REVIEW: Waitress is a sweet slice of musical theatre

Theatre Aquarius’s season close-out production takes place in Joe’s Pie Diner where Jenna, played by Hamilton native Julia McLellan, escapes her loveless marriage by creating and baking desserts and dreaming of a new start. It runs until May 18.

Waitress serves strong performances, great music, a healthy serving of laughs, and a pinch of nostalgia all baked into a fun and filling theatre experience.

While it could slide into being sickly sugary, this show includes the kind of balance found in a great dessert – some saltiness, a bit of bitterness, a touch of sourness, too.

Waitress centres around Jenna, played by Hamilton native and Theatre Aquarius school alumnus Julia McLellan, a diner waitress in an unidentified small Southern town. 

She’s sad and downtrodden by her marriage to the abusive and selfish Earl (Lawrence Libor) and she’s following in the footsteps of her beloved mother, who didn’t realize her dreams and stuck around in her own loveless union. Her words and presence hang over Jenna, who learned her skill and love for pie making at her mother’s side.

Jenna constantly thinks around her pastry creations, coming up with inventive combinations. There’s the deep dish blueberry bacon pie, peachy keen, Where There’s a Whisk, There’s a Way, and the mermaid marshmallow.

It’s the chance to enter a pie-making contest and win the $20,000 prize that allows Jenna to dare to dream about escaping with her unborn child – an unexpected development she greets with resignation rather than joy.

McLellan is a commanding presence on the stage and she will move you to tears with the musical’s most emotionally charged number, “She Used to Be Mine.”

She is more than ably backed by her diner sidekicks, Elysia Cruz who plays the kind and quirky Dawn, and Stacey Kay, who is the bold and brassy Becky. 

A word about Kay. We’re told she’s been under the weather, but that’s not evident at all during this performance. The Canada’s Got Talent runner-up and Juno Award-winning singer/rapper is a powerhouse vocalist and she’s got great comedic timing to boot.

She belts out the bluesy “I Didn’t Plan It” to great effect.

READ OUR INTERVIEW WITH JULIA McLELLAN HERE!

This is a musical that delivers everything from the big ensemble numbers, to comedic interludes, to truly heartfelt moments. 

There are other standouts in this cast, including Kamyar Pazandeh who is the bumbling and neurotic Dr. Pomatter, Jenna’s married love interest. He has a gorgeous voice that soars in “You Matter to Me,” the love duet with McLellan. These two perfectly pull off an awkward chemistry that transforms into a hot love affair.

Tyler Pearse steals the stage as the delightfully dorky and loveable Ogie, who sweeps Dawn off her feet. 

Libor also delivers a powerful performance as the angry Earl who shows his true character when he reacts to the news of his wife’s pregnancy by demanding that she promise never to love the baby more than him. Earl truly feels like a ticking time bomb. 

Scott Penner’s incredible set deserves a callout, too. It is contained within two sets of soaring shelving units that form Joe’s Pie Diner and are artfully filled with baking ingredients, cake plates and kitchen equipment. Behind the second unit at the rear of the stage – the diner's kitchen – the seven-person orchestra sits in silhouette. 

Counters and bar stools, couches, diner booths, and a doctor’s exam room are seamlessly rolled in and out to change locations and even perspectives in the diner. The prop pies are mouth-watering works of art.  

Adapted from the Adrienne Shelley film of the same name, with songs by singer-songwriter Sarah Bareilles and a book by Jessie Nelson, this is a musical about the force that is female friendship, the transformative power of parenthood, and daring to pursue happiness when life hasn’t handed you many choices.

Waitress enjoyed long and successful runs on Broadway and London’s West End and garnered plenty of awards and nominations. It’s now appearing on many regional stages. Theatre Aquarius's Waitress is a co-production with The Grand Theatre in London and it’s directed by that theatre’s artistic director Rachel Peake. Waitress closes out Theatre Aquarius’s 2024-2025 season. 

We could quibble about the pacing of the script and an ending that seems rushed. We could talk about how it feels to be watching a deeply American story at a time of a fractured relationship with our neighbours to the south.

But we can also talk about several unexpected nods to queer undertones, most obviously in the display of a rainbow American flag to conclude an ensemble number. There are also funny, yet poignant references to disappointing sex lives, along with some satisfyingly racy jokes, and a comforting timelessness about the setting. 

The soundtrack, which I will be listening to again, features everything from hoedown country, to contemporary pop to do-wop and the blues, and the show pairs the music with some terrific choreography by Genny Sermonia.

We won’t spoil your trip to the diner by revealing too much more here. But suffice it to say it’s a sweet slice of theatre that delivers plenty of laughs, nuanced layers, and beautiful musical moments. 

You’ll walk out of the theatre feeling good about the world, humming a tune, and craving your favourite diner pie. Waitress has added a matinee to the end of its run, so the show now closes May 18. Tickets are here.