Waitress: The Musical will stream on Max beginning February 14.
By Joe Botten
Every baker knows you must take out your creation from the oven at the perfect moment. Remove it early, and you risk an undercooked and flimsy output. Leave it in too long, and it could be overly chewy and robbed of flavor. Did the original Broadway run of Waitress: The Musical come out of its creative oven at the right time? After a successful out-of-town tryout in Massachusetts, opening night for the New York debut was set for April 24, 2106, four days before the 2016 Tony Awards consideration cut-off date. Producers of the show could have pushed out the date slightly, taking a risk that the well-reviewed show could be the first to open the 2017 season and remain a strong player for next year’s nominations. Why would they want to push it out, though? One word. Hamilton.
Hamilton swept the Tony Awards in 2016, winning in all but one category for which it was nominated. That meant Waitress: The Musical went home empty-handed, and though it remained a top-rated show among fans and tourists thanks to a rotating cast of famous faces in various roles, it didn’t get rewarded for the accomplishments it justly deserved. (For the record, 2017 was the year of Dear Evan Hansen, so who knows if the same fate would have befallen the show if it had waited.) While Hamilton deserved every award it won (well, mostly), the more I listen to the score composed by Sara Bareilles, the more I wish there were a separate award for achievement to the shows swallowed up in Hamilton’s wake.
Though it closed on Broadway in January 2020, it returned in September 2021 for a limited time, starring Bareilles, who had taken over the leading role several times during its initial run. This was partly due to the continued interest in the show and to fill a void created in a post-pandemic Broadway slump, but in truth, it was to film the show so it could be released briefly in theaters across the country. After premiering at the 2023 Tribeca Film Festival (which was also broadcast for free in Times Square), it played in theaters for only five days, but is now finally available to stream on Max. If you missed the show on Broadway (or on tour), you can catch this filmed version, expertly captured with some of its finest cast members.
Based on the late Adrienne Shelly’s 2007 film (a sparkling gem of an indie-comedy if ever there was one), the musical follows Jenna (Bareilles), a small-town waitress in an unhappy marriage with a knack for creating tantalizing pies at the roadside diner where she works. Short-order cook Cal (Eric Anderson, The Greatest Showman) barks orders from the kitchen while Jenna and fellow wait staff Becky (Charity Angél Dawson) and Dawn (Caitlin Houlahan) serve customers, including irascible codger Joe (Dakin Matthews, Lincoln). When Jenna finds out she’s pregnant, she contemplates what that means for her future with abusive husband Earl (Joe Tippett, Spirited), even as she explores an affair with her charming gynecologist Dr. Pomatter (Drew Gehling).
Directed onstage by Diane Paulus and on film by Brett Sullivan, Waitress: The Musical easily transitions into a cinematic experience. (I will go on record and say that an actual movie-movie version of the musical still needs to be made.) Mixing live footage with, what I’m assuming considering their proximity with the actors, segments that were taped later, the filmed show doesn’t lose the spirit of Shelly’s structure or the intimacy of the music Bareilles has created. If anything, it only heightens both as we can get up close and personal with the performers and their emotional highs and lows. Some of that credit must also go to choreographer Lorin Latarro’s fluid movement for the ensemble, which aids Paulus/Sullivan in finding interesting angles and moments to highlight.
In pulling the cast together for this archived capture of Waitress: The Musical, Paulus has selected a top-tier troupe. Though I find her character to be the most underwritten of all, Dawson’s big voice and convincing performance trumps any missing pieces the writing doesn’t account for. I saw Houlahan play this role on tour, and it’s perfectly recreated here. It’s the same role Shelly (who was tragically murdered before her movie was released) played, so I know it comes with added responsibility to get it right. I’ve seen Matthews in countless films but never knew he had such a sweet singing voice. Anderson is also a dependable performer in every show he turns up in. Hold on to your seat when impish Christopher Fitzgerald (Let Them All Talk) shows up with a riotous number as a lovelorn suitor for Houlahan’s hapless, hopeless romantic.
The undeniable reason to see this film is to watch Bareilles become a quasi-movie star in a filmed stage show. The camera loves her, and while she’s singing music and lyrics she wrote, there is no guarantee that the acting will be there in turn. Yet it is, and her performance is deliriously good. Finding the right pockets of pathos in the comedy and drama along the way gives her the proper buoyancy to build toward the second act 11 o’clock number “She Used to Be Mine,” which stops the show and will likely stop the movie. While some stars can struggle with finding their footing acting onstage, Bareilles shows no signs of such trouble, creating believable chemistry with Gehling (who is terrifically charismatic on his own) and making us believe her complicated feelings for Tippett’s character (as of this writing Tippett and Bareilles are engaged) as well.
I think everyone should see a Broadway show at least once in their lives. Making that trip to The Big Apple is an excursion that creates magic, often a once-in-a-lifetime experience. Seeing a show on tour isn’t quite the same because it misses the intimacy the much smaller Broadway houses can create. I love that we are getting more of these “filmed on Broadway” shows and hope that more follow suit. Especially after a musical closes. Waitress: The Musical has laid out a perfect recipe for the success of this type of entertainment. Enjoy a long run in NY and around the world, and then preserve the show on film for even more audiences around the country to take part in.
I give Waitress: The Musical an A.
TV and City 