Waitress at the Des Moines Playhouse tells you exactly what’s inside the show in its first 15 seconds: “Sugar … Butter … Flour.”
A delicious pie will typically have the same base ingredients as a so-so slice — the difference comes down to additions, assembly and the aptitude of the chef. Similarly, Waitress, on paper, has most of the ingredients of a feel good musical: catchy tunes, a romantic entanglement and an ensemble of quirky characters, but it’s up to the cast and company to deliver the goods. Which is exactly what the Des Moines Playhouse’s production did under the helm of director Katy Merriman, also Playhouse’s artistic director.
Adapted from a 2007 (non-musical) movie of the same name, Waitress boasts a book by Jessie Nelson and music and lyrics by famed singer-songwriter Sara Bareilles. The Playhouse’s production ran from July 11 to 27.
The story of the show focuses on Jenna, a piemaker at a local diner in a loveless marriage. We find Jenna and her two friends trying, unsuccessfully, to manifest a negative result for a pregnancy test. Over the musical’s two acts we follow Jenna as she becomes increasingly romantically inclined toward her gynecologist; meanwhile, she hides away money hoping to someday leave her husband.
Though I’d heard songs from the show before (prior favorites being “When He Sees Me” and, of course, “She Used to Be Mine”) this was my first time seeing a staged production. A number of friends and family members have told me this show is among their favorites and, from what I can tell, this is as good an execution of the source material as one could hope for.
The two leads — Hannah Zepeda as Jenna, and Alex Schaeffer as gynecologist Dr. Pomatter — are strikingly good, playing off of each other with an infectious energy that makes you root for them even in the face of their morally dubious entanglement. Similarly, as I go through the cast stand-outs I’m inclined to list everu named character and most of the unnamed ensemble.
I think the thing that stands out most to me about Waitress is illustrated in the Playhouse’s staging of “A Soft Place to Land,” which is quietly the heart of the show. The number illustrates some tender childhood moments for three of the characters. Most poignantly, we learn Jenna’s love for making pies goes back to her own mother. A particular feeling comes through in that moment — a sort of front-facing nostalgia, a hopeful heartbreak. It’s a sense that, for better or worse, we’re imbued with certain habits early in life that we inevitably return to, not for a conscious comforting of ourselves, but because they’ve become an intrinsic part of ourselves.
Waitress is a good example of what one can expect from a musical production put on at the Playhouse. You get some of the most talented stage performers in the area, working with a crew that knows their craft, utilizing an ample budget to assemble a show that will fill you up as much as a touring production might.
Like a good local bakery, familiar faces bring you just the treat you were craving — with a few sweet surprises mixed in.
