Exclusive: How WAITRESS Takes Center Stage in Netflix’s Heartbreaking New Movie About Theater Kids
The creators of ‘Don’t Say Good Luck’ exclusively tell BroadwayWorld how ‘Waitress’ became one of the new film’s main characters.
If the musical Waitress made you emotional, just wait until you see the new Netflix movie Don’t Say Good Luck, a love letter to theater kids out Friday, August 14.
Starring Adam Sandler’s daughter Sunny Sandler, the coming-of-age musical drama follows a teenager named Sophie who gets cast as the lead in her high school production at the same time her family learns devastating personal news.
“We wanted it to ultimately be a story about life,” director Julia Hart exclusively tells BroadwayWorld, explaining that the screenplay by Laura Hankin is inspired by the writer’s own experience of going through a family crisis while simultaneously doing the school play.
In Don’t Say Good Luck, the production at the heart of the piece happens to be Sara Bareilles and Jessie Nelson’s Tony-nominated musical Waitress. Like many theater fans, Hankin happens to really like the show — but didn’t want to get too attached to it being the centerpiece of her story in case it wouldn’t be legally possible to include bits and pieces of its score.
“When I first got the script from Laura, there was a note at the beginning that said that she was just using the music from Waitress because she loves Waitress, but she knows she can’t get the rights,” producer Jordan Horowitz explains. “So the intention was to find a different musical or write her own music.”
However, Horowitz — who co-produces the film with his wife (the director, Hart); Adam Sandler and his wife, Jackie; and Brian Kavanaugh-Jones — was able to make it happen.
Horowitz is friendly with Michael Roiff, who produced the 2007 film Waitress starring Keri Russell and was a producer on the 2016 Broadway musical. Roiff became an executive producer on Don’t Say Good Luck.
“We loved the way that the music worked with the story,” says Horowitz, explaining that they ended up licensing the material for their film.
Though the original Waitress creative team is not involved in Don’t Say Good Luck, snippets of the high school production seen on screen are reminiscent of the beloved stage musical that opened on Broadway in 2016.
Sunny Sandler, the movie’s 17-year-old star, even delivers a heart-wrenching performance of Jenna’s 11 o’clock number “She Used to Be Mine.”
“As someone who’s a former high school teacher and has spent a lot of time with teenagers, literally from the first moment I met [Sunny], I was just blown away,” director Hart says of her leading lady.
Hart and Horowitz tell BroadwayWorld that members of the original Waitress creative team have already seen the film, which also stars Melanie Lynskey as Sophie’s mother, Elizabeth, and Bebe Neuwirth as Sophie’s grandmother.
“Sarah saw it and loved it,” Hart reveals.
Horowitz adds that all the people involved with Waitress who saw Don’t Say Good Luck had “a very similar response.”
As for the young theater kids watching at home, “I hope they feel seen. I hope they feel loved. I hope they feel inspired,” says Hart.
“As Julia said, it’s a movie about loss, but also a movie about life,” adds Horowitz, explaining that they hope the film shows just how “healing” theater can be.
Photo Credit: Courtesy of Netflix
