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.
