A few days ago, the 80th Theatre World Awards Ceremony took place at NYC’s own Longacre Theater. The Theatre World Awards are one of the oldest awards given for Outstanding Broadway and Off-Broadway Debut Performances.
While this ceremony was held in private, the press of the musical theater world was thrown a bone by Broadway elites and allowed to attend the golden carpet prior to the event. Fortunately, the Baconites were also given the green light to cover the carpet.
Despite the heinous smell of hot city sewerage and pitchy chatter of the paparazzi, Bacon reporters were able to set up a measly tripod to capture interviews with some stars. Though co-satirical editor Jason Lee Hook suggested that the reporters ditch Broadway-related questions and just dare each person to eat raw bacon, the Baconites did prepare a series of questions to ask the golden carpeters.
Notably, William Paterson’s own Mike Mendez and Hollie Maniscalco attended the ceremony, being honored for their Broadway debuts as “Fiyero” and “Glinda” in the hit musical Wicked. Mendez had his Off-Broadway debut years ago as “Gaston” in Beauty and the Beast, sparking an unspoken conflict between himself and Luke Evans, who also walked the carpet.
When asked about his Broadway debut, Mendez, who was actively trying to out-flex Luke Evans, responded: “Playing Fiyero has been a dream come true. Stephen Schwartz has created one of the greatest shows on Broadway, and I’m honored to carry on this legacy.”
It’s well known that Mendez always makes a point to stop by the stage door after his show but, recently, has been collecting fans’ playbills and keeping them. When questioned about this strange habit, Mendez remarked, “People seem to have a problem with me taking these playbills, but they have my name on them and it’s my show. Technically, they’re mine.”
When badgered for more information, Mendez finally broke and whispered, “The plan is to sign ’em and resell on eBay. These gas prices are insane right now.”
Finally, Baconites inquired what it was like to work so closely with the actress playing Glinda, a fellow WPU classmate and friend. Mendez grew puzzled and replied, “Who?”
He then “accidently” tripped Luke Evans and made his way inside for the ceremony.
Though Baconites attempted to interview Hollie Maniscalco, co-satirical editor of the Bacon, who reportedly had no time to write articles while preparing for her Broadway debut, her publicist informed reporters that Maniscalco was on vocal rest until her performance later that evening. This was surprising because Maniscalco loves to talk, and it seems that as soon as her Broadway paycheck hit, she dropped all her day-ones. We, at the Bacon, assumed she was going to do that.
Some lesser-known people, such as Alec Baldwin and Adrien Brody, attended the carpet, but Baconites were too busy trying to feed Maniscalco’s publicist raw bacon that they missed the opportunity to interview them.
Congratulations to Mike and Hollie for their Broadway debuts, and the Baconites hope to be invited back to another Broadway carpet event. Though we were asked not to bring raw bacon next time 🙁
