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2026 Elliot Norton winner: Outstanding Lead Performance (Midsize) for Featherbaby
Image credit: Nile Scott Studios.
Image description: Paul Melendy accepts his award for Outstanding Lead Performance in a Play (Midsize) at the 43rd annual Elliot Norton Awards. He leans at a podium with a sign for The Boston Theater Critics Association. He’s wearing a a cream short-sleeve sweater with a green collar and red parrot print and is smiling.
On June 1, Paul won the Elliot Norton Award for Outstanding Lead Performance in a Play (Midsize) for his work in Featherbaby at Greater Boston Stage Company.
The award, now in its 43rd year, is presented by the Boston Theater Critics Association (BTCA) at their annual ceremony and is the highest honor in Boston-area theater.
What made it especially remarkable: Paul was nominated twice in the same category, for Featherbaby and for The Garbologists at Gloucester Stage Company.
Congratulations to all this year's nominees, and a big thank you to the BTCA for the recognition and for their ongoing work celebrating Boston theater year-round.
On now: The Mystery of Irma Vep at Central Square Theater
Image credit: Maggie Hall Photography.
Image description: Production photo from The Mystery of Irma Vep at Central Square Theater. At L: Actor Gabriel Graetz as Lord Edgar Hillcrest. He wears an elaborate black and gold brocaded robe with matching cap and and small spectacles. At R: Paul Melendy as groundskeeper Nicodemus Underwood, wearing a tattered brown overcoat with an orange plaid scarf and hat. Lord Edgar wraps an arm around Nicodemus and gestures upward. Nicodemus looks straight out with an alarmed expression. They stand in front of a plain wall and window illuminated with bright pink lighting.
Love seeing Paul’s creativity in inhabiting multiple characters in one show? Then you won’t want to miss Irma Vep, where Paul will bring to life an English gentlewoman, a werewolf (complete with onstage transformation), and more.
The Mystery of Irma Vep is a comic mashup of Gothic melodrama, monster story, and penny dreadful—think Jane Eyre meets Dracula meets Monty Python. Lord Edgar’s first wife is dead… maybe. Things are about to get spooky at Mandacrest Estate.
The show reunites Paul with visionary director David R. Gammons. They last collaborated on Central Square Theater’s 2020 production of Vanity Fair (Elliot Norton award winner for Outstanding Design, Midsize Theater). It also brings Paul back together with fellow actor Gabriel Graetz. The two shared a stage in 2025’s Featherbaby.
Running May 28 now extended through June 28. It’s sure to be a monstrous good time.
Up next: A Midsummer Night’s Dream with Commonwealth Shakespeare Company
Image credit: Commonwealth Shakespeare Company.
Image description: A rectangular production graphic with text reading “COMMONWEALTH SHAKESPEARE COMPANY PRESENTS WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE’S A MIDDSUMMER NIGHT’S DREAM. DIRECTED BY Steven Maler. July 22-August 9, 2026. Free on Boston Common. The graphic has a vivid background of yellows, pinks, and blues. At bottom left, the blue silhouettes of a man and woman. The woman walks in front, holding the man’s hand and leading him through an open field. At top left, the CSC 30th anniversary logo appears.
Paul has performed in A Midsummer Night's Dream with Commonwealth Shakespeare Company before — but never like this.
Previously, CSC audiences have seen him as Flute and Starveling, some of the “mechanicals,'“ or laborers. This time, he returns to the CSC stage for their 30th anniversary season in a truly bucket-list role as another of the mechanicals, Nick Bottom. When Bottom gets partially transformed into a donkey by Puck, a fairy queen falls in love with him anyway — donkey head and all.
Commonwealth Shakespeare Company's mission is to make high-quality theater accessible by removing barriers. Midsummer is their annual outdoor production on Boston Common — free to everyone.
Playing July 22-August 9, free on Boston Common. Sure to bring you plenty of hees and haws.
Season 4 of “The Bostonians,” Plymouth Rock Insurance
Video description: Paul as the Patriots Militia Man watches a robot vacuum the Bostonians’ family room and laments the robots’ imminent rise.
If you’re a Boston sports fan of any kind, you’ve surely seen Paul as the Patriots Militia Man in “The Bostonians,” a series of sitcom-style commercials for Plymouth Rock Insurance.
Plymouth Rock is back with The Bostonians, season 4! You can now catch Paul in a batch of fun new spots filmed with Sox mascot Wally the Green Monster and Patriots mascot Pat Patriot.
You can still watch previous seasons anytime on YouTube.
New medium: Audiobook narration
Image description: The cover of Björg Björgenson and the Emergency Elf Alert. The background is an extreme close-up of an elf’s face. His eyes are obscured under a red winter hat, with his bulbous red nose peeking out and a flowing white beard below.
This year, Paul recorded his first audiobook: Björg Björgenson and the Emergency Elf Alert by Luke Maguire, available now on Audible.
It’s a funny, charming holiday romp in which a seemingly innocuous “Messaging Walnut” kicks off an official North-Pole-level situation: an elf on the run. The fugitive in question is the mysterious Björg Björgenson, whose antics send the Kitterling Elves into confusion, bureaucratic trouble, and plenty of comic chaos.
Paul narrates the audiobook and voices the entire cast of elves, turning the story into a full ensemble performance—solo. He expects to be back in the booth for the sequel in early 2026.