By ALAN SMASON, Theatre Critic, WYES-TV (“Steppin’ Out”)
By all things reasonable, Waitress, the Broadway musical currently serving its fare at the Brooks Atkinson Theatre in New York, should have never made it to Broadway. It is a story of improbabilities.
The musical was based on an independent film directed by Adrienne Shelly, a striking actress, wife and young mother, who had achieved some limited success in film and TV roles. Shelly, who was of Russian-Jewish extraction (born Adrienne Levine) wrote, directed and was a featured performer of the film of the same title about an abused, unhappy and pregnant waitress who dreams of breaking free from her abusive and domineering husband by doing the one thing her mother had taught her to do: bake pies.
Shelly was working on the film in post-production, when she became the tragic murder victim of an itinerant workman she caught robbing her. Her grieving husband worked for several months after her death to edit and finish the film, which was released in 2007.
That the film saw the light of day or that its $22 million payday at the box office would interest producers into turning the vehicle into a stage musical defies conventional expectations. Yet, the American Repertory Theater under the direction of Diane Paulus (“Hair” and “Pippin” revivals) and lead producers Barry and Fran Wessler (“Chicago” revival) and Norton and Elayne Herrick (“Pippin” revival) did just that.
Also, improbably, the team elected to secure the musical services of Sara Bareilles, a popular West Coast composer and five-time Grammy nominee, who had only recently moved to New York, but whose track record of writing a Broadway score –much less a successful one – was nil.
Jessie Nelson, a scriptwriter who also had no previous Broadway experience was assigned the task of writing the book. Nelson had written and produced “I Am Sam” in 2001 and written, directed and produced “Corrina, Corrina” in 1994. She had also directed last year’s holiday film “Love the Coopers,” which featured a large ensemble cast.
Unlikely and improbably, Jessie Mueller, who had just won a Tony Award for her role as Carole King in Beautiful was announced last year as attaching herself as the star of the project.
Taken separately, any slight deviation from the film being turned into a musical could have easily spoiled its chances of making it big on Broadway. Yet, miraculously, like one of the slices of those farcically named pies hawked by the pregnant Jenna and her two fellow waitresses, Becky (Keala Settle) and Dawn (currently Jenna Ushkowitz, but in the past played by Kimiko Glenn), it improbably succeeds.
The musical achieves an emotional arc wherein Mueller’s character learns to accept her pregnancy and to find the inner strength at first to find love outside of her marriage and, later, to affect a means to escape from the self-imposed prison she has fashioned at home.
Into the picture comes Dr. Pomatter (Drew Gehling), her obstetrician-gynecologist, who falls for her pies (“It Only Takes a Taste”) and in one of the more inappropriate and unethical decisions in medical history becomes involved with his patient (“Bad Idea”).
Meanwhile, her co-workers find their own challenges in establishing relationships. Becky is in a loveless marriage of convenience, caring for an impotent paraplegic (“I Didn’t Plan It”), while Dawn matches wits with Ogie (Christopher Fitzgerald), an overzealous suitor who won’t take no for an answer (“Never Ever Getting Rid of Me”).
Jenna’s overbearing spouse Earl (Nick Cordero) is a lazy, loud and brutish fellow who uses her for a meal ticket and as a sexual object. The pregnancy she so dreads (“The Negative”) in Act One becomes a chance for self-reliance (“She Used to Be Mine”) and redemption (“Everything Changes”) in Act Two.
Lorin Latarro’s choreography is conventional and straight forward, much like the simple characters we follow. Perhaps, the best part of the movement and dancing may be the way the various pies are displayed throughout the production (“Opening Up” and “What Baking Can Do”).
Crusty short order cook Cal (Eric Anderson) provides comic relief, especially in his tense business relationship with Becky, who always seems to have the upper hand with put downs. Joe (Dakin Matthews) acts as the wise old man, who sees Jenna struggle to make it in a challenging world and who devises a way for her to bake her way out of the status quo. His one song, “Take It From an Old Man” is a throwback to sweet classics like Arvide Abernathy’s “More I Cannot Wish You” from Guys and Dolls.
In fact, Bareilles’ music orchestrated with her own band is surprisingly multi-faceted. Her capacity for comedy shines in a scene in a doctor’s waiting room “Club Knocked Up” and in “I Love You Like a Table,” a song in which Ogie pronounces his love for his bride.
Even an instrumental piece titled “The Contraction Ballet” packs a wallop in Act II as the denouement of the entire production. Bareilles proves that she possesses all the tools demanded of a great Broadway composer.
Improbable as Waitress is, it serves Broadway audiences a healthy heaping of great singing with a dollop of dancing on top and a bit of humor on the side.
“Waitress” continues at the Brooks Atkinson Theatre, 256th W. 47th Street in New York City.
