Spokane Civic Theatre’s production of “Waitress” is likely the first production in the theater’s history that necessitates having three refrigerators backstage.
Or a member of the crew – Theresa Johnson – responsible for baking five pies a week.
Or real “sugar, butter, flour” as part of the props budget, which also called on the props team, including propmaster Kylle Collins, to create 30 fake pies and source nearly as many coffee cups, plates and utensils as you’d find in a working diner.
“Waitress” is a story about courage and resilience, but also about pies, those who make them and those who eat them. The show, which features music and lyrics by Sara Bareilles and a book by Jessie Nelson, opens Friday and runs through June 15 at Civic.
The musical is inspired by the film of the same name written and directed by Adrienne Shelly.
In “Waitress,” we meet Jenna (Chelsea LeValley), a waitress and pie baker at Joe’s Pie Diner. With an abusive husband, Earl (Oskar Owens), at home, Jenna finds solace in baking and enjoys working with boss Cal (Mike Donahoe) and fellow waitresses Becky (Nicole Hicks-Wedge) and Dawn (Kalla Mort).
After nearly getting sick one day at work, Becky and Dawn convince Jenna to take a pregnancy test, which is positive, to her dismay. She decides to hide the news from Earl, at least for a little while, and visits her OB-GYN, Dr. Pomatter (JJ Hatheway). She tells the doctor that she doesn’t want an abortion, yet she also doesn’t want to raise a child.
Before leaving the appointment, Jenna gives the doctor a Mermaid Marshmallow pie, which he loves.
Diner owner Joe (Kim Berg) eventually learns of Jenna’s pregnancy and suggests she enter a pie-baking contest which offers a $20,000 cash prize. In other words, enough money for Jenna to start a new life without Earl.
While working on her contest entry, Jenna must also juggle an angry Earl, helping Dawn with her relationship with Ogie (Barin Saxton), whom she met through a dating app, and a budding closeness to Dr. Pomatter.
The ensemble features Karlin Marie Kahler, Eric Redmond, Jonatan Reyes, Dana Sammond, Sean Stoudt, Ryan Wasson, Kellen Weigand and Kailyn Wilder. Alice Rush plays Lulu, Jenna’s daughter, in the second act.
Civic’s production is directed by Troy Nickerson, music directed by Tonya Ballman-Lakewolf and choreographed by Delaney Kahler. The orchestra features Ballman-Lakewolf on keys, Abe Kinney on guitar, Taylor Belote and Bryan Swenland on percussion, and Bruce Pennell on bass.
Prior to signing on to direct “Waitress,” Nickerson had not seen the musical in full, but rather snippets here and there. He was attracted to the style of the show and was interested in working on a production he had no prior experience with.
“It’s the movement of the ensemble and the way the sets and thoughts and things are all introduced in such an artistic and clever way, almost through dance and movement,” he said.
Only after he started working on his production did he watch the 2023 filmed stage production featuring Bareilles as Jenna and Drew Gehling as Dr. Pomatter.
When approaching his production, Nickerson, like many directors, strove to find a balance between creating moments fans of the show expect to see and putting his own spin on the story. There were some elements that he chose to recreate because they were “perfect as they are” while other moments when he chose to try something new.
“It also leads us up to creating anything that we wanted to in the way we wanted to as well,” he said. “It was a combination of capturing some of the iconic moments of ‘Waitress’ that I think are important to have and yet still be very creative and bringing our own way of doing it as well.”
Nickerson was able to play around with some of the show’s blocking, especially any action involving a prop. In the show, props aren’t contained to one part of the set. As they would be in a real diner, cups, plates, napkins, silverware and, yes, slices of pie are scattered from table to table. That presented Nickerson with the challenge of figuring out how actors could realistically bus each table so the set was ready to be moved at the end of the diner scenes.
“All these little details have been mind numbing,” he said. “It’s like, ‘Are you kidding me?’ but once you get there, it’s all going to feel easy in a week.”
As has become commonplace in theater, Nickerson worked with an intimacy coordinator for the good and bad relationships in the show. For tense moments between Jenna and Earl especially, the actors broke down every second of each scene so they would always be in control, even with the heightened emotions their scenes require.
While acknowledging Earl is an abusive man, Nickerson also wanted to emphasize that he is more than a one-dimensional character.
“Most people that are abusive are broken people, and he’s broken,” Nickerson said. “It’s good to show some sides of that person coming out so you can see why she maybe loved him at one time to begin with. It’s not just ‘Here comes the bad guy.’ There’s more there and there’s a reason for these things.”
Abusive partner or not, many who grew up in small towns, like Jenna, likely have at least a little experience feeling like they were stuck with the cards they were dealt. “Waitress,” then, is a prime example of the phrase “It takes a village.”
While Jenna struggles to unstick herself from the life she’s found herself living, Dawn, Becky, Cal, Joe and Dr. Pomatter are by her side through thick and thin. And she, in return, supports them as they experience all that life throws their way.
When thinking of the village it took to bring this story of courage and resilience, plus all of those pies, to the stage, Nickerson is full of pride and praise, saying the cast has the vocal and acting chops required for a show like “Waitress.”
He also speaks of late nights at rehearsals where folks were willing to stay a little later to nail down the details.
“It’s pretty amazing, the commitment and the drive that these people have to create something special,” he said.
If You Go
‘Waitress’
When: Friday through June 15. 7:30 p.m. Wednesdays through Fridays and May 31; 2 p.m. Saturdays and Sundays.
Where: Spokane Civic Theatre, 1020 N. Howard St.
Cost: $42/adults; $37/seniors and military; $15/students. Tickets available through spokanecivictheatre.com.
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Article by Azaria Podplesky
Photos by Marlee Melinda Andrews