{"id":11304,"date":"2020-01-30T18:03:07","date_gmt":"2020-01-30T18:03:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/laughfrodisiac.com\/?p=11304"},"modified":"2020-01-30T18:38:10","modified_gmt":"2020-01-30T18:38:10","slug":"sugar-butter-fl-uck-this-show-is-amazing-sara-bareilles-joins-waitress-in-london","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/laughfrodisiac.com\/2020\/01\/30\/sugar-butter-fl-uck-this-show-is-amazing-sara-bareilles-joins-waitress-in-london\/","title":{"rendered":"Sugar, Butter, Fl-uck This Show is Amazing: Sara Bareilles Joins Waitress in London"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
It\u2019s Theatre Thursday! Today\u2019s show is Waitress, again, because it\u2019s the best but also because composer Sara Bareilles is playing Jenna until March 7! We went to her opening night and it\u2019s time to rave<\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n \u00a0<\/p>\n OH, IT IS ON. One of the best musicals ever (I mean it; I know all the musicals and I will fight you on this) is now even more special. Grammy-winner (that\u2019s right babies!) Sara Bareilles has joined the London production of Waitress<\/em>, the musical she wrote, playing forlorn but super talented pie-making waitress Jenna, singing the songs how she meant them to be sung and being like \u2018oh WHAT yeah that\u2019s right\u2019. And Sara, praise the lord, brought Broadway\u2019s favorite boyfriend\/lovable goof Gavin Creel over with her to play Jenna\u2019s inappropes\/super adorbs gynecologist Dr. Pomatter, to the delight of everyone who is conscious. Waitress<\/em> is a strong show that\u2019s absolute joyous heartbreaking and heartbuilding perfection no matter what, but having Bareilles herself play Jenna Hunterson is one of those Experiences that despite sky-high expectations more than lived up to them.<\/p>\n We\u2019ve talked about Waitress<\/span> before on this site<\/em><\/strong><\/a>, and if we know each other in real life you have definitely heard me preach about how wonderful this show is and how anyone who disagrees just like DOESN\u2019T GET IT or DOESN\u2019T HAVE THE RIGHT SET OF EMOTION RECEPTORS or WAS ON THEIR PHONE DESPITE SARA\u2019S WONDERFUL PRE-SHOW SHUT-YOUR-PHONE-OFF SONG or anything else that lets me shout at people who disagree with me like a true g-d American. But to recap, Waitress<\/em> is based on Adrienne Shelley\u2019s 2007 movie about a Russian spy (no) who makes amazing pies but is les miserables. Jenna, our waitress, is stuck in a loveless and abusive marriage and then she gets pregnant and doesn\u2019t want the baby and instead of calling me for help (just like last week\u2019s show<\/span><\/em><\/a><\/strong>) she decides to begrudgingly have the baby and she has a pretty rocking affair with her super fantastic gyno and then she has the baby and it all works out (unlike last week\u2019s show) and it\u2019s beautiful and amazing and the score is sensational and the book (by Jessie Nelson) is hilarious and poignant and I LOVE IT.<\/p>\n We were front and center (well, side; aisles baby you know) for Sara\u2019s official London debut, scared that her stans might be annoyingly vocal when they shouldn\u2019t be but too excited to care much (and for the record the audience was surprisingly well behaved for London) (although I did tell one man to put his phone away when he was taking photos and he was like shocked that someone didn\u2019t want a phone sticking up during a show, so). Every time this show begins and I hear the motif of \u2018sugar, butter, flour\u2019 start, I get chills. To hear it from SB herself made the chills more like convulsions. Her Jenna is everything you hope for. Her quiet moments in the gorgeous opener and in \u201cSoft Place to Land\u201d are moving and lovely, while the belted notes that everyone expects and discusses like it\u2019s some kind of sport now were there and were incredible, but they were also there for a reason. You absolutely felt the emotion and meaning behind them. Her acting is pretty impressive too. In the first scene, there were a few moments that reminded you that she isn\u2019t a trained actress, but as she got her footing she only improved, and there were even some line deliveries that absolutely slayed more than they have in the past (her perfectly<\/em> timed \u2018she could be gay\u2019, omg).<\/p>\n And yes, there was an immediate standing ovation after her flawless \u201cShe Used to Be Mine\u201d, that extraordinary song. Sometimes that sort of thing feels like pandering or like the standers just want to be able to say they were a part of that, and it\u2019s not based in truth. But here, it felt like a show of hospitality and thanks, the perfect way to welcome Sara to the West End and recognize what she has created. If it happens every performance it might seem forced, but given how special and how rare it is to see a writer perform a role they composed, it\u2019ll still be meaningful.<\/p>\n Now about that boy. Gavin Creel is one of the best, like ever, and he makes the not-too-big part of Dr. Pomatter feel like the meatiest musical theatre role. He is the reason for the word \u2018adorkable\u2019, not Zooey Deschanel, and his Pomatter was so goshdarn adorkable and charming that I felt like that gif of the little squeeing girl, you know with her little fists by her cheeks? That was me the whole time. He makes so much out of every moment and gesture and my god, it\u2019s just a nonstop ball of endless awkwardness and goofiness and charm and that forking voice. I was nervous because Gavin and Sara are good friends and sometimes it\u2019s hard for friends in real life to have romantic chemistry onstage (which I know because in a college show I had to pretend to be in love with my best friend\u2019s boyfriend (now husband) and we were so uncomfortable that we won 3rd<\/sup> Most Awkward Onstage Couple that season) but they were quite convincing.<\/p>\n As for the rest of the cast, they were great. I believe this was also the first performance for Evelyn Hoskins\u2019 Dawn, and she was super winning and the audience was fully behind her, and she will surely only grow and improve as she learns to control her projection while dealing with that adrenaline. Marisha Wallace is back in the production after a break from playing Becky, and thank goodness because her Becky, man, dayum. Her book scenes were much different this go round, much quieter and almost deadpan sometimes, which is not what you get from the usually \u2018sassy\u2019 Becky (it seemed like a purposeful approach to avoid that word). I don\u2019t know if I like it better but it was interesting, and her \u201cI Didn\u2019t Plan It\u201d was as mind-blowing as ever. I always get chills (I mean just the whole show, really) on the line \u201cto open your eyes and look around\/and seeee the skyyyy when you\u2019re underground\u201d and she forking nailed it.<\/p>\n The supporting men were great too. Joel Montague\u2019s Ogie was new to me, and although he doesn’t have the comedic brilliance that Mr. Kenneth Ellen Parcell did last year, he has a much better voice (not hard to), and that part is so well written and constructed that I don\u2019t think it\u2019s possible to be performed poorly. And my goodness, I think Andrew Boyer\u2019s Joe might be my favorite Joe yet, yeah even more than Headmaster Charleston (I know)! He was super grouchy but his grouchiness was so clearly underwritten with loneliness and heart that it really moved me. His crotchety interplay with Sara was so realistic and so spirited (they may have had the best acting chemistry on that stage) and their last moment shocked me with how striking and simple it was (more nuanced acting from Sara).<\/p>\n There were some noticeable differences with the show too. Earl (Tamlyn Henderson\/Will Forte) seemed much more obviously abusive and horrible (though a good performance), almost like they are making it too easy to paint him as the villain. He\u2019s definitely bad news but when he\u2019s less physically abusive I think it makes for a more interesting dynamic and more educational for people who might not even realize how bad emotional abuse is. Also, everything felt slower than than before. This isn\u2019t necessarily bad, since I love to be enveloped by the world of this show for as long as possible, but it was noticeably slower pacing. I also recognized the simple and lovely choreography more than usual and enjoyed it, especially the truly riveting moment where Jenna packs up a suitcase, puts her jacket on, and the cast takes her jacket off, all in the span of about 6 seconds of her imagining a new pie and running away. That was the most incredible moment of the night for me, proving that while brilliant star power and fabulous performances are welcome, this show is beautiful and strong no matter who\u2019s in it.<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n INFORMATION<\/u><\/strong><\/p>\n Sara and Gavin will be in the show until March 7.<\/p>\n After a 7:36 ish start, Act I ended at 8:45 and the show ended at 10:06. A few minutes longer than it should be, possibly due to the extended applause breaks and also the aforementioned pacing.<\/p>\n If you sit on house right\/stage left, there\u2019s a sign for LADIES at around row H or so, but that bathroom only has 3 stalls. It DOES NOT lead you to the giant main bathroom downstairs \u2013 for that, go past that Ladies sign and enter the house right doors that say BAR and then you\u2019ll find it there and you\u2019ll beat everyone else who exits the house and goes from the lobby YOU\u2019RE WELCOME.<\/p>\n I did not even attempt stage dooring are you crazy I\u2019m sure it\u2019s a madhouse.<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" It\u2019s Theatre Thursday! Today\u2019s show is Waitress, again, because it\u2019s the best but also because composer Sara Bareilles is playing Jenna until March 7! We went […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":11307,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[147],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-11304","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-entertainment"],"yoast_head":"\n