Theatre Tulsa: “Waitress”
Tulsa Performing Arts Center
Tulsa
Sept. 8, 2024
Fair warning: I’m going to exercise about as much restraint in my use of cooking-related metaphors in this review as this show does — which is to say, not much. I’m not complaining; the obvious but effective multi-layered metaphor is the bread and butter of the musical as a genre, and I’d eat it every day.
Based on the 2007 movie of the same name, with music and lyrics by singer-songwriter Sara Bareilles, the 2016 musical Waitress has its regional premiere as a fun, strong launch to Theatre Tulsa’s 102nd season. (The Broadway touring show came through Tulsa in 2019.) It has all the ingredients of the silky, retro-vibe pop songs that made Bareilles a Grammy Award-winning star: winsome sincerity mixed with tart wordplay, conversational gambits, and melodies and storylines that carry a range of emotional textures. And “ingredients” are something we’re prompted to think about right up front — the ones in the punnily-named pies that heroine Jenna Hunterson bakes and serves each day at Joe’s Pie Diner, for instance, or the ones that result in her unexpected pregnancy with her lout of a husband, or the ones that ultimately make a happy life.
The musical starts with a vocal refrain — “Sugar, butter, flour” — that repeats throughout the show like a gentle pulse. Each time it arrives, director and choreographer Liz Bealko (originally from Henryetta, now based in New York) sets three ensemble members, one expressing each word, moving in upstage alcoves to create a visual gesture that suggests the lyrical phrase is about more than kitchen business. That sort of moment prompts us to be ready for the show’s other multiple meanings. (Jenna waits on customers; she’s waiting on happiness. She spends her days baking; she has a bun in the oven.) It’s one of many skillful strokes in Bealko’s direction, which helps keep the production from tipping into treacly territory. She studied local diner behavior and bakery workings at Common Tart in her research for Waitress, and it shows.
Many of these characters are stock figures from the pantry of musical comedy — Jenna’s “odd couple” fellow waitresses and best friends (Kristen Simpson and Caitlin Gibbons), a grouchy diner manager (Nicholas Cains), a fussy but sagacious elder (Bill Hader, the comedian’s father, who can really sing!). But here, they’re as fleshed out as they could possibly be. As the “nerdy friend” Dawn, Gibbons is a standout among these supporting actors, pulling forward the character’s (more than a) hint of neurodivergence to make her more than just an awkward ditz who doesn’t know how to do her hair and enjoys Revolutionary War reenactments. When the equally spectrumy Ogie (the spectacular Ben Rodriguez) arrives as Dawn’s weirdly perfect dating app match, we laugh for sure, but we root for them more.
Rodriguez’s number “Never Ever Getting Rid Of Me,” the first act’s hysterical full-ensemble showstopper, raises the energy and cohesion of the whole production to new levels and carries us into the emotionally heavier second act, which includes an affair, a wedding, and a scene of domestic violence against a pregnant Jenna that had a woman in front of me saying out loud “Do not touch her.” Jenna’s mom, as we gather from a background tableau in an Act One song, had an abusive husband too; mom and daughter took to baking together for distraction, bonding and creative protest. Breaking out of that cycle is Jenna’s journey here, and it’s as messy and non-linear as such journeys usually are in real life, with hopeful fantasies (complete with dancing pies), hard falls and honest evaluations in equal measure.
Waitress boasts an energetic ensemble (a special shout to Haley Sandford, who gave 110% every moment) that helps smooth the focus shifts between bustling diner scenes and zoomed-in moments. Opening night flubs were stunningly minimal: a dropped prop here, a slight lack of agreement there on whether everyone should or shouldn’t freeze at the end of a number. Stage managers Susan Fenrich and Evan Tansey keep the vigorous set changes chill, and the musical direction by Jordan Andrews is consistently tight.
Lead actors MaKayla Baxter (Jenna) and Andrew Barker (her gynecologist-slash-love interest Dr. Pomatter), stand out for their vocal excellence, but their flavors, as it were, don’t dominate the rest of the performers. Baxter is a powerhouse of a belter but so much more, as able to delicately ruffle the edge of a vocal line as she is to bring the audience to its knees. And Barker is simply one of the strongest talents working in Tulsa right now, with a keen sense of timing and a delivery that harkens back to classic Broadway. Their solos and duets, which show off Bareilles’ most charming and intelligent writing, are some of the show’s best bites.
“Waitress” continues through September 21 at the Tulsa Performing Arts Center’s Williams Theater.
