Waitress

My thoughts on Waitress or any way you slice it, it’s a piece of musical theater heaven pie.

Somehow, I had missed seeing Waitress since it began performances in Broadway in 2015. I didn’t even know the score. That was remedied this past Wednesday night at the opening of Dallas Theater Center’s wow of a production that is destined to set the standard for Waitress Bake-offs for years to come.

RECIPE FOR MUSICAL THEATER HEAVEN PIE

Start by gathering the best ingredients.

Look for a musical based on a beloved film with a score by Sara Bareilles and a book by Jessie Nelson.

Hire an experienced, respected director with an incredible resume of successful productions. Try to get Ashley Wells if available.

Find Vonda K. Bowling and make her Music Director. Don’t take no for an answer as no one makes a musical theater heaven pie sound sweeter than Vonda. She’ll make the music and the singers soar. Ask Vonda to assemble some of DFW’s finest musicians for the band. Vickie Nooe, Benjamin Taylor Brown, Dennis Langevin, Kami Lujan and Bill Zauner would be perfect. They will have the pop/ballad score sounding oven fresh.

See if you can locate Amy Reynolds-Reed to choreograph. She is known to have all the right moves and to create clever, inventive dancing.

Get Kimberly Powers to design the vibrant diner set and Jason Lynch to do some of that awesome lighting. Ask Jeffrey Meek to make those contemporary costumes pop.

Warm the Wyly to 72 degrees.

Get the finest flour. Add a heaping tablespoon of each of the following: Julio Agustin, Kally Duncan, Esteban Vilchez, Zachary J. Willis, Bri Woods, and Alexandra Zeto. Add butter and sugar then assemble the ensemble crust.

Add just a dash of either Nova Kay Aguilar or Piper Harris as the cute as pie Lulu.

Mix in a generous pinch of the fabulous Liz Mikel as the quick witted. no nonsense nurse.

Add a generous pinch of the marvelous Bob Hess as the crusty, good-hearted Joe. Note: do not let this get near any tomatoes

Add a heaping teaspoon of the hilariously nerdy Blake Hackler as Ogie.

Mix in two teaspoons of the terrific Brain Gonzales as the boss of the diner Cal. Try not mix near Becky.

Add a tablespoon of Ian Ferguson as the no good husband Earl. You may be tempted to leave out this bitter ingredient, but the pie does not work without it and Ferguson makes being despicable an art.

Combine well. Set out the main ingredients.

In a separate bowl mix

1 cup of Ayanna Edwards as Becky the waitress, friend to Dawn and Jenna and hot for Cal. Stand back from the bowl when she belts “I Didn’t Plan It.” You may need to wipe your brow before proceeding.

I cup of Christina Austin Lopez as the quirky Becky, Jenna’s best friend. You may want to dip this ingredient in peanut butter or some other tasty covering so as to make it unrecognizable, but everyone will know it’s the incomparable Lopez underneath. It’s optional here to add another couple teaspoons of Ogie and remember how great Hackler and Lopez were singing “ I Love You Like a Table.”

1 cup of Jonathan Bragg as the charming Dr. Pomatter, Jenna’s doctor and married love interest. You’ll be tempted to spend extra time with the kind, self-deprecating doctor with a gorgeous tenor and winning demeanor.

Finally add three cups of Tiffany Solano to the bowl. Butter. Sugar. Flour. Solano. To say that Solano is dynamite in the role of the waitress expecting a baby is an understatement. I believe I have seen every Tiffany Solano performance in the past six years, and she is never less than spectacular. But if there is such a thing as beyond spectacular that’s what she is here. And when she sings “She Used to Be Mine,” so many tears fall you will think someone added onions to the batter. Brava indeed.

Let pie bake for two hours removing from oven for fifteen minutes about halfway through the bake.

Musical Theater Heaven Pie is guaranteed to please everyone.

Waitress plays at the Wyly Theatre through April 20.

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