Audiences who didn’t get to see Grammy Award-winning singer-songwriter Sara Bareilles on Broadway in the hit musical “Waitress” can soon catch the smash musical on the silver screen.
“Waitress” is based on the 2007 film that tells the story of Jenna, an expert pie maker who dreams of a way out of her small town and rocky marriage. Bareilles joined host Lisa McRee on “LA Times Today” to discuss bringing the show to life on the stage and screen.
Bareilles created the music and lyrics for “Waitress” in 2015. She said the show has reorganized her “entire life in every way, shape and form for the better,” calling “Waitress” the great gift of her life. Bareilles described making the jump from scribe to star when she made her Broadway debut as Jenna in 2017.
“There was a part of me that was just so curious if I could get even closer to this show and this material,” she said. “I remember the night the curtain went up, and I was staring at those white sneakers, and I felt like I got shot out of a cannon. Then, over the course of the years, I’ve gone back into this show many times because I can’t get enough of it. Her story is so rich. This material is so human and so complicated and so relatable and so funny. I always get something different every time I go back into the show.”
After the pandemic shut Broadway down in 2020, Bareilles and the rest of the “Waitress” company filmed the show to preserve its essence.
“We had assembled this incredible cast, and we just knew it was the time to try to capture the show so we would have it,” said Bareilles. “We didn’t have any of our ducks in a row in terms of what happened after we got the recording. But we made this. Like everything with ‘Waitress,’ it’s very homespun, very handmade.”
“Waitress” fans have seen the show several times, but Bareilles hopes the limited film run will widen its audience even further.
“If you told me ten years ago, we were going to be watching this film on movie screens all across the country and all across Canada, I would not have believed you,” she said. “The karma of this show is the little engine that could. It keeps surprising and delighting us.”
“Waitress” is in theaters for a limited run starting on Thursday.
Click the arrow above to watch the full interview.
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