London Trip : Waitress the Musical
We ended our Saturday adventures with the main reason we went to London in the first place: to see a show. Not just any show, but the show I have been DYING to see for over a year now, Waitress. After being a massive success on Broadway it finally made its way over to the West End at the start of this year with an amazing cast and creative team. Luckily for me, my boyfriend had realised my desperation and got us tickets to go see it and surprised me with them on my birthday. What a good egg.
Upon entering the Adelphi theatre in London I was instantly hit with the smell of freshly baked pies. I'd heard that they did this but if I'm honest I wasn't sure it would be that strong. But honestly, you'd have thought there was a pie sitting in front off you, waiting for you to sink your teeth into it.
Next order of business? Have a gander at the merchandise stand of course! There was so much to choose from! I could have bought it all, t-shirts, recipe books, hoodies to name a few, but I was good and just got myself a pin badge (I collect pin badges from everywhere I go and pin them to my flute case. Maybe one day I'll show you my collection!) and a programme. The badge is such a cute little slice of pie, so simple but I love it.
We then went in search of the elusive Waitress pies made by the lovely lot at the Theatre Cafe. I've seen and heard a lot about these on social media and I just HAD to try one. And as you can see from the Polaroid above it was everything I'd hoped it would be. In short, DELICIOUS! Aside from the taste, the other thing I love about the pies... they came in glass jars which I washed out and kept as a memento and put little trinkets in it!!!
We took our seats in the Upper Circle, From up here we could see the whole of the stage, it was great.
As the lights went down my excitement levels went from 70-1000 real quick and I tell you I was not disappointed. Although I had listened to most of the soundtrack before I feel that I have a better connection to the songs now I've seen the show and they make more sense to me now.
The music in this show is so well written. Sara Bareilles is a songwriting genius. All the songs feel different but have unifying ideas. I also love how Ogie, the funny male character, has songs which have an um-cha feel to them which is typical of comedy characters in Musical Theatre. However, here it didn't feel like it was forced or satirical, it was just natural to his character. I also loved the 'Sugar, Butter, Flour' motif we heard whenever she was daydreaming about life.
Speaking of the daydreaming scenes, they were one of the best pieces of staging I have ever seen. Everything happened so smoothly you hardly even noticed that it only happened for less than a minute. Having said that all of the staging was impeccable no one seemed out of place, the whole set was cleverly done. I was very impressed.
Those of you who know me know that I LOVE to be able to watch the pit band for at least part of the show. I feel like they are an under-appreciated part of a show, usually hidden away beneath the stage. When the show started I looked down to the pit to try and see if I could see them but I couldn't. At the time I was sure if it was because the pit wasn't under the stage but in fact it was because the pit band ended up being on stage. After the first song they glided onto the stage on a little platform, it made me so happy. The other thing that grabbed my attention was that they used a grand piano rather than keyboard. This made the show sound just so much warmer and kind of more authentic as the way the band were staged made them seem like they were an in-house band within the diner. The piano also ended up becoming part of the diner's set as Jenna and the girls used it to display Jenna's delicious pies. I loved this. I find that in musical theatre there always feels like there's kind of a divide between the musicians and the actors, even though they have the Musical Director pinning them together. But here, they were interacting with one another, and when the band weren't playing a few of them would go and take a seat in the diner and order food, which for me was another little detail which just makes this show so enjoyable.
I also HAVE to talk about 'She Used to be Mine' the show's most well known song. Katherine was AMAZING. She plays Jenna so well and understands exactly how she's feeling, which meant that her version of this song was so emotional. I have to admit I did a little cry because, although I am not an expectant mother who's having a hard time, I can relate to some of her feelings, and I wasn't the only one. At the end of the song came rapturous applause and I heard a few sniffs as people regained their composure.
All in all it was an amazing show and you know it was good when my other half says he enjoyed it more than he thought he would. He was impressed with the way that the male characters were portrayed, as in most feminist dramas the males are mostly seen to be the bad guys but here we had a good balance, and it was more realistic. His only criticism was that he thought that it was a bit quiet at times, but if that's the only criticism he has then I'll take it. Thanks for getting me the tickets!
To top the night off I met the majority of the main cast at the stage door in the pouring rain and they were all lovely (unfortunately some of the photos are blurry but it was dark). When can I go see it again?!
Stay tuned to hear about our last adventures in London!