First it was off to Radio City Music Hall to meet Melanie Mendez, a former cheerleader from Ronkonkoma who plays Dora the Explorer in the national tour of "Go, Diego, Go!" Backstage I ran into Rosie O'Donnell and her lucky brood, who like me, got to schmooze with the cast face-to-face.
The other night I did a whirlwind tour of Broadway, five shows in one evening! How is that possible? Stay tuned for another upcoming NYT adventure.
Meanwhile, Here's Dora's story:
Have Backpack, Will Travel (as Dora)
SWINGING from a vine, Melanie Mendez made a grand entrance onstage at Radio City Music Hall. “Hola,” she called out to the uproarious cheers of hundreds of children greeting her appearance as Dora the Explorer, the feisty bilingual cartoon character in “Go, Diego, Go Live! The Great Jaguar Rescue.”
Ms. Mendez, 21, a former cheerleader from Ronkonkoma, jumped into a pretend raft, grabbed a paddle and went singing down the Silly River. Dora was helping her cousin Diego, played by Richie Portela, retrieve Baby Jaguar’s growl from the magic bottle so the animal carnival could start.
This was the second time Ms. Mendez was playing Dora onstage; she first tried out for the part last summer, seeking some auditioning experience before entering her senior year as a musical theater major at Five Towns College in Dix Hills.
To her surprise, she landed the understudy role for four characters, including Dora, in a four-month United Kingdom “Dora the Explorer Live!” tour, a spinoff of the popular interactive television series for preschoolers. Senior year was postponed indefinitely.
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