Bailey Hanks of Anderson was named the winner of MTV's reality series "Legally Blonde The Musical: The Search for Elle Woods." Hanks competed with 15 other finalists to play the lead role in one of Broadway's biggest hits.

This story has been corrected from its original version.

When Brad Hanks drove his daughter Bailey to Nashville, Tenn., for her first audition to take part in the series “Legally Blonde The Musical: The Search for Elle Woods” on MTV, he allowed himself some time to dream about what it would be like if his 20-year-old “little girl” actually won.

Now, as Bailey Hanks prepares to take the stage Wednesday night in her Broadway debut, that dream is a reality.

Bailey was named the next Elle Woods on Monday’s finale of “The Search for Elle Woods,” beating out runner-up Autumn Hulbert. Throughout the competition, judges said they knew Bailey was the most Elle Woods of the bunch of competitors but had to make sure the talent matched the spirit.

“In my mind, she was my little Elle Woods,” said Paul Canaan, judge on the show and cast member in ‘Legally Blonde The Musical.’ We just had to decide if the talent was there.”

Bailey has known she was the next Elle Woods for the past three months but couldn’t say a word. Even her family — which includes her sisters Brooke, 26, and Bradlee, 6 — knew and had to keep quiet.

Now that they can shout it from the rooftops, they really don’t need to. The media will take care of things.

Brad Hanks and Bailey’s mother, Angie, have been with her for much of the last week as she prepares for her debut at 8 p.m. at the Palace Theatre in New York City. On Tuesday morning, she was booked on Fox News, Inside Edition and had already done interviews with USA Today, the New York Observer and the Independent-Mail. But she has stayed grounded so far as her parents take this roller coaster ride with her.

“This is our summer vacation, and we are going to follow her as much as we can,” Brad Hanks said in a phone interview from New York City. “The best part about this is the world gets to see what her mother and I have seen since she was 5 years old.”

A handful of Bailey’s friends and family will be in the audience in New York tonight. Former Anderson mayor Richard Shirley and wife, Rachelle, made the trip, as did Bailey’s mentors Robb Alverson, owner of the Alverson Center Theatre in Anderson, and Rick Mascaro, director of the Hanna-Westside Extension Campus in Anderson.

“I am blown away and flabergasted,” Mascaro said. “We were just talking, and this would be like if a local high school quarterback went to the NFL and won the Super Bowl. It’s really that big.”

Bailey has signed a six-month contract with the “Legally Blonde” production. The former Coastal Carolina theater student has said she would like to stay on Broadway after her run and perhaps vie for other “dream roles.” For now, she will have to settle for wowing the “Legally Blonde” audiences and her fellow castmates.

“She fits right into the company,” Canaan said. “She not too afraid or naïve or any of that. She fits, and they respect her for that.”

And for Bailey, it’s all about the experience.

“This whole thing has been really emotional,” she said Monday. “It really made me realize that all my dreams will come true.”