“Waitress” made Broadway history as the first musical produced by an all-female creative team. Jessie Nelson adapted Adrienne Shelly’s 2007 screenplay for the stage. Sara Bareilles composed the musical score and lyrics. Diane Paulus directed, with choreography by Lorin Latarro.
For the Broadway Palm production, substitute the brilliant Amy McCleary as both director and choreographer and the result is a spellbinding show about female empowerment.
“In my middl- age, I am finding a very strong connection with female driven stories,” said McCleary. “‘Jerry’s Girls’ [onstage through April 25 at the Music & Arts Community Center in Fort Myers] and ‘Waitress’ are very female-driven stories. They’re about women finding themselves, celebrating themselves and taking charge in their lives, and that is what I love about ‘Waitress.’”
“Waitress” is a story about three waitresses, Jenna, Becky and Dawn, who inspire each other as they follow their individual paths in a world that doesn’t often cater to them.
“'Waitress' is life-affirming, and I think that is what we all need right now in this climate,” McCleary said. “We all need to be assured that life is beautiful and that we can take charge of our lives and create beauty in our own lives and that we have power to do that.”
“Waitress” tells their stories through song and movement. Sara Bareilles’ eloquent lyrics and pop/country melodies reinforce the theme of women helping each other.
“The harmonies in the production are gorgeous,” McCleary observed. “The music is just stunning…. There are three female leads in ‘Waitress’ and the harmonies that they sing are just magical. It takes you to another place, these three voices.”
McCleary has a reputation for big, bold, Bob Fosse-esque choreography. “Waitress is not that kind of show. In this musical, McCleary employs movement to develop the characters and advance their individual stories.
“The dancing is very much about the storytelling,” McCleary explained. “A lot of the choreo that I did for ‘Waitress’ was … actually to speech. So the cues were not to counts necessarily. They were to words. So we have a dancer who’s moving on the word “tuck” for example, and she tucks her legs up and gets lifted up and over. It was very beautiful to be able to tell this story in movement, which I love because I am a dancer, but I fell in love with dance because I think it is such an effortless way of storytelling, it is such a magical way of storytelling.”
“Waitress’ will move you, too.
The musical is on the main stage at Broadway Palm April 11 through May 24.
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“Waitress” centers on Jenna, a small-town waitress with a talent for baking pies. Trapped in a loveless marriage, Jenna finds solace and strength in her pies and dreams of a better life. When she unexpectedly becomes pregnant, Jenna embarks on a journey of self-discovery, supported by her quirky coworkers and a new doctor in town. With a stirring score by Sara Bareilles, “Waitress” serves up a story of resilience, friendship, and the pursuit of happiness.
In the musical, two events in Jenna’s life stand out. First is her unwilling acceptance of impending motherhood. Second is her affair with a married gynecologist. Their duets, “It Only Takes a Taste” and “You Matter to Me,” capture the progress of a hesitant, guilty passion.
“Jenna is sort of lost,” McCleary observed. “She has disappeared into her marriage. She has lost herself. But she finds strength, and is empowered, by her friendship with two other women and her pregnancy and impending birth of her daughter. As a mother, I’m very connected to the story because I know that having children has definitely empowered me and made me fight for myself and fight for the things I want in my life, and that’s exactly what Jenna does in this story.”
The two other waitresses at the diner are Becky and Dawn. They are Jenna’s best friends and closest confidantes, women with their own nuances and quirks. Like Jenna, Becky and Dawn harbor fantasies of better love than they’ve seen and lives that aren’t so sheltered and full of drudgery.
Becky and Dawn insist that Jenna leave her abusive husband. They also take care of her in ways that markedly demonstrate the undeniable bonds of women in times of hardship. Jenna and Becky look out for Dawn as she takes her first tentative steps into dating and falling in love, and Dawn and Jenna don’t shy away from trying to soften some of Becky’s sharp edges. With the support of one another, they become an unquestionable team built on deep love and validation, and all three are able to confidently conquer obstacles that otherwise may have never been addressed.
McCleary is proud of the choreography she brings to the stage in “Waitress.”
“It some of the most favorite choreography that I’ve ever done,” said McCleary. “While it’s not high kicks and layouts and back flips, it is simple, pure and says exactly what I want to say about male-female dynamics and how we can get trapped in the patterns of our mothers, including dark direction like not speaking up for themselves and not taking charge of their lives.”
It is this simplicity and the sincerity of the bonds of love and friendship between women that makes “Waitress” a truly special production.
Support for WGCU’s arts & culture reporting comes from the Estate of Myra Janco Daniels, the Charles M. and Joan R. Taylor Foundation, and Naomi Bloom in loving memory of her husband, Ron Wallace.