Waitress – serving up an empowering slice of slapstick pie (Grand Opera House until Saturday 1 August)

Joe’s Pie Diner serves up delicious savoury and sweet pies, all baked by Jenna. Work is her daily distraction from an abusive husband. An unexpected pregnancy means that the walls close in on Jenna’s wellbeing. She saves up her tips to be able to enter a regional pie-making contest with a large prize fund. But can trying to win the contest really save her from misery and distress?

Fear not: if all that sounds a bit negative, the stage musical Waitress – which celebrated its tenth anniversary earlier this year – is a comedy delight as Jenna and her work mates Becky and Dawn navigate new relationships, figure out how to deal with their menfolk (or lack thereof), and watch each other’s backs.

Carrie Hope Fletcher plays Jenna, navigating the emotional ups and downs of the character arc, and really demonstrates her huge vocal range and impressive control during the second act She Used To Be Mine, with a delicate start building to a powerful crescendo as the wings slide back to open up the sky and physically reflect Jenna’s possible escape route from her thoroughly evil husband Earl (Mark Willshire).

Evie Hoskins and Sandra Marvin from the 2022 tour (reviewed) have returned to the roles of waitresses Dawn and Becky. Sniggering Dawn is a ditzy klutz who hooks up with an even more socially awkward historical reenactment fan Ogie (watch out for Mark Anderson’s exit stage right with a cartwheel) while caregiver Becky’s cheeky banter with diner manager Cal (Dan O’Brien) disguises the real friction they’re generating in the kitchen after hours. Less well cast is the diner’s owner Joe, played by an underpowered Les Dennis who fails to deliver the punchy potential of the crucial second act song Take It From An Old Man. [Update - Feedback suggests I’m the only person in the world to have ever bothered about Take It From An Old Man ... but it was a stand out moment in the previous tour!]

Performative baking with ingredients strewn all over the floor. An on stage cello (Siobhan Wilson) which adds gorgeous mellow tones to It Only Takes A Taste as part of the house band (led by Francesca Warren) who live in the corner of diner (and don tricorn hats at a historically appropriate moment). A flirty gynaecologist (Dan Partridge) who perhaps most hams up the slapstick physicality of the production. So many witty lines in Jessie Nelson’s dialogue and Sara Bareilles lyrics. There’s a lot to like in this confident and fan favourite show. 

Waitress continues to serve up its empowering slices of musical pie at the Grand Opera House until Saturday 1 August. The standard of singing is is high, though the emotional heft is flatter than the previous touring production. But spare a thought for the stage management team prepping all the pastry dough and ingredients that get used every night! 

Photo credits: Matt Crockett and Johan Persson

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