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Mickey Jo
sugar, butter, flour as if you could ever let me down. Oh my God. Hey, welcome back to my theater themed YouTube channel. Or hello to those of you listening to this on podcast platforms who are currently missing the visual gag of me wearing a waitress the musical themed oven mitt. Which if you don't mind, I will remove for the remainder of this theatrical review. Because I'll be honest with you, it's the warmest day of the year and I'm already wearing a needlessly thick pseudo pie themed jacket. I promise for the podcast listeners, whatever PI inspired jacket you're currently imagining, what you're picturing is significantly more impressive than the slight gingham I'm wearing. For those of you meeting me for the very first time. My name is Mickey Jo and I'm obsessed with all things theatre as a content creator and theatre critic here on social media. And today is an exciting day. It feels like a little bit of a throwback here. It feels as though we find ourselves back in the late 2010s because for the first time in years I am sitting down here to discuss with you Waitress the Musical, which is embarking on a brand new UK tour starring the one and only Carrie Hope Fletcher, fan favorite leading lady of West End musical theatre. I just caught the show in Wimbledon last week. It has already headed on to its next venue and it is presumably heading to a theater near you. And Waitress is a musical I have seen four times previously with four different actors playing the role of Jenna, including the show's composer and lyricist, one Sara Bareilles. And so I had a decent amount of nostalgia and high expectations as I headed back to see the show. High as a pie in the sky or a pie in the, you know, the sort of the cabinet thing that they have at the side of the stage makes me hungry every time. And you know, I've reviewed Waitress here previously, but it's been a little while and so I figured we could talk through the production and the material, some of the details that I was reminded of. Some other things about it that I noticed for the very first time on my fifth viewing because clearly I'm not paying good enough attention. I'm just, I'm distracted by the pies. That's what's been happening. Of course, we are also going to talk about the cast, some of whom are new faces to the diner, others of whom are returning, and the show's leading lady, Carrie Hope Fletcher. Stay tuned for all of my thoughts about this tour and feel free to share all of yours in the comments down below. If you had a chance to see it already or let us know when you're going to be seeing it, then you can come right back here afterwards and follow up with what you thought. In the meantime, here is why I thought Waitress was as delicious as ever. So before we talk about Carrie and the cast, my takeaway from seeing the show this time around is what a lovely and smart and meaningful musical Waitress is. In the past, I've always thought of this as like the perfect kind of Sunday afternoon show, the kind of a movie that would come on on a lazy day and just give you a good, warm, cozy vibe, but not one that you'd necessarily go out and see of an evening. And I think that almost undersells the appeal of this show. I this show has always been more sophisticated and smarter than I've given it credit for. In addition to the inherently comforting vibes and the fact that there aren't a lot of other shows giving you the same kind of a sensibility, there's a reason for that, and I think the answer is twofold. I think one has to do with the entire ethos of the production and the way that womanhood is baked haha into the core of the thing. And I think the other is its relationship to its theatricality. We're going to circle back to that one. Let's talk about the femininity of the whole thing. And to begin with, it comes as no surprise. It's an important value of the film, which, if you don't know, tells the story of a waitress in an unhappy marriage who discovers that she is pregnant. This is not news that she welcomes very happily. She works at a diner with two female colleagues and friends who are each similarly sort of stuck in their personal lives. Our protagonist's name is Jenna and one of the most important details about her is that she bakes these biblically extraordinary pies. She comes up with a new one every day and she gives gives it an unconventional name, usually articulating something about a situation that she is navigating in her personal life, such as Betrayed by My Eggs Pie upon realizing that she is in fact pregnant. As the story continues, a visit to her new doctor, Dr. Pomatter, who has recently moved to the area from Connecticut, turns from an awkward first meeting into a flirtation into a full blown affair about which some theatre goers have very different opinions. We're going to talk about those as well. But the underlying message of waitress, even though it's also a romantic story between these two characters who act upon this bad idea, is one of the other places in which you find family and support and sisterhood. And it's the relationship between Jenna, dawn and Becky that we really value over the course of the show, as well as this generational idea of motherhood. The original writer of the film, Adrian Shelley, has a very tragic story which reminds us of the dangers that women continue to face. And the musical is one of still very few to be a collaboration between female writers. With a book by Jesy Nelson and a score, as I mentioned, by Sara Bareilles, directed originally for the stage at the American Repertory Theatre by Diane Paulus, choreographed by Lauren Lotaro, and restaged for this production by Abby o'. Brien. So it is this beautiful Meaningful female collaboration, the likes of which we don't see that much of in commercial musical theatre. It is to this day difficult to name that many other musicals, Fun Home being one example, which have been written entirely by female collaborators. And so it does center a story of female friendship and support, but also talks about female desire and resilience. The story articulates itself, I think, with those same qualities, with compassion and thoughtfulness and grace and warmth. It's how you attain the cozy, comforting vibe that this has. It seems simple, but an awful lot of thought has gone into it, which is also the case with the original production overseen by Diane Paulus. And we talk increasingly about these many different screen to stage musical adaptations and how they aren't all rewarding and they aren't all successful and they don't all necessarily feel earned. A question we often ask is, did this need to be turned into a musical in the first place? Does it feel as though it justifies that? And Sarah Bareilles score makes a compelling argument for this particular show, one which I think is undeniably one of the strongest musical theatre scores of the century. So far. She Used To Be Mine is an awesome all time musical theatre classic. And there isn't enough recognition for how smart this material is, for how beautiful and poetic those lyrics are, for how gorgeous the harmonies are, because it emerged around the same time as Hamilton's and dear Evan Hansen's and come from aways in this really exciting time for new Broadway musicals. And it managed to find popularity but not necessarily enough critical acclaim. The scholars among us are sleeping on Waitress. Meanwhile, the identity of this production on stage leans all the way into a completely unashamed theatricality because we see musicians on stage in one corner of the diner set the entire time. This charming set that you just want to live in, designed by Scott Pask. But not only that. We have individual soloist musicians who emerge in different songs at different places. We have at one point a musician stood under lamplight, we have another on another side of the stage. We have them entering a little late in the second act to allow for a more private moment before beginning to play their instruments. They step away from their instruments and sit at tables in the diner as guests. It means we aren't hiding the musical identity of this show and the way in which it's being brought about. There is also this really gorgeous ongoing visual motif when Jenna reflects on her circumstances and her shifting mindset by conceiving new pies on the spot, which are thinly veiled versions of what she would like her life to be. For example, one particular pie is really just her imagining how easy it might be for her to spontaneously leave her husband. And the way that this is staged each time is with members of the ensemble darting around her, handing her different ingredients. We see this an awful lot. There's a company member who plays the memory of her mother. And again, I think it's just an inspired decision about what we choose to show an audience rather than hide from them. Now those are some of the things that I've always loved about Waitress. I've always loved the visuals of this show and the vibe of this show and the charm between these characters and the easy comedy of the whole thing, but also the gravity of the story that it's telling. What I noticed this time around, little detail came very much from the relationship between Jenna and her for the majority of the show. Unborn Baby and I want to talk to you about something in the material that I hadn't quite figured out before, but I want to do it under the umbrella of talking about Carrie Hope Fletcher's performance. So let's talk about her and the rest of the
- [10:25]
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- [11:17]
Mickey Jo
Now immediately as soon as this was announced, I was so excited for Carrie Hope Fletcher to play the role of Jenna in Waitress 1, which I think she has only now really aged into. And not just because a decade ago she posted a cover version of her singing she Used to be mine on YouTube and it's now a beautiful full circle moment. I was talking about this just the other day with Legally Blonde as well. The idea of performers being at the perfect time to play roles that they grew up falling in love with and how special that is for audiences who were also their age who fell in love with the show at the same time. But, no, the real reason I was excited to see Carrie do this is because for years now, I have been insisting that her best work is as maternal characters. Not mothers, necessarily, but in the Witches of Eastwick in Concert, in the Caucasian Chalk Circle, she has this effortless maternal quality which I think she plays so interestingly with such depth, with such nuance in comparison to the teenage roles that she had been playing very well for years, the roles which made her very popular in Heather's, in the Addams family, etc. But Carrie, to my mind, has always been a little wise beyond her years. And I was so excited for her to graduate and to playing these kinds of characters. And it's no surprise to me that she is fantastic as Jenna in Waitress, a huge part of which is the maternal quality. And I don't actually know. I'm sure that some other actresses, now that the show has been performed around the US Regionally, and like many different actresses, have played this role. Carrie is probably not the first to be playing Jenna only a few years after giving birth to her first daughter. But there's something incredibly special about that as well. And to my mind, none of the other actresses I saw in the role were approaching it from similar life experience. And obviously, everyone's an actor. You don't need to actually be method and have a baby in order to understand this. But it sort of reshaped the way in which she seemed to approach Jenna's arc, because the material would seem to indicate that the summit of Jenna is She Used To Be Mine, this gorgeous song of sort of whoa. But characterized in its melody with a deliberate perseverance. She is reflecting on this real setback that she's just experienced. This one dream that she was clinging to has just been pulled out from underneath her like a sad rug. And she, in that moment, recalls the girl who she once was, who had dreams and belief and hope. And she now apologizes to her unborn child for the life that she feels resigned to. But in the way that she sings it, there remains a perseverance. There remains the resilience that has allowed her to carry on for this long. It's a big sing. The audience is anticipating it. Carrie sings it beautifully. She isn't one to add in a whole lot of extra options and riffs. She makes some lovely choices. One little, like, unexpected lower choice towards the end that took me entirely by surprise, but beautifully sung. However, to my mind, she pitches the summit of Jenna's emotional arc a little later, at the moment when she gives birth to her daughter Lulu, when, as she sings in the song that accompanies this moment, everything changes. And I think this has to be because Carrie, in the last few years, has become a mother and has had a child and can entirely relate to that extraordinary, redefining moment. And there is such an emotional intensity to those instant few moments when she, for the very first time, connects to her daughter as she is placed in her arms. And so in Carrie's version of Jenna, this is the summit, this is the peak. This is the most powerful moment. And it's fantastic to watch. Of course, everything leading up to that is also deeply charming. Some of my favorite scenes of hers are her interactions with old Joe, played in this production by Les Dennis. The two of them toured together years ago in the Addams Family as Wednesday and Uncle Festa. So there's an inherent warmth to their relationship. But I just love the way that Jenna is brought out of herself in these scenes in the script. I think it's really lovely. Carrie plays the slightly saucy wit of it all very, very well, something she leans even further into as we explore the relationship between her and Dr. Pomatter, played by Dan Partridge. I'll talk more about him and the rest of the company, but there was something I wanted to tell you that nearly got away from me, and it was to do with the maternal angle of the whole thing. And I had never noticed in the material before that Jenna is more prepared to be a mother than she realizes, because for the vast majority of the show, she tells people around her that she isn't particularly enthusiastic about this pregnancy and the upcoming baby. She says as much to her friends, to her doctor, to the unborn baby itself. And there's this suggestion in the material as she reflects on the challenges of her own childhood and the way in which her mother would take her into the kitchen and teach her to bake pies, to shelter her from her abusive father and the difficulties in the household. There's a sensation that she fears she won't know how to be a good mother. And yet that is the entire context of her mother as a character and her understanding of what being a brilliant parent was, the way in which she was protected and the fond memories of that she has, and the way it's really shaped the woman that she has become and the way that she has defined herself and the way that she's defined by the show as the titular waitress and what I think is so beautiful. Is that without realizing, she does throughout the show that same thing for other people that her mother did for her. When dawn is getting ready nervously for a first date that the other two have pushed her towards, she teaches dawn and Becky to make a pie. They make it together and she wordlessly instructs them in the process and motions for them to put the ingredients in and mix them together because they're singing in beautiful, peaceful harmony. She has a similar scene later on with Dr. Pomatter when he comes to speak with her at her workplace, and it culminates in her teaching him how to make a pie from her childhood and without realizing, she has become a version of her mother and she's already ready to do that for other people. And I think she doesn't realize how nurturing she is. I could cry talking about this because I think it's really beautiful, but it's specific. You see her teaching people how to make pies constantly in this show, and that's, as she describes it, what motherhood was from her perspective. Anyway, we have some other members of the company to talk about. Let's chat about that.
- [17:53]
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- [18:52]
Mickey Jo
So I mentioned Les Dennis already. I wasn't entirely sure sure how I was going to feel about him in this role. Les works prolifically in musical theater. He is constantly employed, often touring around the UK and I didn't know if he would really submerge himself enough in this character. And I love the old Joe material. I actually think it's some of the most sentimental in the show he has this prickly Persona, but he clearly cares an awful lot for Jenna, even though he doesn't necessarily speak, say as much. But if you let the material guide you with Old Joe, it takes you neatly to the destination that you need to get to. And that's what I think he did. I thought he did a lovely job, actually. Now, let's talk about dan Partridge as Dr. Pomatter. And I've only really seen him play sort of charming leading men types. And Dr. Pomatter is decidedly more quirky. He has a lot of comedy moments, a lot of sort of nervous, physical comedy moments. He's a neurotic character. And they also have to sell the relationship between the two of them, which exists in a morally grey space. Obviously, Jenna has a very difficult life. Obviously, the two of them have this kind of a connection, but it is messy on both ends because he has a wife who is doing her residency at the hospital where Jenna gives birth. Jenna has a husband who is abusive. And a lot of people take issue with the potential medical negligence at play here and the idea that she is, during a vulnerable time, for multiple reasons, being taken advantage of to some extent. And I think there are subtleties within the production that kind of guide us away from that way of thinking. Not only is the narrative of the show very female led, but so is the affair between these characters, so is this relationship. And there is a moment before anything is said or consummated, certainly when Jenna conceives of a particular pie, I believe it's the almost make you believe again pie, something to that effect. And it's implied within what she is saying and within the ingredients that she's really thinking about Dr. Pomatter. After having that thought, she then calls him up to book an appointment. Built into all of this is the idea that she may be doing it with ulterior motives. This is all but confirmed when she goes in to have this appointment. He has arrived to work hours before they would usually open, and she becomes flustered and upset after prompting him, Isn't there anything else you want to see say to me? And he isn't really able to explain himself, even though there is clearly an electricity and a chemistry between them. She goes to leave, she leaves her bag behind, she comes back for it, and then she kisses him very confidently and of her own accord, making it clear enough to us, the audience, that she is the one initiating this. However, there is still some ambiguity about how he ought to respond professionally. The show does a little more subtly to confirm to us that this is actually a good thing. As the characters begin to duet together and sing how it's a bad idea that they ought not to go any further with, even though they continue to with multiple pies and multiple trysts, the ensemble eventually arrive at the back of the stage clapping rhythmically. And it's a percussive sound, but it's also, to my mind, an entire line of people clapping along as Jenna and Dr. Pomatter consummate their affair at the front of the stage, which feels like the production saying to us in no uncertain terms, this is a good thing. We are encouraging this. My favourite part of which is the ensemble eventually turning around in order to give them a little bit of privacy. Anyway, I thought Dan Partridge did a great job. He had a fun physicality and a real tenderness in the vocal that I appreciated. Carrying on. Carrie was joined in the diner by a couple of familiar faces. Returning to the roles of dawn and oh, my gosh, Becky. There we go. Were previous cast members Evelyn Hoskins and Sandra Marvin. I've seen both of these ladies play these roles multiple times and they have it down to a science at this point. They understand the details of these characters and the comedy of them, certainly, but also the heart which is there for each of them. Sandra, as Becky lands these scene stealing lines so, so well, does a great job of singing I didn't planet at the start of the second act. Evie, as dawn, is unbelievably charming and has this wonderful rapport with Mark Anderson, who has joined the cast to play Ogie. This is a relationship you really root for as soon as it finds its feet. And Mark is a talent I have been watching for years now. He has given such standout performances in so many shows and he's fantastic in this. They're wonderful, the two of them together, just odd and eccentric enough. His performance of you're Never Ever Getting Rid of me is brilliant. Her performance of When He Sees Me so endearing, so fantastically sung. I find it so intriguing how different the Ogis who I've seen opposite Evie Hoskins, have been. I've seen John Montague do this. I've seen George Crawford do this. And Mark is a sort of a Will Ferrell, Fred Armisen kind of a type, which I think works really well with this material. There's also a lot of talent in the ensemble. I would be very excited to go back and see some of them get to go on for principal roles that they are understudying. And there's just a kind of a family vibe to this company and that's installed by the material. But it's also a lot of actors who have history, who have worked together before, who have mutual friends and colleagues and really you feel the warmth emanating from this company and the joy of just getting to do Waitress. Which brings me to the end of my thoughts about the UK tour. Go and see this production at a theatre near you. It is absolutely delectable. The dreamy aesthetics, the stellar vocals, the tickling comedy that all the sort of pastry crust, the heart and the depth of this story is the delicious centre that is my final pie based pun. Feel free to share any of yours in the comments below, as well as your feelings about this production and these performances if you've had the chance to see them. The good news is that Waitress remains a wonderful one of a kind musical in the very good hands of Carrie Hope Fletcher and I hope you enjoyed listening to my review. If you did, make sure to subscribe right here on YouTube or follow me on podcast platforms. There will be many more reviews coming very soon and as always, I hope that everyone is staying safe and that you have a stagey day. For 10 more seconds, I'm Mickey Jo Theatre. Oh my God. Hey, thanks for watching. Have a stagey day.
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