Theater Review: MUSICALFARE'S "WAITRESS"
- Anthony Chase
- 11 hours ago
- 5 min read
A Bittersweet End at Daemen
By Anthony Chase
MusicalFare Theatre marks the end of its long tenure at Daemen University with Waitress, the story of an expert pie-maker trapped in an oppressive marriage in a nowhere town. The production encapsulates why this intimate venue has sometimes been a constraint, but more often a blessing to a company devoted to musical theater. The aroma I detected in the air on opening night was not apple pie; it was nostalgia. So many wonderful nights of theater experienced in that space!
As the company heads downtown to the opportunities possible in the 500-seat Shea's 710 Theatre, Waitress provides a fitting coda. This 2016 musical, with music and lyrics by Sara Bareilles and a book by Jessie Nelson, adapted from Adrienne Shelly's film, showcases a cast of talented local artists telling a story that bursts into song – as always at MusicalFare, accompanied by live musicians. That's the not-so-secret MusicalFare magic formula.
Waitress confronts a complex and unexpectedly dark narrative – Jenna, a pregnant waitress in an abusive marriage begins an affair with her gynecologist. The premise resists easy sentimentality, yet with a gentle touch, director Susan Droz navigates these ethical complexities with welcome nuance and even joy.
Maria Pedro, who has previously inhabited roles such as Carole King in Beautiful and Adelaide in Guys and Dolls -- each demanding its own brand of emotional honesty -- demonstrates a new dramatic gravity as Jenna. I had eagerly anticipated this performance by an actor who has formidable stage presence and range. I was entirely satisfied. We see her process the seeming inescapability of her situation as she navigates her life, one pie at a time. Her interpretation of songs like “She Used to Be Mine” transcends the song’s pop ballad origins, excavating emotional terrain and literally crying out the words as she interprets the song.
Let me sidestep the issue of the man being Jenna’s gynecologist and just say that John Kaczorowski’s Dr. Jim Pomatter is, refreshingly, not the answer to Jenna’s problems but another complication. His awkwardness is not a tic but a kind of honesty, and the chemistry he shares with Jenna is all the more convincing for its hesitancy. Never mind that he will turn out, on top of it all, to be married. And yet, at the moment when Dr. Jim relents and tastes Jenna’s Mermaid Marshmallow Pie while sitting on the examining table, the table spins in a circle and Kaczorowski blissfully kicks his feet like a little kid. It’s irresistible.
Nicholas Lama’s Cal, the diner’s cook, is all gruffness until he isn’t. The production wisely lets his softer side emerge in glimpses, particularly, of course, in scenes with Becky, the waitress who cuts him no slack, making their relationship feel less like a subplot and more like a secret the show is willing to share.
Lily Jones balances Becky's caretaking duties and personal desires without resorting to sassy-best-friend tropes. She is, arguably, Flo to Pedro’s Alice (or to Gallego’s Vera), but with something more essentially real. As Becky, Jones is a study in contradictions: brash but not brittle, loyal but not blind. She resists the temptation to play Becky as comic relief, instead finding the character’s power in her ability to hold two truths at once -- her own struggles and her fierce support for Jenna.
Rheanna Gallego’s Dawn is all edges and nerves, a woman whose awkwardness is not a quirk but a shield. Her transformation, once Ogie (Ahnon Meyers) barrels into her life, is less a blossoming than an unmasking.
I arrived expecting that Dan Urtz would be cast as Dawn’s ardent suiter, Ogie -- the role most closely aligned with the quirky, outcast characters he has made his own on Buffalo stages. Urtz, after all, is often the go-to for roles with comic eccentricity and a certain offbeat charm. Instead, he appears here in a wholly unsympathetic and charmless role. He manages this with disturbing conviction and yet, his Earl is a bit of a quirky outcast. Nonetheless, the most pleasurable aspect of his performance is that he makes a man so hideously and monstrous that we laugh with delight at his ultimate comeuppance.
Jeremy Ephraim Meyers, stepping into Ogie’s shoes, brings an original energy. Ogie is a potentially annoying cartoon of a character, but Meyers’s performance is defined by a blend of comic agility and sincerity, making Ogie’s pursuit of Dawn both relentless and unexpectedly endearing. The dynamic between Meyers and Rheanna Gallego’s Dawn is freshly charged, and the result is a pairing that feels both surprising and inevitable. He’s relentless, yes, but never grating; the humor lands because it’s rooted in a genuine, if improbable, longing.
If the show’s heart is Jenna, its pulse is Michael J. Galante’s Joe. Here is a curmudgeon who refuses to be reduced to a punchline. Galante’s Joe dispenses unsolicited advice with the precision of a surgeon and the empathy of someone who’s been ignored too often himself. When he locks eyes with Jenna, you sense a conversation happening beneath the script.
And let’s give special mention to Kristen-Marie Lopez who makes several whimsical appearances as Dr. Jim’s suspicious and protective nurse, making hay with a character mostly intended to serve a logistical function. We know this woman, a licensed nurse in a small town medical practice who is the empress of her domain.
Collin McKee's movement work (deliberately not labeled "choreography") creates moments of physical storytelling that reveal character dynamics with subtle grace -- observe how the three waitresses' movements contrast, suggesting their different personalities and approaches to life.
Theresa Quinn's musical direction extracts the emotional core from Bareilles's score (the original 2016 Broadway production was a landmark for its all-female creative team, with Bareilles, Jessie Nelson, Diane Paulus, and Lorin Latarro) buoyantly bringing its Broadway pedigree down to human proportions.
Kari Drozd's costumes establish character without announcing themselves. Waitress uniforms become a kind of disguise that contrast with the depth of the women who inhabit them revealed when through their civilian clothing.
Chris Cavanagh's diner setting converts efficiently and playfully into various locations – the Daemen stage never looked so vast -- while Kevin Fahey's prop design deftly helps establish the reality of this work, augmented by an array of pies created by Brian Cavanagh that represent visual metaphors for the protagonist's emotional landscape.
Drozd’s direction trusts the knotty material to speak in small gestures: a glance held too long, a joke that lands a little too close to home, a pie held to waft beneath a nose. What emerges is a production that refuses to sentimentalize its characters or their predicaments. Neither, however, does it hesitate to reveal their humanity. Moments like when Pedro and John Kaczorowski (Dr. Jim) perform “It Only Takes a Taste” near the stage edge create an electric intimacy that showcases the advantages of the small Daemen Theatre.
MusicalFare’s Waitress is not a story about escape but about endurance, about the ways people carve out moments of sweetness in a world that rarely offers them up freely. The production acknowledges the troubling realities of its premise while finding authentic humanity in its characters. It’s a show that understands that hope, like a good pie, is made from scratch.
"Waitress" continues through May 19 at MusicalFare Theatre, Daemen University. For tickets: musicalfare.com, (716) 839-8540.