A Night at Joe's Diner on Broadway

I was a little too distracted last week to write a blog post because I spent a few days in New York City for work, but that means I come bearing news of Broadway!

I saw Waitress at the Brooks Atkinson Theatre and it was all the good adjectives and then some. I've only been to one other Broadway musical (Rent when I was 17) so I was just happy for the chance to see anything - let alone a show that I've been obsessively listening to since the Original Broadway Cast (OBC) recording came out.

Waitress (music & lyrics by Sara Bareilles, book by Jessie Nelson) is based off of the Keri Russell film of the same name. It's the story of Jenna, a waitress at Joe's Diner who uses pie baking to cope with the ups and downs of her life. Stuck in an abusive marriage, newly pregnant and desperate to leave, she finds strength from her coworkers, Dawn and Becky, and her male OB, Dr. Pomatter.

The cast was incredible. Stephanie Torns as Jenna was perfection. She was charming, beautiful (they sure tried to fool us with her "generic/frumpy wig," but she is so pretty) and her comedic timing was spot on. I've listened to "She Used to Be Mine" so much that I kind of started to hate it, but Stephanie single handedly revived my love for that song in one, infallible pass. Christopher Fitzgerald as Ogie, the lovable tax accountant (who is in love with Dawn, Jenna's coworker) was true genius. Even though you shouldn't support people who sneak cameras into shows, etc. etc. forever and ever, I've been scouring the internets all weekend trying to find a clip of "Never Ever Getting Rid of Me" to show to my husband. I could never do it justice trying to explain it, but trust me when I say that it was the funniest thing I've ever seen on stage.

I think that die hard musical theatre fans can sometimes get spooked by musicals written by pop music artists, but I like to think that Sara Bareilles is a musical theatre writer that just happened to start her career in popular music. The music is beautiful and shows so much range in Sara's ability to tell a story through song. There are some shows (especially in more contemporary musicals) where the emotion can feel manufactured, but this show felt so real that I found myself feeling heartsick when Jenna has to tell her husband Earl that she's pregnant just to keep him from hitting her.

But it wasn't just the music that was so powerful. It was the direction by Diane Paulus and the subtle, but very deliberate choreography by Lorin Latarro that kept the audience visually fed throughout the show. I found it very interesting that when Jenna was at the diner - the place where she worked and created her pies - that the stage was kept very open and the backdrop was a beautiful sky, but when she was at home - three perfectly choreographed black backdrops slid together to create a tight, cramped, dark space. It felt constricting and depressing, but when Jenna sings "She Used To Be Mine" - the song where she decides that she's done being stuck in a life that she hates - those three backdrops slowly slide open and reveal that beautiful sky. A new day.

If you get a chance, I highly recommend seeing this show. Luckily for all of us it is currently on tour - so it could be coming to a city near you soon!