Jim Caruso is thrilled to welcome YouTube sensation Miranda Sings back to the Broadway at Birdland concert series on Monday, October 4 at 7pm. The evening will be a celebration of all things Halloween, with dazzling costumes and a Miranda lookalike contest with prizes.
Special guests will include Todrick Hall ("American Idol", Memphis), Michael Buckley ("What The Buck"), and Tituss Burgess (Little Mermaid, Guys & Dolls).
The character of Miranda Sings, brought to us by actress Colleen Ballinger, is a satire of increasingly common YouTube videos featuring mediocre or even bad, but egotistical, singers who film themselves singing as a form of self-promotion, and who ignore the realistic or cruel comments of "haters" commenting on their videos. "Miranda" lives with her mother in Tacoma, Washington, sings comically off-key, uses spoonerisms, is self-absorbed and has a sassy attitude. The Times describes the character as "self-obsessed and immune to criticism." She responds to viewers who take the videos seriously with the catchphrase "Haters back off!" telling her critics that they are "just jealous" and that "haters make me famous". The character includes facial tics, unusually active eyebrows, a crooked smile, her head cocked to one side and bizarre pronunciation quirks. In place of lyrics that she cannot remember, the character "scat" sings. She also wears lipstick drawn beyond the borders of her lips, dresses in mismatched and out-of-style clothing and dances stiffly to the music she is performing.
Beginning in the summer of 2009, in addition to her internet videos, Miranda Sings has also performed a cabaret act at sold-out cabaret spaces and theatres in New York, London, San Francisco, Los Angeles, Miami, cities in Australia and elsewhere. In 2009, BroadwayWorld.com called her "the hottest, freshest and oddest breakout star in the musical theatre/cabaret scene". Typically, in her cabaret act, Miranda Sings several songs from the musical theatre repertory or popular songs that are featured in her videos; gives "voice lessons" to Broadway or West End stars, such as Shoshana Bean and to the Broadway casts of shows such as Bye Bye Birdie, Mamma Mia, Shrek, Billy Elliot (to which cast she also gave dance and acting "lessons") and Rock of Ages. She critiques the stars' performances, sings duets with established musical theatre singers, reads "hate mail" that she has received on her YouTube channel, and improvises a song based on audience suggestions.
Miranda Sings Celebrates Halloween
Monday, October 4 at 7pm
Birdland, 315 West 44 Street, NYC
$25, $35 cover charge plus $10 food/drink minimum
212-581-3080 or www.BirdlandJazz.com
