“Waitress” Broadway National Tour

[BroadwayDave]

Saw the Sunday matinee this past weekend. Absolutely loved, loved LOVED this show! Tons and tons of humor (some of it quite adult-rated), lots of great songs (soul-jarring heartbreak evident in one of them), and a cast that was superb. Jim Hogan was on as Ogie all week while Jeremy Morse was off on vacation and he stole the show, and did a great job at it! And Nick Bailey as Earl did a real good job of making you NOT like him. It was funny at the end of the show how he came out with a “don’t throw anything at me” look on his face, putting his hands up, and the audience laughed.

 

Having listened to the Original Broadway Cast album off-and-on for the past seven weeks the vocals were all very strong and spot on during this show. There was one point during Act Two in the reprise of “Bad Idea” where the on-stage band got quite loud and literally drowned out the lyrics in the last half of the song.

 

Favorite songs, from a very strong list of musical numbers, but I’ll narrow it down to a few: “Opening Up” (one of those toe-tapping catchy tunes and lyrics, and a great beat); “Never Ever Getting Rid Of Me” (Ogie was all over the stage on this and soooo funny); “Take It From An Old Man” (just adorable on stage, amazing him passing life’s lessons to Jenna, loved this song and its lyrics, and when he tells Jenna “...and if you lack the strength of your own, honey hold out your hands, and take it from old man.); and rendered so very heartbreakingly, the short seconds of “Dear Baby”, and “She Use To Be Mine”, which I sat there listening to with a huge, huge lump in my throat and tears in my eyes, her amazing vocals soaring over the entire theater, and you could feel the pain. The audience so quiet you could her a pin drop.

 

The ending is so cute, fantastic, and everyone leaves with a HUGE smile on their face LOVING this show.

 

If you haven’t seen this, and it’s coming to your town, do not miss this.

 

 

 

[+ Avalon]