Brought to life by a groundbreaking all-female creative team, this irresistible new hit features original music and lyrics by 6-time Grammy® nominee Sara Bareilles (“Brave,” “Love Song”), a book by acclaimed screenwriter Jessie Nelson (I Am Sam) and direction by Tony Award® winner Diane Paulus (Pippin, Finding Neverland). “It’s an empowering musical of the highest order!” raves the Chicago Tribune.
Inspired by Adrienne Shelly’s beloved film, WAITRESS tells the story of Jenna. A waitress and expert pie maker, Jenna dreams of a way out of her small town and loveless marriage. A baking contest in a nearby county and the town’s new doctor may offer her a chance at a fresh start, while her fellow waitresses offer their own recipes for happiness. But Jenna must summon the strength and courage to rebuild her own life.
Vocally this was one of the strongest casts I have had the pleasure of hearing in quite some time without a single low note. All three leading ladies were fabulous in their roles and the supporting gentlemen who Played their love interests were entertaining and carried their own musical numbers brilliantly.
Despite the wildly shifting tones between abusive domestic melodrama and embellished, clownish behavior (the second act in particular undergoes sudden head-scratching character changes, wrapping up the plot too meticulously), Waitress holds together — enjoyably so. Scott Pask's sets evocatively imagine the show's unnamed American South small-town setting, and they glide seamlessly into place, including the bandstand that features a talented sextet led by conductor/pianist Nadia DiGiallonardo. As usual on opening night at this beautiful but ginormous venue, the band's overpowering volume made it hard to hear all the lyrics.
For its few inconsistencies and small things that don't totally work, "Waitress" is still a terrific show. New musicals are made or broken by their score and it seems for every "Hamilton" and "Dear Evan Hansen" there are other shows whose music is sort of D.O.A. So it's a joy to experience a delicious musical you want to rush home and listen to the soundtrack for, bake the words into your brain, and spend hours in your car tasting the sweet lyrics and singing along.
We know this is theater and not real life. We know this one certainly is wish-fulfillment fantasy. But making a musical out of the basic plot point of sexual encounters between a patient and her gynecologist, keeping the abused wife and her baby in the small town where the abusive husband still resides, and giving hope to stalkers everywhere by giving a bizarre stranger a second chance just seems like three obstacles even pretty staging and sweet songs can't overcome.
The musical builds on the film's inherent eccentricities and delivers its message with warmth, honesty, and a heaping helping of heart. Much of its sensitivity can be attributed to pop songstress and storyteller Sarah Bareilles ("Love Song," "Brave") who wrote the score for the show. Her soulful sound and open-hearted lyrics are an alluring combination that helps create characters who sing what they think in individual musical styles that match their unique personalities.
A diner waitress in BumFuck, USA dreams of a better life and, luckily for her, she gets to dream lost in Sara Bareilles' lovely landmark score. A little Carole King, a little Roberta Flack, and a lot Dolly Parton, the six-time Grammy nominated singer-songwriter makes an auspicious debut here as a Broadway composer with a rich, evocatively ballad-heavy folk-rock score that is the real star of the musical. Jessie Nelson's book also finds the heart of the late Adrienne Shelly's original story as she gently guides us to understand the plight of someone stuck in the mud in a nowhere town, in a nowhere job, and in a nowhere marriage—something exacerbated early on when she abandons her tables to pee on a stick in Joe's restroom and realizes she's now stuck even deeper in the muck of ya'll-ain't-goin'-nowheres-ness. Under the fluid, incredibly free and inventive direction of Diane Paulus, Oakley is a star in the making, somehow reminiscent of Betty Hutton and Ann Sothern rolled into one and possessed of a voice loaded with confidence and ‘bout the size of all outdoors.
Perhaps if Shelly were alive she never would have ceded artistic control over her characters. Nelson took a little story about a few eccentric friends and turned it into a big Technicolor cartoon. The actors in the National Tour of Waitress which is currently at Hollywood's Pantages Theatre aren't portraying characters as much as they are inhabiting buffoonish cartoon creations under the full-speed-ahead take-no-prisoners style of direction by Diane Paulus.
Sitting through the show — I'll summarize the plot in a minute — I found myself smiling. This was a story that was funny and touching, realistic and empowering, and just likable. Then it hit me during the intermission: the best way to describe this show was sweet — just like the pies it discusses. There are a lot of different flavors touched upon in this show: from unwanted pregnancy to abusive relationships, to the questions of why we stay in relationships and why we don't, to the power of friendships and the support of friends, to the power of love and accepting people for who they are, and it all just simmers and blends and comes together for a result that is … sweet. So this is a musical that will leave you with a good taste in your mouth. I think you'll enjoy it quite a bit.
It's hard to put into words what makes Waitress such a beautiful experience. To borrow from Jane Austen: if I loved the show less, I might be able to talk about it more. It's just… good. Nelson's book is funny and poignant and well-balanced; whenever the emotional weight gets to be too much, she takes a moment to lighten the tone.
While the film is a little darker than the musical, some details were changed and some characters lightened (especially some of the male characters aside from Earl), the heart and themes of Shelly's film live on and are now immortalized in this fantastic musical. GO!
Vocally this was one of the strongest casts I have had the pleasure of hearing in quite some time without a single low note. All three leading ladies were fabulous in their roles and the supporting gentlemen who Played their love interests were entertaining and carried their own musical numbers brilliantly.
Despite the wildly shifting tones between abusive domestic melodrama and embellished, clownish behavior (the second act in particular undergoes sudden head-scratching character changes, wrapping up the plot too meticulously), Waitress holds together — enjoyably so. Scott Pask's sets evocatively imagine the show's unnamed American South small-town setting, and they glide seamlessly into place, including the bandstand that features a talented sextet led by conductor/pianist Nadia DiGiallonardo. As usual on opening night at this beautiful but ginormous venue, the band's overpowering volume made it hard to hear all the lyrics.
For its few inconsistencies and small things that don't totally work, "Waitress" is still a terrific show. New musicals are made or broken by their score and it seems for every "Hamilton" and "Dear Evan Hansen" there are other shows whose music is sort of D.O.A. So it's a joy to experience a delicious musical you want to rush home and listen to the soundtrack for, bake the words into your brain, and spend hours in your car tasting the sweet lyrics and singing along.
We know this is theater and not real life. We know this one certainly is wish-fulfillment fantasy. But making a musical out of the basic plot point of sexual encounters between a patient and her gynecologist, keeping the abused wife and her baby in the small town where the abusive husband still resides, and giving hope to stalkers everywhere by giving a bizarre stranger a second chance just seems like three obstacles even pretty staging and sweet songs can't overcome.
The musical builds on the film's inherent eccentricities and delivers its message with warmth, honesty, and a heaping helping of heart. Much of its sensitivity can be attributed to pop songstress and storyteller Sarah Bareilles ("Love Song," "Brave") who wrote the score for the show. Her soulful sound and open-hearted lyrics are an alluring combination that helps create characters who sing what they think in individual musical styles that match their unique personalities.
A diner waitress in BumFuck, USA dreams of a better life and, luckily for her, she gets to dream lost in Sara Bareilles' lovely landmark score. A little Carole King, a little Roberta Flack, and a lot Dolly Parton, the six-time Grammy nominated singer-songwriter makes an auspicious debut here as a Broadway composer with a rich, evocatively ballad-heavy folk-rock score that is the real star of the musical. Jessie Nelson's book also finds the heart of the late Adrienne Shelly's original story as she gently guides us to understand the plight of someone stuck in the mud in a nowhere town, in a nowhere job, and in a nowhere marriage—something exacerbated early on when she abandons her tables to pee on a stick in Joe's restroom and realizes she's now stuck even deeper in the muck of ya'll-ain't-goin'-nowheres-ness. Under the fluid, incredibly free and inventive direction of Diane Paulus, Oakley is a star in the making, somehow reminiscent of Betty Hutton and Ann Sothern rolled into one and possessed of a voice loaded with confidence and ‘bout the size of all outdoors.
Perhaps if Shelly were alive she never would have ceded artistic control over her characters. Nelson took a little story about a few eccentric friends and turned it into a big Technicolor cartoon. The actors in the National Tour of Waitress which is currently at Hollywood's Pantages Theatre aren't portraying characters as much as they are inhabiting buffoonish cartoon creations under the full-speed-ahead take-no-prisoners style of direction by Diane Paulus.
Sitting through the show — I'll summarize the plot in a minute — I found myself smiling. This was a story that was funny and touching, realistic and empowering, and just likable. Then it hit me during the intermission: the best way to describe this show was sweet — just like the pies it discusses. There are a lot of different flavors touched upon in this show: from unwanted pregnancy to abusive relationships, to the questions of why we stay in relationships and why we don't, to the power of friendships and the support of friends, to the power of love and accepting people for who they are, and it all just simmers and blends and comes together for a result that is … sweet. So this is a musical that will leave you with a good taste in your mouth. I think you'll enjoy it quite a bit.
It's hard to put into words what makes Waitress such a beautiful experience. To borrow from Jane Austen: if I loved the show less, I might be able to talk about it more. It's just… good. Nelson's book is funny and poignant and well-balanced; whenever the emotional weight gets to be too much, she takes a moment to lighten the tone.
While the film is a little darker than the musical, some details were changed and some characters lightened (especially some of the male characters aside from Earl), the heart and themes of Shelly's film live on and are now immortalized in this fantastic musical. GO!
