Miranda Sings

Miranda Sings is a fictional character, created and portrayed by American comedian, actress, singer and YouTube personality Colleen Ballinger, that first appeared on the Internet in 2008.

Since 2009, in addition to her internet videos, Ballinger has presented live comedy acts, in character as Miranda Sings, at first in cabaret spaces and later in theaters in New York, London, and other cities in the US, Canada, Europe, Australia and elsewhere; she toured regularly beginning in 2014.

Her acts include Miranda's signature off-key singing of pop music hits and show tunes, with introductions focusing on the character's backstory.

[11][12] In the videos, the Miranda character sings in a comically off-key, yet plausible, voice and covers pop music hits, show tunes and original songs.

"[18] As Robert Lloyd, writing for the Los Angeles Times put it, "the ferocious enormousness of Miranda’s self-regard, which blots out nearly everything around her, is inversely proportional to her talent.

[35] Since April 2009,[36] in addition to her internet videos, Miranda Sings has performed her one-woman live comedy acts at first at cabaret spaces and later theatres in New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, London, Toronto, Amsterdam, Sydney and other cities in the US, Canada, Europe, Australia, and elsewhere.

[41] Miranda typically sings pop hits and some musical theatre songs in her signature off-key style (one reviewer called this "deranged versions duly delivered with gawky, gurning panache"[42]); gives "voice lessons" or acting lessons to Broadway or West End stars, such as Sutton Foster, Andrew Rannells, and Shoshana Bean,[43] to Broadway casts of shows such as Billy Elliot (to which cast she also gave dance and acting "lessons") and Rock of Ages,[11] and to pop stars such as Ariana Grande[44] and Tori Kelly,[45] in which she is hypercritical of the stars' performances, often telling them that they should leave show business; sings one or more duets with established (and bemused) musical theatre singers;[46] indignantly reads hate mail (bleeping out any profanity) that she has received on her YouTube channel and other social media; interacts with audience volunteers; uses projected presentations containing terrible spelling; and sometimes improvises a song based on audience suggestions.

[50] As an example of the character's delusional arrogance, Miranda stated in her early acts that she expected to perform the role of Elphaba in Wicked on Broadway.

During 2009, as part of her act, she announced that she planned to date Cheyenne Jackson (who she did not realize is openly gay) or to find another boyfriend, who must be talented and famous.

[58][59] A regular part of her live comedy acts since 2010 includes a "magic trick" where Miranda sings while appearing to be stabbed through the neck by a sword.

[66][68] "To break up the horrendous musical numbers, Miranda incorporated a series of segments that took the four daily concepts of porn, bullies, love and 'haters' and transformed the subject matter into ... comical banter that relied heavily on audience participation ... she worked off everything the volunteers said and did, improvising and creating punchlines on the spot.

[79] Reviewing Miranda's second engagement at the LaughFest festival in Grand Rapids, Michigan in 2016,[80] a critic noted that the material "resonated with parents as well as the younger set.

"[81] Among other appearances, Miranda performed at the Kennedy Center in April 2016[82] and in Nashville's Ryman Auditorium in May at the 3rd Annual Wild West Comedy Festival.

[101][102] The series fills out the backstory implied in the Miranda videos, incarnating her spineless mother, Bethany (Angela Kinsey), and her overly devoted uncle Jim (Steve Little).

[105][106] Miranda's creator, Colleen Ballinger, based the character partly on young women that she knew in the performance department of her college, Azusa Pacific University.

[108][109] Ballinger's YouTube channel received little traffic for more than a year, but in March 2009, she uploaded a video called "Free Voice Lesson" that quickly became a sensation.

[107][110][111] The video consists of advice to use, and demonstrations of, techniques that real voice teachers would warn students to avoid, delivered in Miranda's arrogant, off-key way.

[11][16] Miranda's videos drew predictably sharp criticism on YouTube, as many viewers mistakenly believed the character was a real person, a "neo-Florence Foster Jenkins".

"[24][114] Ballinger was briefly unsure of what to do with her newfound internet success, but in April 2009, Jim Caruso invited her to perform as the character at Cast Party, a weekly show at his Birdland jazz club in New York City.

At the Leicester Square Theatre in 2010, Miranda taught "voice lessons" to, and performed with, such West End theatre stars as Leanne Jones, Scarlett Strallen, Daniel Boys, Julie Atherton, Ian ‘H’ Watkins, Anna-Jane Casey, Jon Lee and Noel Sullivan,[117] and the London casts of Naked Boys Singing, Wicked and Les Misérables.

"[1][11] TheaterJones commented that "perhaps because the Internet is some crazy postmodern distortion of reality, people ... felt it was their duty to point out how woefully untalented [Miranda] was, in the most horrific ways.

... Live performance and musical theatre were almost a lost art ... people need to be reminded that it takes a lot more effort to sing than just watching movies or TV shows."

[136] Miranda Sings appeared in a Season 3 episode of the Nickelodeon television show Victorious, a one-hour special titled "Tori Goes Platinum", first broadcast on May 19, 2012.

[144] She appeared in the first episode of Dance Chat in 2013, an Australian web show,[145] and gave a free performance at the Community College of Rhode Island for the Charles Sullivan Fund for the Arts and Humanities.

"[9] In 2010, a BroadwayWorld review of Miranda's live comedy act said that Ballinger's "'Miranda Sings' persona is a very unique and original concept devised by a very creative imagination.

With very demonstrative facial expressions, a unique take on makeup and wardrobe and her almost unbelievable vocal stylings, she cuts an undeniable figure in the world of online music video.

[180] Miranda has been compared with such absurd comic creations as Roseanne Roseannadanna and Andy Kaufman's characters,[108][181][182] Kimmy Schmidt, "a distaff Napoleon Dynamite"[183] and Pee-wee Herman.

[193] The New York Times' review of Selp-Helf commented that Miranda's success stems from "milking the disconnect between her supreme confidence and her hopeless lack of ability ... endearing incompetence".

"[196] Newsweek's review of Miranda's YouTube satire of the 2019 James Charles/Tati Westbrook feud noted that although the character "rarely humanizes herself", she has the surprising ability to "make our heart hurt".

[200] The most popular Miranda video, a parody cover of Taylor Swift's "Shake It Off", received more than 55 million views on YouTube in 2016 before the site removed it.