Waitress

Waitress is playing at the Brooks Atkinson Theatre located at 256 West 47th Street. The musical opened on March 25, 2016. It runs two hours thirty minutes with one intermission. It is an open ended show.

It is based on the 2007 film by the late Adrienne Shelly.

The original production premiered at the American Repertory in Cambridge, Massachusetts in August 2015.

It was nominated for four Tony Awards for Best Musical, Best Feature Actress (Jessie Mueller), Best Feature Actor (Christopher Fitzgerald) and Best Original Score (Sara Bareilles). The show won a Drama Desk Award for Christopher Fitzgerald and was nominated for four Drama Desk Awards for Outstanding Musical, Actress (Jessie Mueller) Book of a Musical (Jessie Nelson) and Outstanding Lyrics and Music (Sara Bareilles).

In 2017 it was nominated for a Grammy Award for Best Musical Theatre Album.

Sara Bareilles wrote the music and lyrics. She was nominated for a Tony Award and Drama Desk Award for Waitress (2016)

Diane Paulus is the director. She won a Tony Award for the Revival of Pippin (2013) and was nominated for a Tony Award for the Revival of Hair (2009).

Scott Pask is the scenic designer. He won a Tony Award for The Book of Mormons (2011), The Coast of Utopia (1, 2,3 2007) , The Pillowman (2005). He was nominated for two Tony Awards for Pal Joey (2009) and Les Liaisons Dangereuses (2008).

Jessie Mueller won a Tony Award for The Carol King Musical (2014) and was nominated for two Tony Awards for Waitress (2016) and On a Clear Day You Can See Forever (2012).

Christopher Fitzgerald was nominated for three Tony Awards for Waitress (2016), Finnian’s Rainbow (2010) and Young Frankenstein (2008). He won two Drama Desk Awards for Waitress (2016) and Finnian’s Rainbow (2008). Christopher was nominated for three Drama Desk Awards for Young Frankenstein 2008), Amour (2003) and Saturday Night (2000).

Jenna (Jessie Mueller) works at Joe’s Pie Dinner and makes the delightful pies. Cal (Eric Anderson) owns the place.

Her fellow waitresses Dawn (Caitlin Houlahan) and Becky (Charity Angel Dawson) follow her into the bathroom. Jenna feels nauseas and Becky hands her a pregnancy test. She’s pregnant.

When she goes to her female gynecologist she finds out she retire and a male doctor has taken over the practice. Dr. Pomatter (Drew Gehling) has taken her place.

Earl (William Pope) comes home claiming his boss is on his back for coming in late. He demands Jenna tips and complains how little it is. Jenna is afraid of her husband.

Back at work she keeps coming up with crazy names for her pies. Sometimes when she is creating her pies we get visions of her mother in the kitchen.

One of the customers, Joe (Dakin Matthews) is hard to please so she tells Dawn she will wait on him. He tells her of a pie making contest is in the next town. The winner gets $20,000.

Jenna starts saving part of her tips to enter the contest. Earl loses his job. She is paying the bills. Earl finds the money she is saving for the contest. He is belligerent to her. Jenna says she was saving to get things for the baby. Earl takes it all.

Things happen. Jenna is having an affair with her doctor, Cal and Becky are fooling around and Dawn finds love with Ogie (Christopher Fitzgerald).

I’m not filling you with the details. This is a show worth seeing. But you may gain a pound or two looking at the cakes.

The cast is great! It is hard to point to just one person. They all shine. However Christopher Fitzgerald is amazing.

The set is banner. The band is on the stage and the curtain is a cherry pie. Either side of the curtain is cases with pies one on top of the other.

Review by Rozanna Radakovich.

Photos by Annazor.

To read a candid interview with the cast, scroll down to the left for recent photos. Click on a photo, the click back to album and the click is back to album for this and other shows.