‘Waitress.’ Written by Jessie Nelson. Music and Lyrics by Sara Bareilles. Based on the motion picture written by Adrienne Shelly. Directed by Kevin P. Hill. Music Direction by Milton Granger; Choreography by Ashley Chasteen; Scenic and Lighting Design by Jack Mehler; Costume Design by Rebecca Glick; Sound Design by Alex Berg. Presented by North Shore Music Theatre, 54 Dunham Rd, Beverly, MA through June 15.
By Shelley A. Sackett
Who doesn’t love a thick slice of pie, especially in the summer when fresh fillings are ripe and especially sweet? “Sugar, butter, flour” is the mantra chanted like a lullaby throughout Waitress, the wonderfully staged musical now playing at North Shore Music Theatre. Although pie takes center stage throughout the almost two-and-a-half-hour performance (with one intermission), Waitress is no simple, indulgent, or sentimental high. Meaty themes like domestic abuse, infidelity, empowerment, motherhood, and self-fulfillment are the secret ingredients that keep the show rolling and the audience from lapsing into a sugar coma.
Sara Bareilles’ witty, pop-ish lyrics and score marry the narrative requirements of musical theater with a variety of styles ranging from ballads and a country hootenanny to stunning duets and wacky, hysterical solos. The actors are uniformly well cast, from their vocal talents to their abilities to both shine as individuals and meld as an ensemble. Jack Mehler’s scenic and lighting designs are well thought out and effective. Director Kevin P. Hill makes good use of NSMT’s signature theatre-in-the-round stage and center trap door lift and sets a spot-on pacing. Add a live band (Music Director Milton Granger) and excellent sound (Alex Berg), and, production-wise, Waitress is as enjoyable as any production I’ve seen at NSMT.
The plot, which some have described as “half-baked,” is nonetheless a fine table on which to set this entertaining musical.
Jenna (a fabulous Christine Dwyer) is both an expert pie baker and waitress at Joe’s Pie Diner, somewhere in the American South. Baking is her way of continuing her mother’s legacy and flexing her own creative muscle. Stuck in a stereotypical abusive relationship with her high school beau, Earl (Matt DeAngelis, who does the best he can with his cardboard character), she works long hours and considers her co-workers to be her real family.
Jenna is also afraid she might be pregnant (no spoiler; she is) and it is only the coaxing of her fellow waitresses, sassy, brazen Becky (Brandi Chavonne Massey, terrific) and gangly, nerdy Dawn (Maggie Elizabeth May, ditto) that gets her to pee on that proverbial stick.
An unplanned and unwanted pregnancy by a man she doesn’t love only adds to her load. (That she remains with Earl, a one-note bully and narcissist who demands her tip money the second she gets home, is tough to accept plot-wise.) She hides the pregnancy from Earl while she tries to come up with a plan to escape his clutches and start a new life for her and her baby.
For the time being, though, what is poor Jenna to do? Why, have an affair with her charismatic (and very married) obstetrician, Dr. Pomatter (a charming Brandon Kalm), of course! (Another plot head-scratcher some might find unrelatable and off-putting).
Meanwhile, back at the diner, Becky and Jenna help Dawn overcome her inertia and self-doubt and create an online dating profile. Almost as quickly as Jenna’s pregnancy test registers positive, Dawn gets a bite from the irrepressible, equally geeky Ogie (played with verve and vivacity by Courter Simmons). Their scenes together are among the most hilarious and weirdly adorable.
Jenna discovers the possibility of a way out of her abysmal home life when Joe (Keith Lee Grant, in a role tailor-made for him), the elderly owner of the eponymous diner, suggests she enter a pie baking contest. The prize is $20,000, her pies are definitely good enough, and she has nothing to lose. After much cajoling, she’s in.
Eventually, all ends well (enough) for all the characters and Jenna embraces motherhood with a single-mindedness previously reserved for baking and inventing pies. If this were a dramatic play, no amount of clever dialogue could overcome the light-weight plot line, unnuanced character development and too pat ending. Luckily, Waitress is a musical and the talented Bareilles has crafted a funny, heartfelt and musically exciting score of 19 numbers that keep the action moving, the audience laughing, and the NSMT tent rocking.
For it is through the songs that the subplots and characters unfold.
In “The Negative,” for example, the three waitresses focus on the negative as they pray for Jenna’s pregnancy stick to stop at one line. “Club Knocked Up” is the obstetrician’s waiting room where the very pregnant patients pay homage to the era of the Andrews and Lennon sisters. Simmons, as Ogie, brings down the house with his Pee Wee Herman antics in the belly-laughers, “Never Getting Rid of Me,” and “I Love You Like A Table.” Massey, as Becky, then sets that house on fire in “I Didn’t Plan It.”
Bareilles really lets loose in Jenna and Dr. Pomatter’s duets, both musically and lyrically. “Bad Idea,” on which act one ends, is a slinky, sexy, tribute to the power of attraction. “It’s a bad idea, me and you; Let’s just keep kissing ‘til we come to…” Dwyer and Kalm croon as they throw themselves at each other and onto the gynecology examination table, limbs and voices silkily entwined. The ballad, “You Matter to Me,” gives the audience another opportunity to savor their harmonization.
At the end of the day, though, it is Jenna’s story, and it’s only fitting that she has the show’s two most introspective numbers. In the climactic “She Used to Be Mine,” Jenna unflinchingly assesses who she has become and who she wants to be in a song that is a rollercoaster of emotion and range, giving Dwyer the chance to really strut her vocal stuff. “Everything Changes” is her tribute to the power of motherhood.
The show’s finale, “Opening Up,” circles back to the moral of Waitress — it really does take a village for an individual to survive and thrive. The diner community is that village, holding them up and helping them keep it together. “Take a breath when you need to be reminded that with days like these, we can only do the best we can,” the company sings. Amen to that.
For more information, go to nsmt.org
