Gig as show’s pie consultant brings woman back to roots

After two decades spent as a professional ballet and contemporary dancer performing around the world, Stacy Donnelly thought she left the entertainment world behind when five years ago she opened Cute as Cake bakery in New York City.

However, fate had other plans. By happenstance, Donnelly was first introduced to the world of Broadway when producers asked her to provide an opening-night cake for “Pippin.”

“We developed a relationship, and when they started working on ‘Waitress,’ I got a phone call asking if I made pies, as well as cakes,” said Donnelly, calling from the Big Apple. “Of course I do, so we just started speaking about the show and different ways to incorporate real pie.”

Today, she’s the “Waitress” pie consultant. Along with her team of eight, Donnelly bakes all the pies used in the show by hand, as well as the mason jar pies that are sold at the theater. That’s more than 30 full-size pies and 2,000 mason jar pies each week. She makes the crust from scratch and doesn’t use any preservatives.

Donnelly’s gig continues as the popular musical, which features original music and lyrics by six-time Grammy Awardnominated Sara Bareilles (“Brave,” “Love Song”), is about to begin its first national tour.

The Tony Award-nominated production kicks off the 2017-2018 KeyBank Broadway Series at Playhouse Square appearing Oct. 17 through Nov. 5 at the Connor Palace.

Donnelly said she’ll be transporting key lime and chocolate salted caramel pies to Cleveland for “Waitress,” which was initially inspired by Adrienne Shelly’s well-received 2007 film starring Keri Russell.

The plot revolves around server Jenna, who is also an expert pie maker. She finds herself stuck in not only a small town but also a loveless marriage with an unexpected baby on the way. There’s a baking contest in a nearby county and new love interest that may provide a new beginning, but in the end any change requires self-discovery and confidence.

“I think pie acts as another character in the show,” Donnelly said. “It really represents Jenna’s emotions and feelings of what she’s going through in each moment in her life, like it’s an extension of her personality.”

Ironically, Donnelly said there are numerous parallels between her life and the main character who finds life-changing opportunities through baking.

“We’ve all been in a place in our life or a time in our life where we had expectations of ourselves and what we thought we should be doing,” Donnelly said. “I dealt with this a lot when I was retiring from dance. I relied on baking a lot to help me express my emotions, to help me deal with frustrations, to make me feel still good at something because my life was changing a lot.

“I do see a lot of parallels that you just have to kind of push through and keep hope and keep your positive thoughts that your life will go in a direction that you want it to be because one day you’ll stand up and say, ‘I’m changing this. I’m going to do what I want to do.’”

“I think pie acts as another character in the show.” — Stacy Donnellly of Cute as Cake bakery in New York,the pie consultant for “Waitress.”

SUBMITTED Stacy Donnellly of Cute as Cake bakery in New York is the pie consultant for “Waitress.”

JOAN MARCUS Pies are paramount in the musical “Waitress.”