Friday, March 9, 2018

Day 269- Waitress- Pittsburgh Broadway Series-Savor the Flavors


The musical Waitress,  similar to this blog,  is about a  woman’s  life journey.  Unlike me, who struggles with cooking and baking, Jenna is an expert pie baker who used this delicious skill to cope with a burnt life in a small town.  Jenna and her two friends, Becky and Dawn, are waitresses who through friendship and love eventually  savor the flavors of a better life (culinary puns are intended).   



Reflection
Waitress is based on the book (Jessie Nelson) and the movie with the same name. Just like Jenna’s pies, it  is filled with  scrumptious  music and  lyrics by Sara Bareilles (Love Song). 

 I will try to tone down the food references but it is hard to do,  when in  the opening song, What's Inside, Jenna (Desi Oakley) explained  that  she “bakes from the heart” and that her whole life is in her recipes.  What Baking Can Do is act as  her conduit for coping and escaping.  She sings,“I will serve my worries away. I’ve  done it before. I bake me a door to get through.”   Many of us can relate to finding our own way of coping through the bumps of life. I write and blog  and  Jenna bakes pies!


Jenna baked as she felt  trapped by her  life with her husband, Earl (Nick Bailey), a man who possesses  but does not love. He reinforced this in the song, You Will Still Be Mine  after  he  learned that Jenna  was pregnant.  

Even though life can be messy, Jenna, Becky, and Dawn all  found their own  path through it.  Dawn  found  it though  on line dating where she met  Ogie  (Jim Hogan),  who was  the  “lid to her  pot”, and Jenna  and Dawn found it though affairs.


In the show stopping  song, I Didn't Plan It, Becky (Charity Angle Dawson)  reminded all  that we are  imperfect beings with a universal  need to  “feel”.   Singing about her affair, she belted, “ I didn’t plan it but it’s finally something to feel. We are all just looking for a little less crazy and sometimes it’s a hard left turn down a road that you thought you’d never see. I needed saving and a good mistake needed making”.

 The song, She Used to Be Mine, was a heartfelt reminder  that life can give  you a beating.  Jenna   sang, “when you are not who you used to be, when she is gone but she used to be mine.”  However you can find the power to change when, Everything Changes,  and in instant you are a mother and you’re “both born”.




Waitress  with its powerful musical lyrics takes us on a palatable  journey  through life that from time to time can be a little tart. In Waitress, like baking or enjoying a succulent pie, we taste the  flavors and savor the joys of life that we can choose to  create. 

(Listen to Waitress sound track here)

(Waitress runs from March 6  through March 11, 2018 as part of the PNC Broadway in Pittsburgh series, presented by the Pittsburgh Cultural Trust. For tickets go to TrustArts.org )

Spiritual Reference
I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me (Philippians 4:13)

Other Sources
https://trustarts.org/
Waitress tour  Here
Waitress Sound track here