Christina Bianco finally gets to speak in her own voice. I recently had the chance to interview the multi-impressionist actress, singer and star of the Off-Broadway one-woman play Application Pending, a comedy about the harrowing process of kindergarten admissions. We chatted about the hilarious YouTube videos that feature Bianco performing impressions of every diva you can think of while singing popular songs, how she prepares for all those voices, and which divas she'd most like to meet.

Please allow me a few moments of gushing because I’m a big fan of your diva impressions videos. I really love how you infuse comedy into your impressions, even while they are so spot on.

Oh, thank you. You know, it’s so amazing to see how much people are taking notice and watching these YouTube videos.

When you “do” another singer or actress, how much of it is for comedy and how much is it for accuracy?

I try to have a healthy mix of both because for me, even though I try to be as accurate as I can, with some artists it’s easier than with others because of the natural limitations of my voice. My voice has limitations, so for some people I’ll just try to get a major part of their voice. I can only do so much. I don’t have a raspy voice, so for someone like Liza Minnelli, it’s more of a caricature. As for the humor, like for Britney Spears or Adele, I try to go for a more heightened impression.

I’ve always wondered, watching your YouTube videos, is the person who gives you the names of people to impersonate calling them out randomly, or is it pre-planned?

It’s funny because most of my performances that aren’t on YouTube, I don’t have anybody call out a name; I just go into it knowing who I’m going to impersonate. With “Total Eclipse of the Heart,” I gave a list of six names per verse to the woman calling them out and I didn’t know which of the six she would call out next. I did it that way except for the beginning, middle and end of the song. It’s more entertaining for the audience to see impressions applied for that particular verse. For example, I can’t do Cher for a high note because she doesn’t do high notes. When the song is building, audiences want someone who sings those parts well. It makes it a well-rounded number. But of course audiences love the spontaneity of it and I knew I could handle those six people for each verse.

For “Let It Go” and most other performances, I like to have fun. There are certain phrases that each artist sounds better singing. If I read as Barbara Walters, her r’s sound like w’s, so I search for a line that has that. The same with Drew Barrymore and s’s because of her lisp. I have a lot of fun with it and spend a lot of time thinking of who sounds best for that particular song or phrase.

My live shows include a lot of spontaneity, but they also include a perfect representation of that person. That comes from experience. I love live performance, and the videos are of me doing that.

When did you realize you were good at impressions?

Ever since I was little, my parents told me I did voices mimicking friends and family. When I listened to my favorite singers, I would inadvertently sing along to the recording as that person. I didn’t take impressions seriously until six years ago for Forbidden Broadway. That’s when I realized I was good at changing my voice. I sang along to those cast albums, impersonating the impersonator. I never thought I could do it but I built the confidence and the versatility in my voice. I locked myself in my apartment for about a week before the audition and went through each track of the show. I realized that the younger, shorter girls play the ingénues so I started to do Bernadette Peters and Kristin Chenoweth. I would call my mom and do Bernadette Peters and she would say, “Oh yeah, I always thought you could do that.”

How do you approach a new character, impression, or vocal inflection?

If it’s a singer I know, it’s a lot easier. When I listen to a singer, I hear the placement and the differences between their voice and mine—the breathing and the vibrato. New artists, these young stars, they’re harder to impersonate. Not just because they’re new and I haven’t heard them as much but also, in today’s music industry there’s a lot of vocal processing, so the live performances are often very different from the recorded tracks, and the audience knows the recorded tracks better.

I want to do more Ariana Grande. I’m friends with her brother. She realizes that imitation is the sincerest form of flattery.

Have any of the divas you’ve impersonated come to one of your shows or acknowledged your impression of them?

The only person to acknowledge me is Kristin Chenoweth; she said something on Twitter like “fabulous” or “incredible.” So I took a screen shot of the tweet and posted it. I would love to meet Celine Dion. That’s the big one.

The show you’re in now, Application Pending, seems tailor made for you. In it you play 40 different characters.

It’s one of the hardest things I’ve done in my entire life. I had no idea how to approach a show like that. I don’t leave the stage for the entire 80 minutes. I give myself every cue so if I mess up once, the show is in danger of running only 20 minutes (laughs). So far so good. But it’s not a show you can relax into. I have to be in the moment. When you’re alone on stage with 40 different characters, it’s difficult to stay in the moment. After a while, you want to check in with yourself. Most plays, the actors go offstage, maybe have a drink of water, but I don’t ever have that moment.

Were any of the characters particularly challenging for you?

The men are very challenging. I’m a female with a mid-range speaking voice. I have to make them sound honest and comfortable, night after night, so the audience believes and connects with them.

Tell me about working with director and co-author Andy Sandberg. Was there a lot of collaboration? It seems like a play that would have involved a great deal of your input.

I did an early reading of the show. I thought the script was really amazing, but thought, “Oh, the poor actor who is going to have to do this, this is so hard.” I did another reading where Andy and Greg [Edwards, co-author] had written with my voice in their head, so when they finally asked me to do it, I was more familiar with it and enjoyed doing it. But reading it on the page and doing it on stage are two different things. What works at a reading doesn’t always work on stage. In the rehearsal process, there were a few times I had to say, “I don’t think this is possible. This voice for this character, their tone does not support them saying x, y and z.” Thankfully, I didn’t have to go through a lot of people to make those changes. It was collaborative in that way. It helped that I had done the show in previous incarnations, so it came from a place of support. It was fun to crack the characters and see what would happen in front of an audience. It was nerve racking but it’s always nice to be a part of something where your voice is heard.

Do you have any experience with these types of people, helicopter parents and such?

There is one character in the show, Shoshana Feigenbaum, who is the mother of a young boy who does a lot of regional theatre. I grew up in Rockland County, NY and did theatre all around and I met a lot of women like her. She’s a combination of three different people I know. It’s an easy composition. Stage moms get a bad rap but I got to know a lot of them and they just want what’s best for their kids.

What’s next for you? What can we see you in after Application Pending ends its run?

After Application Pending, I’m going to spend some time in the UK. I’m doing three big concerts [Tonight From The West End] in Scotland with two talented West End performers, Kerry Ellis and Adam Garcia. It’s an honor to be included with them. It’ll have a chorus of 200, a 20-piece band, and dancers. Then I’ll do my solo show, Party of One, at the Hippodrome.