Colleen Ballinger is ready to make her Broadway debut, stepping into the role of Dawn in the musical Waitress beginning August 20. The YouTube star is no stranger to the musical theatre world, but there's one thing beyond singing and acting Ballinger wasn't quite prepared for.
"The amount of props," she reveals. "I thought I'd be nervous about singing or the acting, and truly I'm nervous about which prop I'm supposed to pick up next and where to put it," the comedian admits. "These are waitresses, and they make sure it feels that we are waitresses," she says before rattling off all the diner accouterments she's tasked with juggling on the Brooks Atkinson Theatre stage.
Dawn is far from a social butterfly, and Ballinger can empathize: "Dawn is an awkward, sweet girl. And I'm good at awkward," she says. In fact, she's built a career around it, becoming the human embodiment of awkward as her alter ego Miranda Sings.
Also joining the company of the Sara Bareilles musical August 20 is Broadway veteran and fellow social media star Todrick Hall (Kinky Boots, Chicago). He'll appear opposite Ballinger as Ogie, the eccentric Revolutionary War reenactor who woos Dawn."I've done a lot of Ogie-esque things in my life," Hall admits. "I have been known to be very full-out for a first date...I would definitely be friends with him if he existed in real life."
