Waitress: The Musical

Based on an overrated indie movie, Waitress tells the story of a waitress and baker with dreams, a terrible husband, and an unexpected problem. The songs, by star Sara Bareilles, are unusual for a Broadway musical, because they're pretty much Sara Bareilles pop songs, but she's an excellent songwriter and her songs work for both herself and others.

This musical is beautifully staged. This is a filmed stage performance, and often those make you think, this would have been amazing in the theater, but this captures the staging so well that I'm not sure that it would have been better in a theater (probably not with the Broadways seats in my budget).

It's funny, it's touching, the songs and choreography are terrific, the performers are terrific (virtually every significant character gets their own big number), and well, it's just really, really good.

It's also apparently really, really obscure - there are only 6 user reviews as I write this - but it should be better known, so watch it if you have the chance.

As a massive fan of the musical and specifically the OBC, I was nervous to hear the pro shot would feature Sara and a couple other replacements. I was pleasantly and happily surprised. Sara and Joe's dynamic, particularly because they are actually together in real life, is unique and breathtaking. The cinematography gave respect to the musical and made the baking scenes seem like a music video but it a good way. Sometimes proshots will include awkward angles or cuts and thankfully, Waitress did not. Some things I appreciated specifically were the added Nurse Norma one-liners that made even me who knows the entire script burst out laughing. Sara's voice who normally sounds too pop-like for me was actually perfect and "She Used to be Mine" made me cry. The dialogue overall felt slower than what it would have been on the stage, particularly Jenna and Earl's scenes, but I got used to it as the movie progressed. Overall, this musical is a joy. It's beautifully crafted and deals with real and raw people. I'm so happy it has an excellent pro shot to go along with it.

This isn't a "movie" as much as it is a live recording of Broadway show - complete with scene changes. Based on that genre, I think the cast did a fantastic job with both character portrayal and musical performance. The staging and scene changes were downright beautiful - a master class in not letting a scene change slow down a performance as well as use of space and light to keep the story moving along.

The acting was absolutely top notch. Every actor simply nailed their character. Vocal performances were absolutely up to professional musical theater standards.

The story is decent, if not a bit too predictable. There are a few little twists and turns that provide some small surprises, but overall things work as one would expect.

The only downfall here is the editing between the live performances and the closed set performance used for many of the close-ups . Visually, the switch was often very obvious (especially the hospital scene).

Nonetheless, if you are a fan of musicals, this is worth a watch. If you are not a fan - probably best to move along.

This musical production is essentially the same story in the 2007 movie "Waitress" with Keri Russel. This 'movie' was filmed in a theater with a live audience, and it has all the looks and feel, including moveable sets, of a real stage play.

Sara Bareilles is 40-something Jenna. She is a waitress and pie-baker at the local pie and short order food place. She is married to a real cad. (Incidentally her real-life husband plays her husband here.) They aren't close in any manner but after a night of drinking and frivolity she finds herself pregnant.

Most of the story involves her interactions with her co-workers, her maternity doctor, and her regular customers. It is her journey to come to grips with who she really is and what she wants out of life. Including, a few months later, for her daughter.

Bareilles, who also produced and wrote songs, is really good in the role. All the singing is good, it seems veterans of the stage were in all the roles. Although I had a career as a Scientist, in graduate school I was in a four week, 28-performance musical so watching this brought back good memories. There is something about a stage play, a musical with live singing, that is more personal and more enjoyable than a slick movie.

I thoroughly enjoyed this. On DVD from my public library. My wife skipped, she isn't a fan of musicals.

I've been listening to Sara Bareilles' music for a long time and even heard many songs from Waitress before I learned it was a musical. I love the music and was excited to see it was available to stream.

It took me about ten tries over the course of a year to watch this because I couldn't get past Joe Tippett playing the husband Earl. He plays a slimy, creepy abuser too well and I couldn't watch. I finally wanted to know what happened at the end and I'm glad I watched it. But I don't think I'll watch it again. I've been known to always love many sad, depressing movies but I had the hardest time getting past my discomfort of watching Earl.

It was hard to chose a rating for this because everyone did a great job, and Tippett even did too good of a job but I know many people would have a harder time than I did to watch this so I wanted to give it a warning.