in 2025’s Depraved: For Good, the second half of the blockbuster movie adaptation. 

In 2014, Mendez starred in Lin-Manuel Miranda‘s one-act musical 21 Chump Avenue, which debuted on the Brooklyn Academy of Music. Primarily based on actual occasions depicted in an episode of the radio program This American Life, the solid additionally included Miranda, Anthony Ramos, Alex Boniello, and Gerard Canonico.

Her subsequent off-Broadway venture was a brand new musical adaptation of Shakespeare’s A Winter’s Story. With songs from Todd Almond, the manufacturing was a part of The Public Theater‘s Free Shakespeare within the Park sequence, working in September 2014 at Central Park’s Delacorte Theater.

Mendez was subsequent seen on the stage in Joshua Harmon‘s Important Different. As a play, this marked a departure from her regular theatrical output, which principally consisted of musicals. The present adopted a bunch of mates in New York Metropolis, a theme that she would later revisit with Merrily We Roll Alongside. Premiering off-Broadway in 2015, Mendez starred alongside an ensemble solid that additionally included Gideon Glick and Barbara Barrie. The manufacturing moved to Broadway’s Sales space Theatre in 2017. 

A Broadway revival of Rodgers and Hammerstein’s Carousel opened in 2018. Directed by Jack O’Brien, the manufacturing featured a starry solid together with Jessie Mueller, Joshua Henry, and Renée Fleming. Although the manufacturing itself acquired blended opinions, Mendez was praised for her efficiency as Carrie Pipperidge, garnering her first Tony nomination and win within the course of.

Although Mendez has been primarily energetic on stage, she has nonetheless graced the display screen in a number of tv initiatives, showing in episodes of Smash, Fashionable Household, and Elementary. From 2019 to 2023, she performed reporter Sara Castillo within the authorized drama All Rise, starring within the sequence alongside fellow Broadway alum Ruthie Ann Miles. Extra just lately, she additionally starred in recurring roles in American Sports activities Story: Aaron Hernandez, and as Officer Grace Hackett within the CBS favourite Elsbeth.

In November of 2022, Mendez, Jonathan Groff, and Daniel Radcliffe starred in an off-Broadway revival of Stephen Sondheim‘s Merrily We Roll Alongside. Spanning three a long time, the musical strikes backwards, charting the connection between three outdated mates: composer Franklin Shepard (Groff), author Mary Flynn (Mendez), and lyricist & playwright Charley Kringas (Radcliffe).

Opening solely a yr after the passing of the famend composer, the manufacturing was directed by Maria Friedman, who labored intently with Sondheim on a earlier West Finish manufacturing. Initially thought of a flop when it debuted on Broadway in 1981, this new model achieved near-unanimous rave opinions, and information shortly adopted that it might switch to Broadway in 2023.

Taking part in over 300 performances on the Hudson Theatre, the Broadway manufacturing garnered a number of Tony nominations and wins, together with Finest Revival of a Musical. Mendez additionally acquired a nomination for her efficiency. Late in its run, the manufacturing was filmed by RadicalMedia, the corporate behind filmed variations of different musicals, together with Hamilton. The cinematic interpretation opened in theaters worldwide on December 5 by Sony Photos Classics in collaboration with Fathom Leisure.

Within the meantime, audiences in every single place can revisit Mendez’s Tony Award-nominated efficiency as Mary Flynn in Merrily We Roll Alongside. Do not miss Sondheim’s iconic masterpiece, now taking part in in theaters. Get your tickets now.