Malinda Will Headline WAITRESS at Olney Theatre Center

Olney Theatre Center's production of Sara Bareilles' beloved musical Waitress in the Roberts Mainstage will reunite star MALINDA in the lead role of Jenna, and director/choreographer Marcia Milgrom Dodge, when it begins performances on February 13, 2025. The two last collaborated on Olney Theatre's 2019 production of Once, which later earned MALINDA a Helen Hayes Award for Outstanding Performance in a Musical. They will be joined by David Socolar as Dr. Pomatter, a veteran of both the Company and Waitress national tours.

 Tickets are available to the public from $41 - $110 and can be purchased at olneytheatre.org/waitress or by calling the box office at 301-924-3400. The show is currently scheduled to run through March 30, 2025.

Says Artistic Director Jason Loewith, “I've been eagerly looking forward to mounting the DMV-region professional premiere of Sara Bareilles' amazing musical. Reuniting director Marcia Milgrom Dodge with the amazing MALINDA - the pair who elevated our production of Once to award-winning levels - gives this production a real opportunity to shine. Waitress is special to all of us:  it's yet another way we're centering stories of strong women this season, sharing bonds of sisterhood in ways that inspire and delight.”  

 

MALINDA (formerly known as Malinda Kathleen Reese, she now goes by the mononym used in her singing career) won the 2020 Helen Hayes Award for Outstanding Performance in a Musical for her last turn at Olney Theatre as the Girl in Once. Shortly thereafter, the world shut down for the COVID pandemic, and MALINDA, who had been cultivating an enthusiastic audience of over 1 million with her music parody YouTube Channel “Twisted Translations,” decided to commit to her music career in folk-pop, drawing on her songwriting and her upbringing in Irish music. She quickly built a 2.7 million following on TikTok with short covers, singing by candlelight, and then exploded in popularity with her take on “Drunken Sailor” during the height of the #SeaShanty phenomenon, garnering millions of views. Her subsequent folk EPs reached #1 on the iTunes World Music charts. In 2023 she released her debut album, It's All True, accompanied by a visual album, which played in 25 Cinemark movie theaters across the country, followed by a national headline tour.  After continuing to tour and release her EP Look At You Now this year, Waitress marks her first return to the musical theater since Once.

 

In addition to David Socolar as Dr. Pomatter, the featured cast includes Allison Blackwell (Becky), Ashley Nguyen (Dawn), Sam C. Jones (Ogie), Ethan Watermeier (Cal), Greg Twomey (Earl), and Bobby Smith (Joe). The ensemble includes Russell Rinker, Jessica Bennett, Wood Van Meter, Casey Martin Klein, Jay Frisby, Wynter Cook, Nadja Tomaszewski, and Nikki Kim. Lou Chubin and Iella Barr-O'Connor share the role of Lulu. Stellamaris Orellana and Dylan Toms are swings for the production.

 

Marcia Milgrom Dodge returns to Olney Theatre Center following the worldwide acclaim for her groundbreaking version of Disney's Beauty and the Beast, originally produced in 2021 and remounted in 2022. Handling both directing and choreography duties this time around, she will again work with Music Director Christopher Youstra. The creative team also includes Scenic Designer Chen-Wei Liao, Lighting Designer Minjoo Kim, Costume Designer Sarah Cubbage, Sound Designer Matthew Rowe, Wig Co-Designers J. Jared Janas and Cassie Williams, Intimacy and Fight Choreographer Sierra Young, and Dialect Coach Lynn Watson. Production Stage Manager Ben Walsh is supported by Assistant Stage Managers Becky Reed and Kate Kilbane.

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