Waitress the Musical

Back in 2007 the independent film Waitress, which was written and directed by the late Adrienne Shelly, was released in theatres, receiving mostly positive reviews, an 89% “Fresh” rating from Rotten Tomatoes and even making that site’s Top 100 films of 2007.

The movie starred Felicity alum Keri Russell as Jenna Hunterson, a waitress living in a small town in the Midwest, who was trapped in an unhappy marriage with her controlling and abusive husband Earl (played by Jeremy Sisto from the box office movie Clueless and TV’s FBI). Jenna works at Joe’s Pie Diner, where her job includes creating inventive pies with unusual titles inspired by her life; pies that could possibly win her a big grand prize at a local pie contest that would get her enough money to get away from her husband.

There’s one big problem, though. Jenna soon learns she’s pregnant; and what’s more, Earl won’t let her go to the pie contest. She’s seemingly stuck, but her one bit of happiness comes in the form of her new obstetrician, Dr. Jim Pomatter (played by Nathan Fillion from Firefly, Castle and The Rookie).

Other notable faces in the film included Cheryl Hines playing Jenna’s co-worker and friend Becky, the aforementioned Adrienne Shelly as Jenna’s other co-worker and friend Dawn, the late Andy Griffith as the curmudgeonly Old Joe (the owner of the Pie Diner) and Eddie Jemison (from the Ocean’s 11 franchise) as Ogie, the man who would end up marrying Dawn.

I won’t spoil the rest of the story for those who have not yet seen the movie – you NEED to go watch it as soon as you can! – but suffice it to say, Jenna comes out a winner in more ways than one, and the movie quickly became a cult favorite and some time later even spawned a theatre version that has been wowing audiences for years.

And that brings me to the reason for this column. Over the weekend, I was able to see Waitress the Musical, a special filmed version of the live stage production that starred Grammy Award winning singer-songwriter Sara Bareilles, who created the music and lyrics for the stage version of this special little indie film. This 5-night event in Los Angeles was sponsored by Fathom Events, the largest distributor of documentaries, faith-based and inspirational content as well as being at the forefront of bringing anime, performing arts and classic films to moviegoers worldwide.

The theatre for which I was in the other night for this special event was nearly jam-packed with fans of both the movie and the live stage production. We all laughed, cried and cheered for the characters, and everyone left that theatre thoroughly enjoying their time there.

The rest of the cast for this live stage version included Drew Gehling as Dr. Jim Pomatter, Charity Dawson as Becky, Caitlin Houlahan as Dawn, Joe Tippett (newly engaged to Bareilles, I might add) as Earl, Dakin Matthews as Old Joe, Christopher Fitzgerald as Ogie and Eric Anderson as Cal.

It should be noted that on the stage other notable cast replacements for the lead roles included: Betsy Wolfe, Katharine McPhee, Nicolette Robinson, Shoshana Bean, Alison Luff and Jordin Sparks as Jenna; the late Nick Cordero, Jason Mraz, Gavin Creel, Joey McIntyre and Jeremy Jordan as Dr. Pomatter; and even Eddie Jemison himself reprising his role of Ogie.

Make sure to check out Fathom Events to see if Waitress the Musical will be coming to your neck of the woods so you can see it on the big screen and, if you haven’t done so already, make sure to watch the original film that started it all. You can watch it on Starz here (for a small fee, of course, if you don’t already pay for the cable network). You won’t be disappointed!