What did Waitress do right?

[ebontoyan]

On Your Feet had its tryout in Chicago in June 2015

[broadwayguy91]

ebontoyan said: "On Your Feet had its tryout in Chicago in June 2015

 

"

Fitting 

[Smaxie]

[Kad]

broadwayguy91 said: "SoR actually had a tryout at the gramercy theatre in NYC. NOT sure about OYF

i concur with your 2nd paragraph ."

 

It was hardly a tryout. It was a handful of public performances of their workshop, essentially.

 

[ChildofEarth]

Paramour was spring right? Are we considering that a failure? 

Does Sara really sell that many albums to be a big enough pull for the show? I think it is just that the show seems approachable.

[mailhandler777]

I think all the marketing Waitress did and continues doing helped it out. You see Jessie's face everywhere you turn. Ads pop up on every site I go to plus the Twitter and Facebook accounts are very active in getting people into the theatre. Also Sara is a fairly big name in the pop world as Jessie is in the theatre world.

[Theater_Nerd]

Kad said: "It's a solid score by a well-regarded pop artist, based off of solid, crowd pleasing material, and boasts great performances. It doesn't reinvent the wheel, but the wheel doesn't always need to be reinvented. All a wheel needs to do is roll, and Waitress rolls very well.


I couldn't have said it any better myself. You my friend express yourself very well.

 

 

[_IrisTInkerbell]

I think Jessie is absolutely wonderful and was the reason why I first wanted to see the show, but who outside of people who really follow Broadway have ever heard her name? I doubt she's a bigger draw for tourist crowds than Laura Benanti, who's been in 2 really popular show on TV recently, not to mention SoM live.

And as much as I LOVE Laura, I could not see her in that role at all, and am surprised she did workshops for it? Didn't Sara say she knew very early one she wanted Jessie for the role? Like, way back when she saw her in Beautiful?

 

I think approachability is a big factor here. It's a show you can basically recommend to everyone, and especially to the main Broadway demographic, as others have pointed out. And Sara's name probably helps. Even those who aren't super familiar with her music would have heard her name, even abroad (she's been on the radio in Germany, I knew who she was), so for undecided people that's always a plus, it gives them a way in if they think "Oh, I've heard of her before". And unlike Bright Star for example the marketing managed to highlight those strength and get the word out to the right audience.

[Dancingthrulife2]

What it did right: Jessie Mueller, Christopher Fitzgerald, Keala Settle, Kimiko Glenn

What sells tickets: Sara Bareilles 

[mmFan]

 

Click Here To Toggle Spoiler Content

 

The Tony award performance was really great.   That probably helped. 

It made me excited to see it (I'm not from New York so don't get local advertising).   Just saw it this past weekend a few was not disappointed.   Was amazing. 

[dissimilate]

ChildofEarth said: "Paramour was spring right? Are we considering that a failure? 

Does Sara really sell that many albums to be a big enough pull for the show? I think it is just that the show seems approachable.

 

"

Sara’s not a big name in the wider Top 40 world. Not at all. But in the Broadway-goer world, in the female Broadway-goer world, in the young empowered female Broadway-goer world… she’s a big pop star – and, notably, also a prominent songwriter.

The show’s marketing definitely got it right.

_IrisTinkerbell, I agree that I can’t see Laura Benanti in this role, at least not the way Jessie is playing it. Sara did say she knew she wanted Jessie to try it, but I read somewhere that Jessie wasn’t comfortable with plunging headfirst into developing a new musical while still performing 8 times a week in Beautiful. So she only joined the later workshops.

 

[Jarethan]

Dancingthrulife2 said: "What it did right: Jessie Mueller, Christopher Fitzgerald, Keala Settle, Kimiko Glenn

What sells tickets: Sara Bareilles 

That is just not true.  It didn't work for Paul Simon or Sting or Bono, all of whom are institutions...Bareilles is not there yet.  

I think that equal weight goes to: the movie was so enjoyable and you really came to love the characters (well, most), plus it had a happy ending; Jessie Mueller walked away from Beautiful with some huge fans; Sara B.'s Fans; and the great selling they did in advance, e.g., publicity re first all female creative leads; lotsa TV appearances, word of mouth from Cambridge getting around, How many times did you hear snippets of several songs well in advance of previews starting.  All those things came together...and WOM continues to be great.

 

[aaaaaa15]

I do think Bareilles was the main draw. The difference between Sara and the artists you mentioned is that she is younger and can reach out to her fans a lot easier and more convincingly through social media. She promoted the show very well, even releasing an album of her singing the score which charted exceedingly well for an album full of musical theatre songs.

Also, is the movie well known in America? I can't say I'd ever heard of it and I follow film.

[Hairspray0901]

I try and see every new musical of each season but for me, this was the musical I was most looking forward to and it's because I'm a massive Sara Bareilles fan. Jessie Mueller and Diane Paulus directing was a great bonus but the main reason I wanted to see this was Sara's music.  Im going with a group of friends this weekend and a handful of them are coming because they love Sara's music as well. 

[VintageSnarker]

I think it's easy to say why Waitress was successful in hindsight but in reality it's difficult to account for what will resonate with a mass audience. 

I do think the ubiquity of the marketing campaign helped (though they aren't my favorite graphics... that's another conversation).

I'm personally a big fan of Sara Bareilles but in spite of her big hits (Love Song, Brave), she's not a name that everyone knows. The release of her album of songs from the show and her book (which I recommend) probably did help a bit.

This isn't a knock on Jessie Mueller but the Tony win didn't guarantee a big fan base or that her next show would be a hit on her name alone.

The movie was on TV a lot for a couple of years but it wasn't more of a guaranteed property than School of Rock, American Psycho, or Tuck Everlasting.

There is a universe where American Psycho might have appealed to millenials, Bright Star might have appealed to young women and moms, and Tuck Everlasting might have appealed to young girls and families. The latter two are arguably crowd pleasing (I'm not talking about quality, just inoffensive content) especially compared to Waitress which features adultery and spousal abuse. 

tl;dr Sometimes the stars just align.

[AnnieBlack]

Having seen the show, I was bored in the first 20 minutes, pleased by the rest of the first act, and had tears running down my face at the end. Was it great? To seasoned theatre goers, no- but to the 'regular person', leaving the theatre moved and happy leads to great word of mouth. 

I work in hotel hospitality & have heard just as many requests for Waitress as Hamilton lately. The show is going to be around for awhile! They got that magic word of mouth thing down right! 

[Kitzka]

I can only speak for those in my friend circle. But I have three good friends from Singapore who are big Sara Barelis fans. Have been dying to see this show and just booked hotel, airfare and show tickets for two weeks from now. They are E ah spending about $2500 between the three. 

They knew they would love the music but seeing Jesse and Sara perform at the Tonys sealed the deal for them. 

And I think the marketing is top notch. Jesse's face and the ads for the show are everywhere  plus I am intrigued by the fresh pie smell they have at the show. But I am not a fan of the movie so probably won't go see it but as I said three of my friends are coming from Singapore for a three day girls weekend to see the show  

 

[promisespromises2]

I don't want to start another thread about this show... but seating-wise... are there any seats to absolutely avoid?  I want to take my partner to see this and I'm buying tickets tomorrow, but I don't know if I should spend the money on orchestra seats if the $99 seats are just as good.  It's her first Broadway show... but we are moving into a new apartment soon so this is kind of our last hoorah before we have to adult for awhile. 

So I'm not completely off topic... the only thing appealing me to this show is Jessie Mueller.  I saw her in Beautiful and I was absolutely blown away by her voice and demeanor. I haven't seen the movie Waitress and I think I'm going to hold off until I see the show.

[MichelleCraig]

Just about everything? Baking pies in the lobby was the cherry on the sundae. 

[dissimilate]

Bareilles is a big draw for this show because she's rather much more down to earth than most crossover composers, as aaaaaa15 said, but also because her audience overlaps significantly with the show's audience. Her teaser album built the hype even more, as did her social media posts about her creative process throughout the show's development.

VintageSnarker is probably right though, in that hindsight proves everything but sometimes it's also just whether you're lucky. (I also agree that the marketing visuals are horrible - why couldn't they have kept the less garish, more muted purple pie lattice theme from the ART?)

promisespromises2, get front to mid orchestra tickets, or front mezz, for the best experience. Sides are fine, you don't have to be center for this show.

[promisespromises2]

^Thank you!!