Sugar, Butter, Flour or even ‘Touching, Uplifting and Hilarious’. Waitress the Musical is Pie-tastic.
Waitress the Musical is set somewhere in small-town Indiana. Jenna (Chelsea Halfpenny), a talented pie-maker who is trapped in an abusive marriage with Earl (Tamlyn Henderson), works at Joe’s Pie Diner, a small American Café just off the highway with her two close friends Becky (Wendy Mae Brown) and Dawn (Evelyn Hoskins).
After a bout of feeling nauseous at work, Becky and Dawn persuade Jenna to do a pregnancy test. Cue giggles from the audience as the instructions are read out “…do not insert fully into the…” This show is brilliant for having touching, moving and quite frankly gritty moments but having an under or even over tone of humour and giggles.
Jenna discovers she is pregnant and books an appointment at the doctors where she meets the new Dr Pomatter (Matt Jay-Willis) who has moved from Connecticut and taken over as the gynaecologist. From first glance at one another, it is plain to see that they have a spark and it isn’t long before they embark on an awkward but passionate affair. An affair that although is very much wrong, helps Jenna to realise that she deserves better than Earl, her abusive husband and wants a better life for her unborn child.
One day when Joe (Michael Starke) is in the diner having a pie, he tells Jenna about a competition. The National Pie Bake-Off where she could win a grand prize ($20,000) and start a new life without her husband Earl.
I don’t want to spoil the ending but the second half made my eyes well up with tears. The beautiful performances of songs like ‘You Matter to Me’ by Dr Pomatter and Jenna and the tear jerker ‘She Used to Be Mine’ by Jenna and even Joe’s performance of ‘Take It From An Old Man’. Absolutely breath-taking performances. You know a musical is amazing, when the first thing you do when you get in your car is find the album on your Spotify to listen to it on the way home.
To make a good pie, you need the best ingredients and like a pie, for a 5 star theatre performance you need great staging, a wonderful band and outstandingly talented cast members and this show had it all.
I loved watching the chemistry between Jenna (Chelsea Halfpenny) and Dr Pomatter (Matt Jay-Willis). I don’t know about the rest of the audience but I really wanted them to work and get together. Chelsea Halfpenny has an absolutely phenomenal voice and stage presence. A real delight to watch. And Matt Willis was cast perfectly as Dr Pomatter. His vocal performances and his acting were splendid. A true star.
Nurse Norma (Scarlet Gabriel) made me giggle when she was on the stage. I imagine it must be quite fun to play her role.
Michael Starke who played Joe was a delight to watch and who knew he could sing so well! I remember him in Brookside when I was very young. The stage suits him.
All of the cast were wonderful and the orchestra who played on the stage directly in front of the audience were superb too.
I would encourage everyone to go and see this show. It is up there with my favourites. Showing at Birmingham Hippodrome until 21st May 2022.
You can get tickets here: Waitress the Musical Tickets
Disclaimer: I was invited along to the Media Night. All thoughts and opinions are entirely my own.