I made the trip up to Boston yesterday and caught the matinee of Waitress. There are some strong elements, but there's also plenty of stuff that needs a lot of work.
The greatest strength of the production is the gorgeous performance by Jessie Mueller. This is the sixth role I've seen her take on, and I know she already has a Tony, but her work here felt like a breakout performance; it's also oddly the first time I've seen her originate songs. She is very naturalistic, sweet and sincere. Even in her big number she never goes for the obvious and overtly showy choice; it's the perfect balance of heartfelt emotion and restraint to maintain the character she has so meticulous built. I found her to be completely thrilling and she earned every emotion that character went through in the second act.
Unfortunately Mueller is a completely different show than everyone else on that stage. Usually it's a bad thing to be the one who's not on the same page as everyone else, but in this case everyone needs to get on board with what their leading lady is doing. Of course a lot of the fault lies with the book and direction, but the tone shifts will give you whiplash from the broad (sometimes verging on camp) comedy to the ever so human and simple portrayal by Mueller.
Behind Mueller, the next best thing is the score. After reading some of the comments that it all sounded the same I was worried I would be in for 2.5 hours of static ballads, but I was pleasantly surprised by the variety of the score, and I think it felt completely appropriate for the setting and the melodies fit Mueller's voice perfectly. The lyrics are what impressed me the most though- for a novice theater writer I can only assume she did her homework because I don't remember anything amateurish or cringe-worthy (now the book is another mattter...) and it was far better than what some "theater" composers have come up with in recent seasons like Chaplin, The Addams Family and It Shoulda Been You. (I realize I'm not setting a high bar here, ha, but rather trying to dispel any unfounded prejudice against Bareilles as a "pop" composer.) There was one song sung (and unfortunately reprised) by two couples in a hospital waiting room that should be cut because the characters are so unnecessary and annoying, and I would have liked to see a stronger trio written for the three women, but other than that I thought the score was quite good.
Now where to start with everything else! Poor Joe Tippett has to play one of the most hateful characters in a musical in recent memory; a horribly thankless role that he does his best with. Not that I expect a wife-beating, controlling, arrogant, jealous bastard to be cuddly teddy bear, but I just couldn't wait for those scenes to be over. These are tricky roles, but at least when Hunter Foster played the role in Bridges he was more sympathetic- he also wasn't beating Kelli, there just was no passion in the marriage, but still.
Jeremy Morse has a bizarre supporting part that kind of overtakes the show for the last twenty minutes of act one and the beginning of act two. He is also given two big solos and Settle and de Waal are only given one each. His character goes on a date with de Waal (off-stage) that, according to de Waal went very badly. He shows up at the diner the next day completely smitten and tells her she's never going to get rid of him and despite her protests of never wanting to see him again he basically sings that he's going to stalk her for life until she realizes it's their destiny to be together- because that's romantic! Well she decides to go on a second date, and then
SPOILER******************************************************************
shortly after the second date she accepts his MARRIAGE PROPOSAL and then shortly after that they get married! It's such a sitcom subplot without any stakes or reason to really exist.
END SPOILERS**********************************************************
The tone of the whole subplot is so at odds with everything else that's come before it that I found myself scratching my head as to what direction this was all heading.
Settle is chewing as much scenery as humanly possible. She's like Kat Dennings' 2 Broke Girls character on speed. The book really never lets her be anything more than the wise-cracking, sassy best friend, but was cranked up to 11 and then some. Strangely, for such a comic role he one solo is an angry, dramatic song delivered with gusto toward Mueller after a quarrel. The song itself was nicely written, but I think adding a comic number for her in act one would be a wise move.
The ensemble often backed up the lead singers with oooh and aaah harmonies, which was nice, but they were often given this horribly distracting and overly stylized choreographed movement to go along with it. I didn't get what Paulus was going for with that. Like I said, I hated the nonsense with the two pregnant couples and I assume padding like that will be trimmed during the transfer to New York. It doesn't leave much for the ensemble to do, but like Bridges, the story is so much more interesting when it focuses on the leads (or at least Mueller) than the busy stuff around it.
Paulus really needs to create a better sense of setting. The program says "A small town off Highway 27" wherever that is. They mention that Drew Gehling's character moved here from Connecticut, to which one of the friends says, well what did he move out here for? Yet the place is never established, except for being vaguely Southern and rural. They also make a New Jersey joke that feels like something a New Yorker would think to make, not these characters. Other little things like a character says he's double parked in front of the diner so he has to go soon. Double parked? In a rural diner parking lot? And in one of the hospital scenes suddenly a gaggle of interns and nurses appear and Mueller asks who all these people are. Suddenly we're at Seattle Grace because this little clinic has suddenly become a teaching hospital!
All these things may seem like little details, and they are, but all the little inconsistencies are adding up to big problems. The book and direction need work and the tone and setting need smoothed out.
Even with all these criticisms, there is a good show in here with an outstanding performance by a rising star in the theater. There's work to be done, perhaps painful work because overhauling tone is one of the hardest things to do, but I think all the problems are fixable. I look forward to seeing this again in New York, hopefully when it's in a better state.
Marie: Don't be in such a hurry about that pretty little chippy in Frisco.
Tony: Eh, she's a no chip!
