Lindsay Mendez in Merrily We Roll Along — Page 5

The Distinctive Baritone said: "The Tony nominating committee is small-ish, like 25 - 30 people I believe, maybe up to around 40 some years. They will often reschedule their attendance if a major actor is out, but not always. She will likely still be nominated. However, if she continues this attendance record, she has no chance of winning, since voters can only vote for actors they have seen.

Then again, she already has a Tony Award, so perhaps it isn’t that important to her."

If the policy is changed back after last year’s “you can miss one nominee and still vote” change because of so many covid/sickness absences, then anyone who votes in that category will have had to see all nominees (including Lindsay, if nominated) in order to vote. The absences won’t really matter if they’re voting purely on merit.

Loved Lindsay in this and not sure why people are keeping track of all her performances she's missing and or obsessed by her missed performances??? So what's the deal...........Vocal issues?

Honestly- I think it would just be nice for the show to post something on instagram of the schedule when/if they know. It would at least curtail expectations. All the interviews are the three of them; it’s clearly how the show is being marketed so I was a bit disappointed. Further, seems to happen at a fairly high %. Unfortunately, was just in town for weekend, booked these tickets back in March 2023 and don’t know if I’ll be able to come back to see it.

Shubert Alley Cat said: "BernadetteJD said: "Honestly- I think it would just be nice for the show to post something on instagram of the schedule when/if they know. It would at least curtail expectations. All the interviews are the three of them; it’s clearly how the show is being marketed so I was a bit disappointed. Further, seems to happen at a fairly high %. Unfortunately, was just in town for weekend, booked these tickets back in March 2023 and don’t know if I’ll be able to come back to see it."

Exactly! The three of them were on Colbert for their big interview on a Monday. I went to the Saturday matinee only five days later and she is out which I did not know until I saw the slip in the Playbill. So they are promoting her presence in the show to sell it but customers are only getting what is advertised like 75% of the time."

It's clearly a show-by-show decision on her going on for any given performance.

I struggle to recognize what exactly y'all want...for her to be demoted?

n2nbaby said: "It’s hilarious to me that some people are complaining that people are whatever about Mendez missing shows, yet when others miss shows people have their torches out. Nobody has even been outright rude about Mendez missing performances lol"

This is absolutely true. Forget about Benanti and you don’t even have to go back to Donna Murphy. It was less than a year and a half ago that all the chat boards and in fact most of the Internet seemed united in glee counting down the final months of Beanie Feldstein’s run in Funny Girl and tallying all of her countless absences - and in her case she actually WAS trying to be transparent about the reasons (Covid, a cold, a wedding, Covid again) but was still vilified for it. So nothing’s ever good enough.


(To be fair, as people are saying Mendez has missed 30 shows since it opened, Feldstein was actually absent far more - I found one thread that totaled her absences as having missed more than 40 shows by 2 and a half months into the run. It was right around that time they announced Lea Michele would be coming in, and no wonder. But this situation on Merrily is clearly different: a) whatever absences were due to a personal matter it’s clear the producers want to support her through that, b) whatever absences are due to filming her TV show are ones they would’ve had to approve, and c) most importantly, by all accounts she’s a joy to work with and, unlike Feldstein, got great reviews!)

It's been established at this point that Mendez has a lot going on in her personal life. Her absences have nothing to do with the part being vocally demanding or not. If the producers had an issue with her absences and felt they were excessive or without merit, there are just cause termination contractual terms to replace her.

Kad said: "It's been established at this point that Mendez has a lot going on in her personal life. Her absences have nothing to do with the part being vocally demanding or not. If the producers had an issue with her absences and felt they were excessive or without merit, there are just cause termination contractual terms to replace her."

Has it been established, or is it just conjecture by gossipy people who did an internet search, found an article about her personal life from early 2023 (an article BWW rightly keeps deleting every time it's posted), and keep claiming that has something to do with her absences ten months later with no other proof?

I don't think anyone is villifying Mendez for whatever is plaguing her, but with Feldstein and many others the production or the actor themselves offered explanations about pre-planned events, illness, etc. In todays age of media saturation, and since every actor and every production has 64 different ways of communicating with us whenever they feel like it, it has become expected to have a general idea of whats going on, especially as the price of admission to these shows ticks way up, and we have more and more options re where/how to spend our time and money.

This scenario is the worst elements of all that context: the ticket prices for this are through the roof, the production is constantly advertising and social-media-ing all over the place, particularly emphasizing an ad campaign that showcases these three leads, and not a single word has been offered as explanation/contextualization for one of the lead's missing a third of the performances--actually, forget explanation, just information so ticket buyers and audiences know what to expect.

This isn't an accident. This is a choice by the producers. And its theirs to make! But its not exactly the most honorable/transparent one. People are right to keep pointing it out and highlighting it, because its ugly.

None of this has anything to do with whatever is causing all these absences- maybe shes sick, maybe shes got alot going on, maybe her understudy is holding her hostage backstage so she can launch her own career. But the lack of information is a bad look.

(and fwiw I saw her understudy and thought she was fantastic. do not let this detract from your experience with the show).

Kad said: "MemorableUserName said: "Kad said: "It's been established at this point that Mendez has a lot going on in her personal life. Her absences have nothing to do with the part being vocally demanding or not. If the producers had an issue with her absences and felt they were excessive or without merit, there are just cause termination contractual terms to replace her."

Has it been established, or is it just conjecture by gossipy people who did an internet search, found an article about her personal life from early 2023 (an article BWW rightly keeps deleting every time it's posted), and keep claiming that has something to do with her absences ten months later with no other proof?"

As opposed to what- the needless conjecture without any semblance of any evidence at all, and then getting outraged over it?"

There's no difference. A random internet article from early 2023 found in the laziest of searches is no semblance of any evidence at all of a connection to the current discussion. Nothing has been established. It's just more needless conjecture.

If she is filming a TV show while performing a role on Broadway that would generally require your attendance 8 times a week, then it is "an issue of professionalism, work ethic, or being 'difficult'" to not schedule it out and announce it to the public in advance.

I have no idea why Mendez is missing so many performances. There has been all sorts of speculation but no explanation from the show or the actor herself. There may, of course, be a very understandable reason for that - and it may be none of our business.

But the producers aren’t quietly letting anyone know a thing. The average person knows nothing about the frequent absences. My daughter is seeing Merrily next weekend, traveling across the country, and she has no idea about any of this. I don’t think it would have affected her decision to buy a ticket, and I have heard nothing but good things about her understudies.

The decision to stay quiet, whether done for good reasons or not, hasn’t hurt the producers at all. The revival has been the smash hit of the season, and Lindsay Mendez - as wonderful as I thought she was in the show - is simply not a big enough name to affect ticket sales at all. Some people might be a little disappointed, especially given the way the musical has been promoted, but few people outside of this thread seem all that bothered.

Clearly to tell how many great featured performances there are going to be for the remainder of the season -- I do nt remember a season in which so many musicals are scheduled to open in the next 3 1/2 months -- I wonder whether all these absences will impact her Tony chances. I would have said that it would take a lot for someone to come along and better her performance, but repeated absence has certainly been a factor in others' Tony chances.