What did Waitress do right?

[broadwayguy91]

Posted: 6/27/16 at 9:12am

So Waitress is the only surviving spring musical of last season, and it is also consistently grossing great numbers at the box office.

Is it the marketing that was effective? Is it because of Sara Barailles being the composer, and Jessie Mueller playing the lead role, or both?  Discuss.

 

[neonlightsxo]

Posted: 6/27/16 at 9:16am

"Discuss." Am I being graded for this?

 

 

[AC126748]

Posted: 6/27/16 at 9:16am

It's a fun show, with a catchy score and great performances, staged effectively. The film is memorable to many and probably brings a lot of people into the show. It's not rocket science.

[After Eight]

Posted: 6/27/16 at 9:18am

The actors were good, but as far as the writing was concerned, it did nothing right. It was dreadful. 

 

But a lot of dreadful things get good, if not rave reviews,  and run.

 

 

[broadwayguy91]

Posted: 6/27/16 at 9:19am

neonlightsxo said: ""Discuss." Am I being graded for this?

 

 

 

"

hahhaha! no lol

 

[broadwayguy91]

Posted: 6/27/16 at 9:20am

@A8: I agree that the scenes seem a little rushed / disjointed and awkward at points.

[everythingtaboo]

Posted: 6/27/16 at 9:25am

I never cared for the ads for this show, but I think the memory of the movie is strong, you got Bareilles' fans, it's done great TV performances, word of mouth is strong, and it's probably just accessible and more relateable that the other spring shows. It's comfortable to audiences and I think that goes a long way.

[BdwyFan]

Posted: 6/27/16 at 9:28am

Simple. People like the smell of pie.  

[Dave13]

Posted: 6/27/16 at 9:48am

Jessie Mueller 

[HogansHero]

Posted: 6/27/16 at 9:53am

It's a notion that seems to escape us far too often, but the core of a musical is its music and Waitress is the only one of these shows that is broadly resonant. That's overly simplistic of course-there are other things that contributed to the downfall of some or most of the shows-but the fact that Bareilles' music speaks to a big fat audience is certainly the dominant factor in its success. Ignoring the ones so lousy they didn't make it onto anyone's scorecard, the "competition" was (1) a very old jukebox musical, (2) a show with pastiche music by someone who has and hopefully will continue to do better with songs in his own style, and a show with niche music by a famous person who would be putting on shows in his basement were he not famous already and a friend who last had traction around the time of the music in #2. 

[jbird5]

Posted: 6/27/16 at 10:19am

None of those shows appealed to millennials. Broadway is still missing the boat here. And ticket prices are too high (but so are production costs).

[BroadwayConcierge]

Posted: 6/27/16 at 10:48am

I think it had a great combination of being a musical with a cute/colorful ad campaign with the allure of pie, baking, food, et cetera. People are curious.

[dissimilate]

Posted: 6/27/16 at 10:52am

Agreed, HogansHero and jbird5. The competition was practically nonexistent for the young millennial females and moms, which is a demographic for Bareilles’ music that practically perfectly overlaps with the movie’s. Yes, the book is very disjointed, but the overall narrative is clear, and that’s enough to satisfy most people.

So that’s a combination of Jessie Mueller (Broadway star power), Bareilles’ music (feel-good uptempo / sentimental), and a female-centered and simple three-act narrative. Easy as pie.

Updated On: 6/27/16 at 10:52 AM

[backwoodsbarbie]

Posted: 6/27/16 at 10:56am

This show was an easy sell to tourist: pop score, songwriter who is very current, a TONY winning lead and director, and a feel good ending. It's fluffy. It sold for the reasons that Mamma Mia and Hairspray sold well. A lot of people want to be entertained when they go to the theatre. 

[Wick3]

Posted: 6/27/16 at 11:28am

broadwayguy91 said: "Is it the marketing that was effective? Is it because of Sara Barailles being the composer, and Jessie Mueller playing the lead role, or both?  Discuss."

Most people remember the movie from 2007 so are familiar with the story. Sara Bareilles definitely has a following and so does Jessie Mueller. Combination of both plus word of mouth that the musical is pretty good. Oh and it also received several Tony nominations.

I'd say the marketing was effective, but at the same time, with big names surrounding the musical, it didn't need to do as much marketing as what other closed shows should have done (i.e. american psycho, tuck everlasting, bright star, etc.)

[broadwayguy91]

Posted: 6/27/16 at 11:39am

Wick3 said: "broadwayguy91 said: "Is it the marketing that was effective? Is it because of Sara Barailles being the composer, and Jessie Mueller playing the lead role, or both?  Discuss."

Most people remember the movie from 2007 so are familiar with the story. Sara Bareilles definitely has a following and so does Jessie Mueller. Combination of both plus word of mouth that the musical is pretty good. Oh and it also received several Tony nominations.

I'd say the marketing was effective, but at the same time, with big names surrounding the musical, it didn't need to do as much marketing as what other closed shows should have done (i.e. american psycho, tuck everlasting, bright star, etc.)

 

"

Didn't Waitress essentially get free marketing via Sara releasing What's Inside: Songs from Waitress before the Broadway run? I mean, Sara was releasing it as her own album (so it was her record label paying for the marketing), but on every talk show that she went on to promote THAT album, they kept mentioning "appearing on Bway as a new musical, tickets are on sale now" etc

Updated On: 6/27/16 at 11:39 AM

[Kad]

Posted: 6/27/16 at 11:46am

It's a solid score by a well-regarded pop artist, based off of solid, crowd pleasing material, and boasts great performances. It doesn't reinvent the wheel, but the wheel doesn't always need to be reinvented. All a wheel needs to do is roll, and Waitress rolls very well.

Updated On: 6/27/16 at 11:46 AM

[JBroadway]

Posted: 6/27/16 at 11:49am

To the OP: why narrow it down to only Spring musicals? One could argue that it's even MORE noteworthy that On Your Feet and School of Rock have managed to survive through the Fall/Winter.

[broadwayguy91]

Posted: 6/27/16 at 12:00pm

JBroadway said: "To the OP: why narrow it down to only Spring musicals? One could argue that it's even MORE noteworthy that On Your Feet and School of Rock have managed to survive through the Fall/Winter.

 

"

because I wanted to compare them with the spring musicals that shuttered early (with the exception of Shuffle Along, which is closing due to special circumstances)

Also, if you were to compare Waitress, On Your Feet and School of Rock, wouldn't you say that Waitress is a bigger gamble for a producer than OYF and SoR? OYF is a jukebox musical with popular Latin pop music = instant crowd pleaser / tourist attraction and SoR is based off a hugely successful comedy film that reached #1 at the box office and grossed USD131 million domestically. with the cast of kids, it also makes it a popular family show.

Waitress, even with Sara Barailles writing the score (and that fact being promoted heavily), is based off an indie film that definitely does not have the exposure that SoR has, even with its cult classic status. 

 

[pupscotch]

Posted: 6/27/16 at 12:36pm

Sara Barellies was clearly the selling factor in this show, with Jessie Mueller certainly helping it along. I don't think Waitress was a big gamble, but it would have been had Sara not written the music (unless it had been another big name). Other than that, it's just a good musical that people like, and I like it better than OYF and SoR.

I think the other shows could have used more marketing, especially via social media. It helps that Sara has a lot of TV appearances, but the Waitress Twitter account tweets up a storm of things people tweeted in favor of the show and has ads all over Twitter.

[dissimilate]

Posted: 6/27/16 at 1:34pm

broadwayguy91: I’d say that would be true if Waitress hadn’t had its out-of-town tryout at the ART. If I remember correctly, neither OYF nor SoR had out-of-town tryouts. That evens out the gamble for me.

Plus, like you mentioned, all three have different markets, and I think it’s safe to say that their individual markets are all quite big.

[Islander_fan]

Posted: 6/27/16 at 1:45pm

I have seen the show more times than I can count (I usher there a lot.) I have to say, I still really enjoy this show. There have been some shows that I have worked at time and time again and get numb to them with their enjoyment factor going downhill and extremely fast too. 

Waitress is a show that has yet to do that for me. I never get tired of the upbeat songs "Opening Up" is a good example. And, I still enjoy " She Used to be Mine" time and time again. I think that it's just a show that is simply well written and just entertaining. As Kad said, the wheel doesn't need to be reinvented, I think that this is a very well done, "feel good" type of show. And yes, the music is very well done. 

[AnnieBlack]

Posted: 6/27/16 at 1:45pm

I agree that Jessie Mueller is a massive part of the success. I can't imagine the show working as well with Laura Benanti who did all the workshops. 

[broadwayguy91]

Posted: 6/27/16 at 1:46pm

dissimilate said: "broadwayguy91: I’d say that would be true if Waitress hadn’t had its out-of-town tryout at the ART. If I remember correctly, neither OYF nor SoR had out-of-town tryouts. That evens out the gamble for me.

Plus, like you mentioned, all three have different markets, and I think it’s safe to say that their individual markets are all quite big.

 

"

SoR actually had a tryout at the gramercy theatre in NYC. NOT sure about OYF

i concur with your 2nd paragraph .

[ebontoyan]

Posted: 6/27/16 at 1:54pm

On Your Feet had its tryout in Chicago in June 2015