Lindsay Mendez From Stage to Screen: WICKED to MERRILY WE ROLL ALONG

Though the revival of Merrily We Roll Along ended its limited Broadway run in 2024, the show will live on in the form of the new filmed version, now in theaters. To celebrate the release of the hit Stephen Sondheim musical, we are taking a look back at the storied careers of its three leading stars, including Tony Award-winner Lindsay Mendez.

Before the Godspell star was known to audiences as Elphaba in Wicked or Carrie Pipperidge in Carousel, Lindsay Mendez made her Broadway debut as Jan in the 2007 revival of Grease. The production was notable for becoming the first Broadway show to cast its lead performers on national television. After twelve weeks in the competition series Grease: You're the One That I Want!, Laura Osnes and Max Crumm were selected to play the iconic roles of Sandy and Danny, respectively. Mendez remained with the show until the production closed on January 4, 2009.

That April, she began previews in the off-Broadway production of Sherie Rene Scott's jukebox musical, Everyday Rapture, and immediately after, stepped into the off-Broadway production of The Marvelous Wonderettes as the character of Betty Jean. When Everyday Rapture moved to Broadway in 2010, Mendez went with the show, featuring a cast that also included Betsy Wolfe.

Her return to Broadway came in 2011, with the first Broadway revival of Stephen Schwartz's Godspell as a main performer in "Bless the Lord." Led by Corbin Bleu, the production was reimagined in the round and ran at the Circle in the Square Theatre through June of 2012. She departed the production that May. 

The following year, she appeared in the original off-Broadway cast of Pasek & Paul's Dogfight. Based on the 1991 film, the show opened at Second Stage in 2012. Mendez received rave reviews for her performance as Rose, also snagging a Drama Desk nomination.

Mendez's next Broadway outing was as Elphaba in Wicked, taking over from Willemijn Verkaik in 2013. Starring opposite Alli Mauzey, her run in the show coincided with the 10th anniversary of the Stephen Schwartz hit that October. She was later featured as a background vocalist in 2025's Wicked: For Good, the second half of the blockbuster film adaptation. 

In 2014, Mendez starred in Lin-Manuel Miranda's one-act musical 21 Chump Street, which debuted at the Brooklyn Academy of Music. Based on real events depicted in an episode of the radio program This American Life, the cast also included Miranda, Anthony Ramos, Alex Boniello, and Gerard Canonico.

Her next off-Broadway project was a new musical adaptation of Shakespeare's A Winter's Tale. With songs from Todd Almond, the production was part of The Public Theater's Free Shakespeare in the Park series, running in September 2014 at Central Park's Delacorte Theater.

Mendez was next seen on the stage in Joshua Harmon's Significant Other. As a play, this marked a departure from her usual theatrical output, which mostly consisted of musicals. The show followed a group of friends in New York City, a theme that she would later revisit with Merrily We Roll Along. Premiering off-Broadway in 2015, Mendez starred alongside an ensemble cast that also included Gideon Glick and Barbara Barrie. The production moved to Broadway's Booth Theatre in 2017. 

A Broadway revival of Rodgers and Hammerstein's Carousel opened in 2018. Directed by Jack O'Brien, the production featured a starry cast including Jessie Mueller, Joshua Henry, and Renée Fleming. Though the production itself received mixed reviews, Mendez was praised for her performance as Carrie Pipperidge, garnering her first Tony nomination and win in the process.

Though Mendez has been primarily active on stage, she has still graced the screen in several television projects, appearing in episodes of Smash, Modern Family, and Elementary. From 2019 to 2023, she played reporter Sara Castillo in the legal drama All Rise, starring in the series alongside fellow Broadway alum Ruthie Ann Miles. More recently, she also starred in recurring roles in American Sports Story: Aaron Hernandez, and as Officer Grace Hackett in the CBS favorite Elsbeth.

In November of 2022, Mendez, Jonathan Groff, and Daniel Radcliffe starred in an off-Broadway revival of Stephen Sondheim's Merrily We Roll Along. Spanning three decades, the musical moves backwards, charting the relationship between three old friends: composer Franklin Shepard (Groff), writer Mary Flynn (Mendez), and lyricist & playwright Charley Kringas (Radcliffe).

Opening only a year after the passing of the renowned composer, the production was directed by Maria Friedman, who worked closely with Sondheim on a previous West End production. Originally considered a flop when it debuted on Broadway in 1981, this new version achieved near-unanimous rave reviews, and news quickly followed that it would transfer to Broadway in 2023.

Playing over 300 performances at the Hudson Theatre, the Broadway production garnered several Tony nominations and wins, including Best Revival of a Musical. Mendez also received a nomination for her performance. Late in its run, the production was filmed by RadicalMedia, the company behind filmed versions of other musicals, including Hamilton. The cinematic interpretation opened in theaters worldwide on December 5 by Sony Pictures Classics in collaboration with Fathom Entertainment.

In the meantime, audiences everywhere can revisit Mendez's Tony Award-nominated performance as Mary Flynn in Merrily We Roll Along. Don't miss Sondheim’s iconic masterpiece, now playing in theaters. Get your tickets now.