BWW Blog: A Love Letter to Waitress the Musical

Out of all the shows to close on Broadway, the final bow of Waitress broke my heart the most. Maybe it's because of the cast, maybe it's because of the music, maybe it's because of the story, maybe it's all of these things and somehow more.

Although I am ardently in love with New York City, it's not a place I can frequent as often as I would so desperately like to. With traveling comes paying for hours of public transportation, city excursions, and food that somehow tastes better than what's in your hometown. Because of these reasons (oh, and the current global pandemic) New York City is an old friend of mine that I visit once or maybe a few times a year if I'm lucky. Picture that one favorite relative of yours that lives halfway across the country and keeps you sane at family reunions, that's my sweet NYC.

Even less than I see New York do I see Broadway shows. I am not being dramatic when I say that I would sit in one of those comfy, red, yet entirely too small, theater chairs every single day if I could. Honestly, every hour. Every minute, if it meant I could experience Broadway live and in front of me. In fact, within my many years of adoring it, I never got the chance to actually see a show live in the heart of Times Square. That was, until Waitress.

Waitress was the first show I ever saw on Broadway, in New York City, sitting in one of those red chairs in a striped pantsuit. It was a dream come true. I tried my absolute hardest to soak in every single thing, every light fixture, every step, every glass encased pie. I left the Brooks Atkinson Theatre that fateful July night with a new feeling. It wasn't the soreness in my feet from wearing high heels, though that was definitely evident, it was the feeling of belonging. The reminder that there is a place where every little thing is perfect, everyone is welcome, everyone is in the same story. Someone in the audience might be Jenna, desperately trying to survive a toxic relationship. Or, maybe they're Ogie, a hopeless romantic with a huge heart. They might even be Dawn, terrified of love. Within this one story there are hundreds of stories, hundreds of people whose lives are depicted through the characters on stage.

This is why I love Waitress, even further, why I love Broadway. If you are unfamiliar with the plot of Waitress, the tale goes like this: Jenna is a young waitress in an abusive relationship who finds solace in baking from life's hardships, even more so when she becomes pregnant with her husband's baby. Above all else, Waitress is a story of strength. It's a story of women, friendship, and motherhood. Every single person who was given the opportunity to see this show during its run on Broadway is one of the lucky ones.

Not only do I love Waitress for what it is, but I love it for what it brought to my life. Memories that I'll never forget; singing the cast album loudly in the car, the rainy taxi ride back to our hotel after the show, receiving the phone call that my sister was pregnant and saying, "everything changes".

Because it does, everything changes at one point or another. Waitress is proof of that. But, sometimes it's for the better, maybe even for the best. There are anchors in our lives that remind us of the most special things, our strongholds, the things that stay consistent no matter what. Family, friends, and a whole lot of pie.

"To those little believers inside, may we all be so lucky."