Everything Changes: A Look Into the Beauty of Broadway’s Waitress

“My blurry lines, my messy life, come into focus and into focus and in time maybe I can heal and I can breathe because I can feel myself believe.” Directed by Dianne Paulus and with music by Sara Bereilles, Waitress is a beautiful story of womanhood and the changes that come with the struggles of life.

Jenna Hunterson (Jesse Mueller) is a woman who works making pies at Joe’s Pie Diner, who learns that she is pregnant with her abusive husband’s baby. The show goes through her journey as she learns to cope with her pregnancy, deal with an emotionally and physically abusive relationship, work through an affair with her doctor, and spend loving, yet challenging moments with her two best friends, Dawn (Kimiko Glenn) and Becky (Keala Settle), who work alongside her at the diner. 

Jesse Mueller’s interpretation of Jenna is painfully beautiful. Every moment she is on the stage, she exudes her character’s emotions like they are truly part of her being. The silence that rush’s over the audience as soon as she hits the stage proves her power. She holds the wit and exuberance of Jenna’s character, while providing the depth to her character that make her the emotionally strong woman that she is. 

The lyrics in the songs have strong motifs of baking. Jenna uses baking as an escape from a life that she never had planned for. It is how she connects with her late mother and mold into the woman she wants to be. Like baking pies, Jenna’s life is full of various ingredients, temperatures, flavors and occasional mistakes. But these are the things that made her into who she is, and while she is struggling for most of the show, by the end, you can tell that she is grateful for the life that she has led, as it brought her to this beautiful moment with her daughter. 

One of the most powerful songs in the show is She Used to Be Mine. It is performed in the second act, after Jenna’s husband Earl (Nick Crodero), is yelling at her about how awful she is making their lives. He would often tell her that she is not allowed to love this baby more than she loves him. She stands alone in their house, a single light on her, as pregnant as ever, with a look of dismay in her eyes. The song is a letter from Jenna to her future child, who we soon learn is a girl, telling her of who she was and remembering of the dreams she once had and wanted to achieve. “She is messy, but she’s kind. She is lonely most of the time. She is all of this mixed up and baked into a beautiful pie,” she sings. It is a letter of self-reflection; who she used to be before she was chipped away by her relationship with abuse and self doubt. It is clear that this is not only for her future child, but also for herself.

Behind the scenes of Jenna’s woefully unsteady life, you catch moments into the lives of those around her. You learn about Dawn’s struggle with finding and accepting love, and Becky’s escape into a love affair with the manager of the diner, Cal (Eric Anderson). As you watch Jenna’s life move forward, so do theirs. They go through struggles and self realizations of their own that tie up quite pleasantly. Seeing the other character’s stories reflect that the world is a messy place and that everyone can be dealing with their own, yet very different, challenges in life. One is not  particularly worse than another, just different for the individual who is experiencing it. 

Soon enough, the baby arrives. As soon as Jenna looks into the eyes of her newly born daughter, it is as though something suddenly clicks in her. You can see it on Mueller’s face, like a lightbulb turns on. She looks at Earl and tells him that she wants a divorce. There is a sense of relief that floods through the air. Jenna knows that her daughter is the most important thing in her life now and is endlessly thankful for how she has allowed things to change for the better. 

The finale connects back to a song from the very beginning of the show, like how life will always have its connections. The present comes from the changes of the past. It is a powerful moment of joy for Jenna, as you watch her with her daughter, who has now aged a few years, in the diner that was left to her after the owner died, and see in her eyes that a better life was always waiting for her. 

The show is a dive into the curiosity, difficulties, and beauties of life. There is a piece of something for everyone to take from it. So, pick your favorite and grab a slice of Waitress, you won’t regret it.