★★★☆☆
There were high expectations for Waitress at Lowry, but, unfortunately, this particular pie didn’t quite live up to the recipe. There are some delicious ingredients, a handful of real treats, and moments that hit the sweet spot, but the overall result is a little underbaked, occasionally flat, and, in the immortal words of Mary Berry, rather too much of a soggy bottom.
Based on the 2007 film written and directed by Adrienne Shelly, the musical follows Jenna (Lucie Jones, returning to her best-known role), a talented pie-maker and waitress stuck in an abusive marriage, who discovers she is pregnant and begins dreaming of a different life. Between her complicated feelings for the new doctor in town, Dr Pomatter (Dan Partridge), and the support of her fellow waitresses, Becky and Dawn, Jenna tries to find a way to take control of her future.
The biggest slice of praise goes to the stage design. The attention to detail is genuinely amazing. The diner feels wonderfully lived-in, and the props, little decorative touches, and carefully considered details give the set a personality of its own. There is real craftsmanship here, and the production looks as though it has been assembled with considerably more care than some of its other ingredients. If set design were the pie, this would be the award-winning showstopper.
The chemistry between the three waitresses is another highlight. Lucie Jones brings Jenna to life, while Bernadette Bangura as Becky and Evelyn Hoskins as Dawn make a convincing, entertaining trio. Their friendship feels natural, and their scenes together provide some of the production’s warmest moments. Bangura is arguably the funniest performer on stage, stealing the spotlight with ease. Mark Anderson is the other major scene-stealer as Ogie, delivering the sort of gloriously eccentric performance that makes you wish he were in even more scenes. Both know how to get a laugh. Dan Partridge is perfectly pleasant as Dr Pomatter, while Mark Willshire deserves credit for playing Earl’s abusive, controlling behaviour convincingly enough to make him thoroughly unpleasant.
The vocals across the cast are generally fine, although they don’t consistently reach the heights one might hope for from a musical of this reputation. And then there are the American accents. Goodness me. For much of the cast, they are about as convincing as Gloria Delgado-Pritchett attempting her Texas accent.
An even more puzzling distraction is the band being on stage. There may be a perfectly good artistic reason for this, but the musicians’ presence frequently breaks the illusion of the world we are supposed to be immersed in. Seeing them pull faces and whisper to one another during the performance felt particularly unprofessional. Instead of enhancing the atmosphere, it sometimes felt as though we were watching two separate shows competing for our attention.
Ultimately, Waitress is a show with plenty of potential, and it is frustrating that it doesn’t quite come together. The production has a beautiful set, a genuinely engaging central friendship, and two standout comic performances, but the general lack of polish leaves the whole thing feeling less satisfying than it should. There are some tasty moments, but the emotional and musical payoff doesn’t always rise to the occasion.
It’s not a complete kitchen disaster, and there is enough here to make an evening of it. But with such a well-loved musical, a talented cast, and expectations set sky-high, this should have been a much richer treat. Instead, the filling is a little thin, the crust hasn’t quite crisped up, and the final result is disappointing enough to make the audience leave during the interval or, indeed, the performance itself.
Waitress is a beautiful-looking pie with some excellent ingredients, but one that needed a little longer in the oven.
Waitress runs at Lowry (Lyric Theatre) until October 31 – the last stop of its UK tour.
