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“Waitress: The Musical” is the story of Jenna Hunterson, a pie maker/diner worker, and her journey to find herself after years of being stuck in the life she was dealt.

This movie is a stage-to-screen live film of the musical. The musical is a adaption of the 2007 independent film by Adrienne Shelly of the same name, “Waitress.” 

Growing up loving theatre and eventually studying it in college, I knew of the musical but never got a chance to see it till watching this adaptation. I knew the music, the general plot, and that it was based on a film but i really watched it with fresh eyes.

Sara Bareilles stars as Jenna in “Waitress: The Musical,” she also the composer and lyricist for this show. I think she did very well in both aspects. I loved her composing and lyrics cause it really helped connect throughout the story beginning to the end. You hear over and over the refrain “sugar, butter, flour,” which shows us a bit how Jenna thinks.

To add to that, throughout the show Jenna has moments of thought where she is making a new pie recipe. She talks/sings about different pie ingredients but is using real physical objects (and not ingredients) to show the real life aspect of it. These moments are beautiful ways to see into Jenna’s mind and how she expresses her emotions to us as an audience.

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One time in particular is she’s talking about a chicken pot pie, she is referring to her husband calling him a “jerk chicken pot pie.” She grasp herself saying “pound the chicken till it’s unrecognizable” then starts packing a suitcase saying “pack the flour quickly and only use essentials.” She is showing that her husband has broken her down so much that the only way she can be happy is leaving. All of these baking moments throughout the show are beautiful little nuances into her mind.

She is joined by a very talented cast in “Waitress: The Musical,” who were all very entertaining to watch. Two actors in particular stood out to me Joe Tippett as Earl and Charity Angél Dawson as Becky.

I’ll start with Becky, Her character is a sassy queen you do not want to mess with and Dawson really hit the nail with it. What I loved more though is that Becky had more to her than just comedic relief, she had more depth than a typical support character. Dawson was really able to express all the depth of her character at all the right times.

Going onto Earl, this guy is the definition of an abuser. Every time he was on stage my stomach turned because of Tippett’s betrayal of Earl. He did so well in showing the audience how Earl was abusing Jenna. One scene that sticks out to me in particular was when Earl finds the money Jenna was hiding away, he was angry with her and tried to make her feel bad for hiding the money. He went from aggression to sobbing on his hands and knees because he “didn’t want her to leave him.” That’s one of the many tactics on how an abuser can manipulate their victim to stay in the relationship.

He did an excellent job at portraying his character. Everyone wants to hate on the actor because they were the villain, I’ve been to shows where the actor gets boo’d at during bows cause they were the villain. I think that if the character is that disliked, that the actor gets boo’d at, then the actor did their job right.

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Design wise I loved the set the most, everything moved together cohesively. While part of that is the actors and crew moving sets and props, it’s how it was designed that made it move together with ease. My favorite set was the main one, the diner scene. There were two things that really stuck out to me with this set. One, they used an actual set and didn’t rely on a virtual set that we are seeing more and more now. They incorporated a virtual aspect to help show the times of day in the background but it wasn’t relied on which I really liked.

The other thing I really liked with the set is that they made it for the orchestra to be on stage as well! I love when sets do that because the musicians deserve a lot more credit than they get. How they did this was basically made a stage in the diner that made it look like it was a diner that had live music. So it blended in quite nicely, it was there but not distracting.

Overall I enjoyed “Waitress: The Musical,” though I personally prefer to see these productions live. There’s something about being in the theatre with live performers that you don’t get when watching it on a screen like this. Though I understand that being able to see it live may not be the case for everyone. So this would be a great chance to see it if you can’t live!

Honestly I would be very interested to see if they would make a movie adaption of the musical. If so, how would it differ from the Broadway show as well as the original film it was based off of. I think that would be an interesting comparison to dive into!

“Waitress: The Musical” opens in theaters on December 7th, 2023 and will only have a 5 night run. 

Grade: B+

Check out more of Serena’s articles. 

Here’s the trailer of the film.