Pie in the sky musical is a life-affirming joy

THE WAITRESS; not only the person who brings us our food in a restaurant but a symbol of sheer hard graft, the person with the sore feet and sore shoulders and the forced smile who earns one of the lowest salaries in the pay scale.

It’s no surprise that the current BBC short film series Skint, which highlights the vast class and economic divide, has chosen to focus on the plight of the waitress in the episode,

I’d Like To Speak To The Manager, telling of a young server suffering from customer abuse.

But what of Waitress, the theatre musical set in an American diner? Does it speak to us about the plight of the working class woman, or simply offer a chance to play out a clutch of very good songs aimed at a sympathetic female audience.

Waitress, in its first conception, was a 2007 low budget film by Adrienne Shelly that became a hit and was transformed into a stage musical, with songs by the massively talented Sara Bareilles and a book by Jessie Nelson.

It tells the story of Jenna, who works in a local diner, and also bakes some fabulous pies, but her home life is heinous.

Jenna’s redneck husband Earl isn’t slow to raise his hands and offer up the sort of slap which saw Will Smith apologising to the world. Earl is a regular drunk who steals Jenna’s wages and robs her of what little selfrespect she has left. And when he finds out Jenna is pregnant, demands she loves him more than that baby.

We’re certainly rooting for this waitress. But then her life changes in the most unimaginable circumstance. When Jenna goes to the hospital for a check-up she meets the new doctor in town and falls for him.

Now, don’t assume this is an indicator of a sugary American pie play that is so sickly sweet it’s hard to swallow.

Waitress is nothing of the sort. Yes, there’s a bakeoff element to it all, essentially this is the story of a woman trapped, by her own bad choice in marrying a moron, and by the lack of money that could allow her to find freedom.

But it’s also a story about hope, that even when you hit rock bottom, if you have the right people around you, then little miracles can happen.

Sure there are moral/ethical questions to be asked of a doctor who allows himself to become involved with a pregnant, pie-baking patient. It’s an idea that’s a little halfbaked.

And we may have problems understanding why someone could produce a successful bacon and blueberry pie.

Yet, the pie in the sky dreams work perfectly as an allegory. Jenna the survivor, the battler needs an outrageous idea; a woman who can produce such fantastic pies has to have a chance of escape, doesn’t she?

This is the right show at exactly the right time. The music is also near perfect and Sara Bareilles’ She Used To Be Mine is not only the stand-out song of this musical, but is up there with the best in any show. Ever. If you don’t feel the hairs stand on the back of your neck during the performance, you must be wearing a surgical collar.

And next time you’re in a restaurant, leave a decent tip.

Waitress, The King’s Theatre, Glasgow, April 12-16.

Waitress is a story about hope, that even when someone hits rock bottom, little miracles can happen