- Trisha Paytas is coming to Broadway with a one-night-only performance
- The YouTuber and podcast host tells PEOPLE about how the ups and downs of her internet career, as well as her passion for theater, led her to this dream opportunity
- “This is going to be a production. We’re having ensembles, tricks and magic… It’s bigger than life,” teases Paytas of the show
Three bucks, two bags, one Trisha Paytas!
Fresh off an appearance on Saturday Night Live and a successful string of holiday live shows, the internet personality and Just Trish podcast host, 36, is coming to Broadway with a one-night-only performance at the St. James Theatre in New York City on Monday, Feb. 3, billed as Trisha Paytas’ Big Broadway Dream.
“I’m just about as gagged as could be,” Paytas tells PEOPLE of the variety show, which she officially announced while performing in her “Trishmas Live” show at the Beacon Theatre on Tuesday, Dec. 9.
Produced by Kobi Kassal and George Strus, Trisha Paytas’ Big Broadway Dream was initially conceived as an April Fool’s Day joke earlier this year. In celebration of the holiday, Kassal’s Theatrely site jokingly reported Paytas would play Roxie Hart in Chicago on Broadway — and fans got excited.
“Obviously I know that’s not real ’cause no one approached me about it, but I was like, ‘What is this? This is so weird,’ ” recalls the longtime YouTuber, who later shared the fake announcement to her social channel. “People were so happy for me, and I was like, ‘F—.’ ”
The producers, however, also saw the fanfare around the prank announcement. “They got a lot of clicks,” says Paytas. “And they were like, ‘I think we’re going to do it.’ And I was like, ‘What?’ And then we got the date and the theater, and I was like, ‘Wait, this is happening!’ ”
The Broadway show is a major dream come true for Paytas, who has “wanted to be in that world” since watching Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat starring Donny Osmond as a child. Growing up, she played ensemble parts in school productions of Annie and The Music Man, but never landed a starring role.
Undeterred, she took matters into her own hands and made high-production recreations of beloved musical theater tunes, like “Don’t Forget Me” from Smash. She even did numbers from Little Shop of Horrors and Beetlejuice where, like Cher’s version of West Side Story, she played all the parts.
With each video, equal parts hilarious and heartwarming, Paytas “really did” believe her efforts would lead to a professional theater role. “I know it sounds, like, so delusional,” she says, aware of her position as an untrained performer. “What I have is passion. Maybe not talent, but I have a lot of passion… I’m not, like, Sutton Foster.”
Of course, there was a point where she wasn’t sure it’d actually happen. “I kind of accepted it, but at the same time I was like, ‘No, I still feel like I’m destined to do something,'” she says. “I feel like I should be entertaining people, ’cause it’s when I’m the happiest.”
Luckily, her persistence paid off, and now she’s diving full-force into serious preparation. “I’m going to be in vocal lessons. I’m excited to try and see where I can go,” she says, teasing the show: “This is going to be a production. We’re having ensembles, tricks and magic… It’s bigger than life.”
Now, not only does Paytas get to actualize her Broadway ambitions, but she gets to see her and husband Moses Hacmon’s daughters, 2-year-old Malibu Barbie and Elvis, born in June, watch Mommy shine on stage.
It’ll be perfect for Malibu, who already loves to sing. “Maybe one day she’ll think what I’m doing is cool, and if anything, I just want to show her — and everybody, like, anyone can do anything they want, whether you have talent connections or none at all,” says Paytas. “You can make it happen somehow.”
Looking back on her internet career, Paytas is well-aware this opportunity likely wouldn’t have been possible a few years back. For a long time, she was known for trolling online, posting controversial content to go viral and often offending various communities in the process.
As of late, however, she’s rehabilitated her image by focusing on her mental health, no longer self-medicating with various substances and ridding drama from her life. She explains many of her past behaviors “came from a lot of hurt, a lot of untreated mental illness, a lot of just self-harm.”
“I’m just so happy to be in a place where I can regulate my emotions,” says Paytas. “I owe a lot of it to obviously my daughter [Malibu]. When she was born, I was just like, ‘I don’t want to be a bad person for her. I don’t want to embarrass her.'”
She eventually realized, “I can’t change what happened before her, but I could change what happened after her.”
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“I just thought negative attention was the only way I would get attention and money and ‘fame.’ And I’ve never had more success [than] now — by being myself, not trolling, not pissing people off, and just being myself,” says Paytas, who signed a deal with talent agency CAA earlier this year that ultimately led to the Broadway opportunity.
“It feels so much better to bring happiness and joy to people,” she adds. “It feels like a rebirth.”
Going forward, Paytas is taking her bucket list a bit more seriously, knowing her wildest dreams can actually come to fruition.
“If this is my Broadway debut and closing, it’s fine. But I would also love to do something on stage in New York, Broadway or off-Broadway, and then I would love to do a movie,” she says. “I love that [movie] musicals are coming back, and if they do Joseph, I would love to be somewhere in there.”
And to any haters who never thought Paytas could get to Broadway, she offers them a quote from the musical Sweet Charity: “If they could see me now…”
Tickets to see Trisha Paytas’ Big Broadway Dream in-person go on sale Dec. 13 via the show’s website, and fans can also purchase passes to watch a live stream of the performance online. All net proceeds will benefit the Entertainment Community Fund.
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