The YouTube star wrapped her debut in the musical Waitress, where she starred as Dawn alongside one of her best friends, Todrick Hall.
“Wow. Where do I begin? I don’t have enough words to express my gratitude for this experience,” Colleen wrote on Instagram. “I’ve dreamt of being on Broadway since I was a little girl and I’m still in shock that I got to make my Broadway debut in one of the most beautiful, inspiring, genius musicals of all time. @waitressmusical changed my life before I even got this job. the music that @sarabareilles wrote for this show impacted me so deeply through some really rough times, and then through my pregnancy, and becoming a mother. To be able to share this beautiful music on a broadway stage and watch the story inspire women in the audience every night was an experience I will never be able to explain in words. On top of that, this cast is full of the most beautiful, loving, talented, inspiring humans I have ever encountered. It was an honor to share the stage with them.”
“Thank you to everyone who supported me and got me here. whether you came to the show or just cheered me on through social media, I appreciate you so much,” Colleen added. “Thank you to the amazing cast and crew for welcoming me and making me feel so loved. Thank you to Kory, Erik, and Flynn for letting me drag us to NYC and flip our lives upside-down for this dream come true. Thank you grandpa for introducing me to musical theater and always believing that I would be on Broadway one day. I felt you with me last night on that stage. Goodbye Dawn. I love you, you little turtle. ‘Dreams come and they go. But hold them and keep them. And know that you need them. When your breaking point’s all that you have… A dream is a soft place to land. May we all be so lucky’”
The YouTube and now Broadway star did a Q&A video on her channel and the question about changing her name came up.
“I’ve been asked this question A LOT, and I feel like I should just address it and hopefully people stop asking me this,” Colleen says.
“I did not change my last name, my last name is still Ballinger because I didn’t want to change my last name. It’s that simple,” she continues. “I don’t know, I just didn’t see the point in changing my last name. Erik was even the one, originally he was like, ‘You’re not going to change your last name right, that would be weird.’ If he wanted to change his last name to Ballinger, cool. If I wanted to change my last name to Stocklin, cool, but neither of us wanted to change our last names so we didn’t.”
“When we were naming Flynn, I liked the last name Stocklin better for Flynn, and also, there’s already a bunch of Ballinger babies. We need a Stocklin one in the mix,” Colleen added about her son’s last name.
Colleen Ballinger and Todrick Hall pose for photos during the Waitress the Musical meet and greet event held at Glass House Tavern in New York City on Monday afternoon (August 19).
The 32-year-old actress and YouTuber shared some behind-the-scenes pics from their final rehearsals for the show, where they’ll make their debuts tomorrow night, and revealed she was really nervous.
“Just finished my final rehearsal for @waitressmusical and I can’t believe my opening night is Tuesday!” Colleen posted. “This has been such an overwhelming, stressful, exciting process and I’m so grateful for the experience. I couldn’t be more nervous for Tuesday, but I‘m SO excited!”
She added with a new pic today, “TOMORROW NIGHT IS MY BROADWAY DEBUT! SOMEONE PINCH ME! 😭”
Colleen and Todrick will star in the musical until September 15th.
10+ pics inside of Colleen Ballinger and Todrick Hall…
In the vid, Colleen explained that she opted to cut her hair instead of wearing a wig because she didn’t want to spend extra time in hair and makeup when she could be with her son Flynn.
After getting the cut, Colleen couldn’t help but freak out a little bit.
“I look like such a mom! Oh my God, it’s so short!” Colleen said in the vid. “This is crazy! I will say I thought it would be a lot shorter…I miss my long hair already but it’s kind of fun for now! But this is wild.”
The YouTube star transformed into her Internet character Miranda Sings to document the process in a video, which she shared to Miranda‘s channel on Saturday (August 10).
In the “tutorial” video, Miranda repeatedly tells viewers to make sure to cut only the tips of the hair and not too high up.
You can guess what happened next!
Colleen also posted more of her reaction in her Instagram Stories, screaming and saying, “That’s really f–king short. I’m having a panic attack.”
Don’t miss Colleen Ballinger‘s Broadway debut in Waitress. She’ll be starring as Dawn in the musical from August 20 to September 15.
Colleen Ballinger is now a New York City resident, at least for a couple of months!
The 32-year-old YouTube star has made it to New York as she prepares to make her Broadway debut in the musical Waitress.
“I AM MOVING TO NEW YORK AND IM MAKING MY BROADWAY DEBUT WTF IS MY LIFE!!!!!” she excitedly tweeted on Wednesday (July 31) night.
The following day, she shared a cute photo on her Instagram story of her holding her son Flynn in front of a fountain in the city. You can see the photo here!
The YouTube star went on to get a makeover by the Queer Eye fashion expert, but ended up flipping the script.
“NEW DRESSING FUNNY episode just launched, with @MirandaSings @ColleenB123. It’s SO damn good!!” Tan wrote on Twitter.
“i gave the queer eye @tanfrance a makeover on his new show. go wach and leave a comment about how good i am. i’m reading all ur comments now. LINK IN MY BIO!” Miranda added on her Instagram.
“THIS WAS SO FUN!! Everyone go watch it! We laughed so much while filming! 💕,” Miranda star Colleen Ballingertweeted.
