For those who wanted to see “Waitress” on stage but couldn’t, or for those who want a more convenient route to see it again, Bleecker Street and Fathom Events are bringing it to a theater near you.
Tickets are on sale now for the five-day engagement, which will run from Dec. 7 through Dec. 11 with one or two shows offered daily. This isn’t unusual for Fathom, but it’s another example of theaters filling seats with less-conventional programming and demographically specific event films.
“Waitress” stars Sara Bareilles, who also wrote the music and lyrics, as a waitress and pie maker stuck in a loveless marriage with a baby on the way. A baking contest offers a chance at escape, as does an unexpected romance with a man who treats her right.
The show is based on the 2007 feature film written and directed by Adrienne Shelly. The film gained infamy prior to release when Shelly was murdered in her own home by an intruder in an attack that was initially written off by police as a suicide. In her honor, the Women Film Critics Circle began giving an annual Adrienne Shelly Award to the film that it finds “most passionately opposes violence against women.” The film, which was the late filmmaker’s final project, starred Keri Russell and Nathan Fillon and $22 million on a $1.5 million budget while earning mostly positive notices.
The stage adaptation, with a book by Jessie Nelson, debuted on Broadway in 2016. It earned mixed-positive notices and four Tony Award nominations. It made history at the time via being a big Broadway show with all four of the top positions filled by women, with Diane Paulus as director, Bareilles as composer and lyricist, Jessie Nelson as book adaptor and Lorin Latarro as choreographer.
The circle for an original film becoming a Broadway musical and then, in some cases, that musical getting turned into a feature film, has been relatively vibrant in recent years. “Hairspray” was a well-liked hit in 2007 and “The Color Purple” is arriving in theaters this Christmas. Paramount recently upgraded the feature film adaptation of the “Mean Girls” musical adaptation from Paramount+ to a wide theatrical release.
Depending on your glass half-full or glass half-empty thoughts, it’s either a case of a snake eating its own tale or a further incentive for Hollywood to make more original films. You can’t cash in on the “Beetlejuice” or “Legally Blonde” musical without rolling the dice on those original movies.
