Waitress: The Musical

One of the best movie versions of a Broadway musical that I've seen in a long time. This musical closely follows the original movie and the music is glorious. I've seen it on stage and seeing it as a movie is just as fabulous as in person. I'm so thankful that they made a movie so that I can watch it any time I feel like. The cast works well together, the ensemble is great, and the band is great. If you're looking for a fun, adult themed musical that keeps your toes tapping, your fingers snapping, and your mouth laughing, I say watch this - it's SO worth it! And after you watch it, try not to buy the original Broadway cast soundtrack!

Based on an overrated indie movie, Waitress tells the story of a waitress and baker with dreams, a terrible husband, and an unexpected problem. The songs, by star Sara Bareilles, are unusual for a Broadway musical, because they're pretty much Sara Bareilles pop songs, but she's an excellent songwriter and her songs work for both herself and others.

This musical is beautifully staged. This is a filmed stage performance, and often those make you think, this would have been amazing in the theater, but this captures the staging so well that I'm not sure that it would have been better in a theater (probably not with the Broadways seats in my budget).

It's funny, it's touching, the songs and choreography are terrific, the performers are terrific (virtually every significant character gets their own big number), and well, it's just really, really good.

It's also apparently really, really obscure - there are only 6 user reviews as I write this - but it should be better known, so watch it if you have the chance.

First, this was a 2007 movie. It was released soon after Adrienne Shelly's brutal murder (which I will always associate with that Law & Order episode). It then became a Broadway musical and we're back to a movie. The obvious next step would be a full blown theatrical musical. Jenna Hunterson (Sara Bareilles) is a small town waitress and pie maker. Her life is turned upside down when she gets pregnant by her no-good boyfriend.

The singing is great. It is fun and cute. It has a heart-felt story. It is missing the pie making visuals. If they turn this into a theatrical musical, they could add that back. I do like the energy from the crowd, but the screen could never replace the real world experience. That will always hold it back in this form.

I just finished watching the musical and I was blown away. I don't often say that. The last time was going to see 'Phantom of the Opera' and "Les Miserables' on stage. I watched this by myself in front of my big screen TV and my heaven, the talent, the emotions, the production. The music, the lyrics. I want to watch the show again for all that. Sara Bareilles is amazing and so natural a singer/actor, you feel every emotion she felt all through the story.

The story of just trying to feel a bit of happiness, living with an abuser (they come in many guises) and friendship among disparate personalities comes together in this production. The sets are simple but perfect, the quick seamless changes of scene, too. I laughed and then cried at the end because I saw and felt that the sense of finding true happiness is within everyone's reach and it doesn't necessarily come with being swept away by a perfect love. I mean, you hope for it but it's not the be-all and end-all. And the surprise of someone in your life you never thought would be a big influence for change does reflect real life as I have lived it.

Just wonderful. I executed my own standing ovation in the privacy of my living room. Couldn't help myself.

My Review- Waitress : The Musical My Rating- 7/10 In Cinemas now

It's rare indeed that the composer and lyricist of a successful Broadway musical gets to perform the starring role in their own creation but Sara Bareilles achieves this in Waitress . She wrote this musical with Jesse Nelson in 2015 and based it on the 2007 movie of of the same name written by Adrienne Shelly.

As a lover of the great Broadway musicals like Oklahoma, Sweet Charity, Hello Dolly and Company to name a few I have to say musically Waitress is a very average modern musical but very entertaining.

I doubt we will ever see the fabulous era of the stage musicals of Gershwin, Porter, Berlin ,Rogers and Hammerstein, Jerry Herman , Kander and Ebb or Sondheim ever again except in constant revivals.

This is partly due to the economics of producing a new musical on stage but mainly due to changes in the audience's tastes that pay huge ticket prices to see them.

Sara Bareilles plays Jenna Hunterson a waitress and expert pie maker living in a one horse town in a loveless marriage to a bully of a husband who regards her as his property and source of income.

Jenna works at Joe's Pie Diner alongside her two co workers Becky played beautifully by Charity Dawson and Dawn Pinkett a modern Ado Annie type played by Caitlin Houlahan.

This trio of Waitresses provide the best moments of the show as they support Jenna after she finds out reluctantly that after a rare one night of make up sex she's pregnant to her oafish husband Earl played by Joe Tippett who in real life is engaged to this movies star Sara Bareilles.

Becky describes Earl well in the show when he is displaying his name tattooed across his chest . She says he's so dumb he needs the tattoo in case he forgets his name .

Jenna wants a better life for her baby but gets involved with her gynaecologist Dr Pomatter played by Drew Gehling.

This further complicates her goal to enter and win first prize in a pie baking contest to escape her marriage.

Special mention to a great supporting male performance in Waitress by Christopher Fitzgerald who plays Ogie the awkward very odd but kind suitor of Dawn Pinkett .

He steals the show with his two comedy numbers You're Never Getting Rid of Me and I Love You Like A Table.

He was in the original Broadway cast and it must have stopped the show live.

I must mention this is not a film version of a Broadway musical it's a film of a special revival stage performance with a live audience in a theatre so I think I would have enjoyed it more watching the live performance.

I wish all the great Broadway shows of the past could have been filmed in the quality that Waitress has . Luckily one was preserved the original restoration version of the 1943 groundbreaking Rogers and Hammerstein musical Oklahoma can be viewed on YouTube it truly is stunning.

Summing up as a musical average but very entertaining with a very talented cast worth seeing, yes definitely.