“I wanna see you be brave,” sang Sara Bareilles, a six-time Grammy-nominated singer/songwriter, in her 2013 hit single, “Brave.” Recently, Bareilles did something beyond brave (and pretty freaking impressive) — she made her Broadway debut in a musical that she composed, Waitress.
Tony Award-winning actress Jessie Mueller, who has starred in the Broadway show since its 2015 debut, handed her baking materials over to the show’s composer (Sara), who was nominated for best score in last year’s Tony Awards. Sara began performing as Jenna, the show’s protagonist, on March 31, and will perform on the Great White Way for a 10-week run.
Waitress, based on the book by Jessie Nelson and directed by Diane Paulus, tells the tale of Jenna, a small-town waitress at a local diner, who is a secretly amazing baker. Jenna struggles to find inner peace and freedom due to her emotionally abusive marriage; her journey becomes increasingly difficult when she finds herself pregnant and falls in love with her gynecologist, Dr. Pomatter. Throughout the show, Jenna finds love and hope in unexpected places, and eventually breaks free of the chains that have been holding her back.
According to Playbill, Bareilles was involved in many community theater productions growing up, including Little Shop of Horrors and The Mystery of Edwin Drood. Bareilles describes her return to the theater as a “childhood dream.” In her 2015 memoir, Sounds Like Me, Bareilles writes, “I developed a way of listening to music because of those shows, and because of that, I learned a particular way of writing that would show up down the line.” She goes on to describe how Broadway shows pushed her to delve deeper and explore music as a means of storytelling.
“I think back to when I was a little girl, dreaming of stepping on the stage of a great theater someday. The seed that was planted back then as a child has been dormant but patient, and it is with hopeful eyes I watch it take root and rise up,” Bareilles wrote in Sounds Like Me.
Personally, even though I have already seen Waitress on Broadway, there is no way that I am going to miss the opportunity to witness such an incredible singer-songwriter take the stage in this production. Seeing “Waitress: Bareilles Style” is the number one item on my summer bucket list for 2017, and I highly recommend this show to anyone who has not seen it. Bareilles’ score is absolutely beautiful, and I can only imagine how wonderfully her voice will complement everything that Waitress already has to offer.
But don’t WAIT(ress) to buy tickets – Sara will only be on stage until June 11!