The Sara Bareilles ‘Waitress’ Movie Makes You Wish You Saw the ‘Waitress’ Musical
Musical theater, in several respects, is one of the less-accessible forms of mainstream entertainment. There’s the oft-prohibitive cost of a ticket, let alone one that gets you a good view of the stage. Shows can be long in length, rigid in schedule, and brief in run; and only so many places are equipped to house the most expensive, attractive productions. Plus, the medium is commonly referred to as “Broadway” for a reason—access to the Big Apple is not required, but it might as well be.
Watching movies, conversely, is a treat for any Average Jo(e). Which is why the filmed theatrical show is a particularly good use of the medium. There’s no longer a need to book a weeknight trip out to NYC’s dirty belly button to see a couple Founding Fathers rap, when we Disney+ subscribers can veg out at home. Soon, we’ll be doing the same for Sara Bareilles’ Waitress, whose stage-to-film adaptation premiered at this year’s Tribeca Film Festival.
Still, something feels wrong to me about going the other way: bring a movie to the stage and back again. I’m well aware that adapting a non-musical film for Broadway and adding some songs where there weren't any before is nothing novel. Still, I find it depressing at best and ungodly at worst. (Broadway gets away with staging a song-and-dance take on Heathers, but we’d all rage if Hollywood tried to make The Music Man with zero music!) To rip the cinematic out of cinema for a live show, then try to bring cinema back into the equation is the definition of anathema to me.