Review: WAITRESS Serves Up Great Score and More at Bill Hanney's North Shore Music Theatre

After its sold-out world premiere at the American Repertory Theater in Cambridge in 2015, a four-year Broadway run, and a national tour that played Boston’s Citizens Opera House in 2018, the Tony and Grammy Award-nominated musical “Waitress” is open for business in a marvelously entertaining new production at Bill Hanney’s North Shore Music Theatre through June 15.

Based on the hit 2007 indie film of the same name, “Waitress” is the story of Jenna, a young waitress and proficient pie maker trapped in an unhappy marriage and working in a diner creating pies with clever names inspired by her life. Bullied at home by her ne’er-do-well husband, Jenna finds escape with her co-workers at the diner, tests the waters of a new romance with her handsome doctor, and plots her escape from her marriage

The film was written and directed by Adrienne Shelly, who was murdered in November 2006 at age 40, three months before the film’s premiere, by a contractor working in her New York home. Shelley played Dawn, one of the waitresses at Joe’s Pie Diner, in the movie. For the stage, Shelly’s original screenplay was adapted by Jessie Nelson, with music and lyrics by Sara Bareilles in her first musical theater effort. And while the musical is based on Shelly’s screenplay, you won’t be alone if your mind wanders to the obvious similarities this story has with the 1974 film “Alice Doesn’t Live Here Anymore,” and its sitcom sequel, “Alice.”

At NSMT, director Kevin P. Hill makes full, imaginative use of the theater-in-the-round space, enhanced by Jack Mehler’s scenic and lighting design, to create Jenna’s world – the diner, her timeworn living room, her obstetrician’s office, and more.

As Jenna – the role originated on film by Keri Russell and at the A.R.T.’s Loeb Drama Center and on Broadway by Jessie Mueller – Christine Dwyer captures the character’s struggles through the songs. She’s terrific on the act-one opener, “What’s Inside,” and on “The Negative” as well as “What Baking Can Do,” which establish the story’s wonderful dryness.

And while specialty pies are on the diner’s menu – and doesn’t Marshmallow Mermaid Pie sound delicious? – quirky characters are the order of the day, starting with Jenna’s fellow servers. Brandi Chavonne Massey is wondrous as sassy hash slinger Becky, who doesn’t back down from her boss, Cal (a terrific Arnold Harper II), or from demanding customers – and doesn’t hesitate to stand up for Jenna.  

Massey nails her solo, the act two opener “I Didn’t Plan It,” which has Becky explaining that her life isn’t always pristine or perfect. When she’s questioned about a personal decision she’s made, Becky sings, “I didn’t go looking for this, but I found it and I’m going to run with it.”

The more timid Dawn is played with bountiful nervous twitches by Maggie Elizabeth May in an unstated nod to the late Beth Howland (Vera in “Alice Doesn’t Live Here Anymore” and “Alice”). May’s scene work with Dwyer and Massey is very funny, and she is especially good when paired with awkward suitor Ogie (a hilarious Courter Simmons).

A bighearted eccentric, Ogie is also a professional hobbyist – a Revolutionary War reenactor, an amateur clog dancer and magician, and a practitioner of spontaneous poetry. In other words, he’s what some might call a loveable goofball. And when he sings “Never Ever Getting Rid of Me” to Dawn, you know he really means it.

Jenna’s romantic life is more complicated. Her husband, Earl (Matt DeAngelis), is a dimwitted deadbeat, prone to selfish cruelty. And while there is nothing to like about Earl, DeAngelis demonstrates strong vocals on “You Will Still Be Mine,” his act-one duet with Dwyer, the performer’s real-life wife.

With the odious Earl waiting at home, it’s understandable when Jenna finds herself drawn to her new obstetrician, Dr. Pomatter, played with a blend of handsomeness and humorous blunder by Brandon Kalm. Dwyer and Kalm are funny and sexy on “It Only Takes a Taste,” and touching on “You Matter to Me.” And Kalm, who was a replacement in this role on Broadway, also uses a comical cadence that adds to his character’s obvious charms.

Also doing fine work is Keith Lee Grant as curmudgeonly diner patron Joe – a role originated on film by the late Andy Griffith and in Cambridge and on Broadway by Dakin Matthews – whose take on “Take It from an Old Man” adds leavening.

What makes this musical stand out in the too-crowded field of movie-to-stage adaptations, however, is Bareilles’s score, which informs the story and moves it forward, with clear reasons for every note and each lyric.  Never is this more true than on the ballad “She Used to Be Mine,” sung here magnificently by Dwyer, who wrings every drop of emotion from it while the echo of Bareilles’s own powerful pop voice fills the air.