Keri Russell looks as though she wouldn’t spend her lunch hour, much less a full work week, at Joe’s Pie Diner in the 2007 film “Waitress.” The actress does, however, bring real spine to the role of a put-upon, pregnant waitress who finds herself under siege by a beast of a boss on the job and a thug of a husband at home. Russell prevents the film from turning into a pity party.
To her credit, Jessie Mueller doesn’t look like a glamorous movie star slumming in a pink-collar role in the new musical “Waitress,” based on Adrienne Shelly’s movie, which opened Sunday at the Brooks Atkinson Theatre.