Waitress – Musical Review (Her Majesty’s Theatre)
Summary: With a bunch of standout performances, Waitress makes for a very fun night of musical theatre.
4
Feel-Good Musical
As we entered Her Majesty’s Theatre on Thursday evening for the opening night of Waitress, we were immediately greeted by the warm scent of apple pie. The spiced apples and warm pastry made the foyer feel very homely, especially considering the cold and rainy weather that we had to travel through to get here. This pleasant and cozy start to the evening was a pretty good sign of what we were to expect from this show.
Based on the 2007 film of the same name, Waitress is an award-winning musical which is quite highly regarded amongst fans of musical theatre. It tells the story of Jenna (Natalie Bassingthwaighte), a waitress and pie maker who is stuck in an abusive marriage. When she discovers that she is pregnant, she saves up some money to enter a baking competition, the prize of which will allow her to finally leave her husband (Keanu Gonzalez). There’s also a new doctor in town (Rob Mills), who may become a romantic interest. We also follow her two fellow waitresses, Becky (Gabriyel Thomas) and Dawn (Mackenzie Dunn), who have their own side-plots about finding love.
Waitress’s music and lyrics are written by Sara Bareilles, a singer-songwriter perhaps best known for her hit track ‘Love Song’. Bareilles also played the main character Jenna for a run of Broadway shows in 2021, where the production was also filmed and later released in 2023. But now, for the first time ever, the show has hit Australia and will play in Melbourne until July 12th before heading to Sydney in August.
Playing the role of Jenna is Natalie Bassingthwaighte, who has been quite busy recently with appearances in multiple musical theatre productions, as well as a new album and an ongoing tour with her electronic rock band Rogue Traders. Bassingthwaighte’s lead performance in this show was quite good, especially during the musical numbers. The biggest song of the show is easily ‘She Used to be Mine’, a ballad from the second act which soundtracks one of the darkest moments of Jenna’s story. Bassingthwaighte gives this number her all, delivering a very emotionally vulnerable yet powerful performance that left the audience breathless. Any controversy that you may have seen surrounding this casting should be ignored, Natalie Bassingthwaighte is wonderful as Jenna.
Rob Mills also puts in a very fun performance as Dr. Pomatter. There are plenty of hilarious moments with this character, some that may even verge on slapstick. However, it is with Gareth Isaac’s performance as Ogie where the show goes full vaudeville and is ever the better for it. Ogie is the love interest of Dawn, one of the other waitresses played by Mackenzie Dunn, and these two actors could easily be considered the fan favourites from opening night’s performance. Dunn’s anxiety-ridden number about the horrors of online dating got countless laughs, which then led into Ogie’s number where he tries to win her over. His performance features tap dancing, on-the-spot slam poetry, tons of physical comedy… It is a wonder to behold.
The main downfalls of this show purely lie in the story that it is telling. While all of the main characters have very clear arcs, each one coming out of the musical a slightly different person, the actual plot of the show is very rarely pushed along. This leads to a very quick and unsatisfying wrap up in the final ten minutes, which certainly left me feeling underwhelmed. There is also a lot of hand-waving when it comes to the show’s politics, which is certainly done as an attempt to push the show to the largest audience possible. Waitress would have been a lot more interesting if it went into the ethics of certain plot-lines, specifically the running themes of infidelity and traditional gender roles, however the most we get is a shrug and song about how wonderful life is. This isn’t to say that it’s a badly written musical, the songs by Sara Bareilles are all fantastic, but the actual story of this show is definitely missing a few ingredients.
If you are able to look past a couple of shortcomings, Waitress is a very fun night out packed full of standout performances, especially from Natalie Bassingthwaighte and Gareth Isaac. Just make sure you have a pie waiting for you when you get home, this show will certainly make you want a slice by the end of it.
Related Posts
Borderline Announce 2026 Tour Dates →
SUPANOVA COMIC CON & GAMING Welcomes Legendary Japanese Voice and Tokusatsu Stars →
WESTLIFE ANNOUNCE AUSTRALIA & NEW ZEALAND LEG OF ‘WESTLIFE 25: THE ANNIVERSARY WORLD TOUR’ IN JULY 2027 →
