Stage Review - Waitress (5th Avenue Theatre)
Stage Review - Waitress
Presented By: 5th Avenue Theatre - Seattle, WA
Show Run: March 11 - March 30, 2025
Date Reviewed: Friday, March 14, 2025 (Opening Night)
Run Time: 2 Hours, 30 Minutes (including a 20 minute intermission)
Reviewed By: Greg Heilman
When many of us think about Waitress, there are a few obvious things that come to mind. First and foremost, it’s pretty well known that the musical version of the story is based on the 2007 film starring Keri Russell (the other member of the Jason Timberlake/Britney Spears Mickey Mouse Club that nobody talks about) and released by Fox Searchlight, the former 20th Century Fox’s independent film arm, now owned, and we come full circle, by Disney. Additionally, the musical soundtrack’s songs were all written by the immensely talented Sara Bareilles, who has taken a few turns in the lead role of Jenna in the Broadway production of the musical. There’s a lot of other interesting adjacent stories surrounding the franchise, not the least of which involve the murder of the film’s writer and director Adrienne Shelly shortly before it was accepted into the Sundance Film Festival. In fact, the book writer of the musical, Jessie Nelson, used some of Adrienne’s unfinished scripts and notes to help build out the stage version. The most impressive thing to me about Waitress, and why it is the perfect show for the 5th Avenue Theatre to be putting up here in March, Women’s History Month, is that not only is it a story of female empowerment and independence, the entire original creative team was led by women, as is this production, directed and choreographed by Lisa Shriver, designed by Julia Hayes Welch, and costumed by Danielle Nieves. In fact, as you go down the list of the creatives, it is replete with women, including Sound Designer Haley Parcher, Associate Director Hattie Claire Andres, Associate Music Director Beth G. Tankersley, Associate Choreographer Katy Tabb, and Intimacy/Fight Coordinator Francesca Betancourt. This is a refreshing list to see, Annie Oakley would be proud, though in Waitress, Jenna can’t only do things better on her own, unlike Annie she can also bake a beautiful pie.
A good story is one which can be told in any medium and still be just as impactful, and this is one. The musical generally follows the same narrative as the film, waitress Jenna Hunterson, married to overbearing and abusive Earl, works at Joe’s Pie Diner with fellow waitresses Dawn and Becky, under the watchful eye of the tough, but good-hearted cook Cal. When Jenna takes a pregnancy test and is met with a partly unexpected but completely undesired result, it turns everyone’s life upside down. After Jenna meets her new OB/GYN doctor, a man who, unlike Earl, treats her with respect, she begins to see how she could be treated by someone, then, turning that into feeling how she should be treated, Jenna becomes more determined than ever to leave her husband, and with the help of Dawn and Becky, who have their own relationship “situations”, and at the urging of the diner’s owner, grumpy old Joe, Jenna decided to enter a pie baking contest, in which the winner walks away with $25,000. This is the setup for both the film and the musical, and if you’ve just listened to the Broadway Cast album or Sara Bareilles’ album “What’s Inside”, you may have gleaned all of this, but you would have also missed a lot of the nuance and detail that you’ll only get by seeing the musical in person. And frankly, it’s in those areas where the 5th Avenue production stands out.
Otherwise, there’s nothing surprising about the 5th Avenue production, and that’s not necessarily a bad thing, especially for anyone who has been waiting for the show to hit regional stages, it most definitely meets every expectation, whether or not it exceeds them. The show is extremely well cast, the songs are performed flawlessly, all of the emotional marks are hit, and it’s designed very nicely. I wouldn’t say there’s any ground being broken here, but I do like the way the entire show is presented. Julia Hayes Welch’s scenic design is really first-rate, the largesse portion of the stage surely resembles a Southern diner, complete with counter, tables, and booths, not to mention the kitchen area with its window to the world through which the grub is served to its varied customers, most of them coming to Joe’s Diner for the creatively constructed and named pies from waitress Jenna Hunterson. Other locales are represented by set pieces smoothly brought on and off the stage, whether it’s the diner’s ladies room, where Jenna takes the pregnancy test that changes her life, her home that she shares with her repulsive and abusive husband Earl, Dr. Pomatter’s OB/GYN office where more than one “Pretty Good Bad Idea” is seen through, or the kitchen area where Jenna creates some of her best masterpieces. There are a decent amount of set and scene changes, and they’re all done extremely quickly, with a good deal of fluidity, and these smooth transitions keep the pace of the musical brisk. The creative side all around is solid, though perhaps we’ve all become a bit spoiled by Robert J. Aguilar’s work with lighting and Haley Parcher’s with sound in the region. Some of my favorite scenes in the play are accentuated by lighting, and Robert’s work is complementary to Jenna’s imagination, when it drifts off to another time, place, or alternate situation. I’m also a fan of the costuming in Waitress, everything resembles very well what you’d expect in a musical set in the South, from the uniforms worn by Jenna, Dawn, and Becky, to Cal’s greasy cookwear, and how Joe looks like a Southern gentleman. One other note on the set is around some of the subtlety on the neon, which when completely lit is meant to say “Joe’s Pie Diner”, but it’s fun to see what this team does with the letters creatively at various times during the show. If I have any issue with the creative side of this version of Waitress, it’s with the wigs; I find it to be distracting, especially in a show that is otherwise so professional looking in its design, when wigs look clearly artificial, and having one that looks more realistic, especially for Jenna’s character, played here by Kerstin Anderson, would help make this an even better show than it is.
When I say that there’s nothing surprising, or groundbreaking, about this version of Waitress, I do need to be clear, in that I’m in no way taking away from its quality. This is a well designed musical, and it’s performed magnificently. Kerstin, as Jenna is fantastic, and not just in the delivery of the familiar songs that have made this musical so popular. Her portrayal of Jenna, which runs the emotional gamut of resignation to hopefulness, from depression to elation, is a complete one, and as her character builds her sense of self and her sense of independence gradually as the story progresses, it’s wonderful to see Kerstin’s performance transform right along with it. And vocally, she’s just stunning, the highlight is her show-stopping performance of “She Used to Be Mine” in Act 2, though her display of range and smooth transitions are noticeable especially in “What Baking Can Do” earlier in Act 1. She’s also fantastic in harmony with co-workers Dawn and Becky (Tori Gresham and Porscha Shaw), or with Dr. Pomatter (Adam Standley). Music Director Matthew Perri deserves a lot of credit for much of this, he’s also the director of the solid orchestra that provides accompaniment for this show, especially for the air tight harmonies between Kerstin, Tori, and Porscha in “The Negative”, or in the more tender “A Soft Place to Land”. They don’t just sound wonderful together, they’re also very good in their chemistry and in the interactions between their characters. Add in Cal, who was played marvelously by understudy Yusef Seevers on opening night, and it’s quite the comedic quartet. Porscha and Tori each have their own chance to feature in song as well, Porscha with Becky’s “I Didn’t Plan It”, showing off her bluesy, soulful voice in an energetic kickoff to the second act, and Tori with Dawn’s introspective “When He Sees Me”, which initially concerned me. Tori’s portrayal of Dawn comes with an extremely silly voice that she uses as part of the humor, and this number, which is one of my personal favorites, has an emotional turn in it that could be diminished with a comical voice, but in the song, she does a really nice job of changing her voice just enough to bring out the emotion of it without changing the nature of her character, it’s quite impressive. Perhaps the biggest surprise of the show, though, is the object of her affection, or should I say the one whom she draws the attention of. Ogie, played hilariously by Kennedy Kanagawa, is a tax auditor and amateur magician, and he’s absolutely in love with Dawn. His performance in “Never Ever Getting Rid of Me” is one for the memory book, it’s so funny, it’s physical, it’s quick, and the way Adam performs it, like the way he plays Ogie, is memorable and uproariously funny.
Perhaps the most important character in Jenna’s transformation is Dr. Pomatter, played by Adam Standley. It seems like he’s the first man who has treated Jenna with any sort of respect, the first who has made her feel important. So, it makes sense that there would be an attraction there, and I like the way Adam plays him, the passion between his doctor and Kirsten’s Jenna is easily felt throughout the theatre. Their “Bad Idea” in Act 1 and the reprise in Act 2 is the culmination of that passion, and the reprise is especially fun to watch. Dr. Pomatter wouldn’t be as effective in helping Jenna to find herself in Waitress if there was no Earl, her abusive and self-centered husband. I’m always amazed to see an actor play a character who is so despicable that I have to remind myself during bows that I’m looking at the actor, not the character and that I shouldn’t boo him. There is absolutely nothing redeeming at all about Earl, and Dane Stokinger just nails his performance from start to finish. This is a hard, evil character, so much so that the audience can’t help but root for Jenna and against Earl, so well performed by Dane. Rounding out the main cast is Allen Fitzpatrick as Joe, the diner’s owner, and Nalica Hennings as Norma, Dr. Pomatter’s nurse. Nalica adds some good comic relief to the levity within the budding relationship between Jenna and her boss, while Allen is endearing as the grumpy old diner owner. His matter of fact, very particular way of ordering is entertaining, but his biggest surprise he saves for his last scene of the show. His turn musically with Kirsten’s Jenna, whom he treats like a daughter, in “Take it from an Old Man”, is tender and heartfelt, a very nice turn in a well rounded performance.
For fans of the film or stage musical Waitress, the 5th Avenue Theatre production of the latter is everything anyone could hope for, and perhaps a little more. The cast, led by Kerstin Anderson as Jenna, hits every note with all of the emotion Sara Bareilles wrote into her songs and their acting is top notch, funny and heartfelt, tender and strong, while the creative team has put together a solid design that complements the storytelling. As a tale of female independence and empowerment, Waitress is the perfect show for Women’s History Month, and this version is fun, emotional, entertaining, and just about perfect.
Waitress runs on stage at the 5th Avenue Theatre through March 30. For more information, including ticket availability and sales, visit https://www.5thavenue.org/.
Photo credit: Tracy Martin, Mark Kitaoka
