On November 9th, Miranda Sings will take the stage at the Theatre Royal, Brighton in East Sussex.
Miranda Sings is an internet character created in 2008 by American comedian, actress, singer and YouTube personality Colleen Ballinger. Ballinger displays videos of the comically talentless, egotistical and quirky character on her YouTube channel under the username Miranda Sings. On these videos, the character sings poorly, discusses present events that she often misapprehends, gives "tutorials" and rants about her critics, the "haters".
Ballinger created the character as a satire of the many bad but arrogant singers who believe that posting their videos on YouTube will lead to them breaking into show business.
Genesis of the Character
Miranda's creator, Colleen Ballinger, created the character partly on young women that she knew in the performance department of her college, Azusa Pacific University. She told The Times of London, "There were a lot of cocky girls who thought they were really talented, and they weren't. They were so rude and snotty, it drove me nuts. Then I saw all these girls trying to make a career out of putting videos on YouTube (of themselves singing in their bedrooms) ... clueless to the fact that they were terrible. The characters were so ridiculous; I wanted to make one of my own." Ballinger has said: "I
thought it was so stupid, because I didn't think anybody got famous off of YouTube."
In March 2009, she uploaded a video called "Free Voice Lesson" that quickly became a sensation. The video consists of advice to use, and demonstrations of, techniques that real voice teachers would warn students to avoid.
Expanding onto doing Gigs at Theatre Royal Brighton
Beginning in April 2009, in addition to her internet videos, Miranda Sings has performed her one-woman live comedy acts at sold-out cabaret spaces and theatres in New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, London, Dublin, Edinburgh and other cities in the US, UK, Australia, Canada, Norway and elsewhere. BroadwayWorld.com called her "the hottest, freshest and oddest breakout star in the musical theatre/cabaret scene".
In the live comedy acts, Ballinger begins the show as herself and then transforms onstage into Miranda.
Since early 2009, Ballinger's character has loved widespread popularity, especially among musical
theatre fans. Later, her fan base expanded mostly among teenagers. Her live comedy acts have been in demand at cabaret clubs and theaters in New York (Birdland Jazz Club, Best Buy Theater), London (Ambassadors Theatre; Leicester Square Theatre), Australia (selling out every performance in her 2013 tour) and elsewhere throughout North America, in Britain and Scandinavia, at venues where her teenage fans, who call themselves "Mirfandas", are admitted. Since 2010, all of her shows have sold out.
As the popularity of the character has increased, Ballinger has been able to book longer sell-out runs of her live comedy acts, at larger and larger venues, including, in 2013, a six-performance run at the Leicester Square Theatre in London, seven performances in Australia, and, in 2014, a performance at the Best Buy Theater in New York City. Miranda Sings is now expanding onto more places in the UK, such as the Theatre Royal Brighton. This will give her much more exposure, and give her the recognition that she deserves.
Miranda Sings/Colleen Ballinger has many friends in Brighton already, such as Alfie Days (PointlessBlog) and Zoe Sugg (Zoella) so no doubt they will be making an appearance, which will be fun for all those YouTube lovers out there. So if you like the Theatre Royal, Brighton and Miranda sings then go buy your ticket now.