Waitress
book by Jessie Nelson
music and lyrics by Sara Bareilles
directed by Diane Paulus
Brooks Atkinson Theatre
June 21, 2016
Production website

💉💉💉💉 out of 5.

I was just a breath away of standing up on my seat and giving a single song a standing ovation. Jessie Mueller simply hits the signature song, “She Used to be Mine” out of the ballpark. That one song alone was worth the ticket price. Not sense the original Dreamgirls have I felt so compelled to give a song a standing ovation.The show was a bit rocky for me at the top. The play is moved forward by Jessie Mueller and two of her fellow waitresses. The relationship between these three women and the men they hook up with are the spine of the play. They are all remarkable singers and gifted comedians but why in the world did they spend the first act of the show TRYING TO BE SO DAMN FUNNY. They were dishing out the looks and the eye rollings underscoring each and every joke way beyond necessary. Nothing seemed to be subtle in the first act. To me this just seemed contradictory to the simple, nuanced music. I was just not digging it.

But then Act 2 arrived and they either began to relax and settle down in the story or the story itself allowed the show to be more about the people and less about the “comic bits. ” Now I got connected to the story. Now the music took on much more life to me. Now I was feeling my way through the story. Now the comedy seemed free of contrivance – and now it really was funny.

What I most appreciated is that the show got out of the way of schtick and allowed Jessie and Drew Gehling (Dr. Pomattar) to have some quite, beautiful intimate moments. I was hooked and they had me all the way to the curtain call. I was a bit leary I was never going to get to enjoy music – but I did – and wow, what a stick of dynamite it was!