Waitress at Nottingham Royal Concert Hall - Review

★★★☆☆

Waitress has all the ingredients of a great night at the theatre. Carrie Hope Fletcher brings warmth and naturalism to Jenna, and Sara Bareilles’ exceptional score delivers the show's familiar mix of humour and heart. Yet this production occasionally struggles to make those ingredients fizz. So, what’s holding it back?

Watch the Waitress Rapid Review:

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Jenna is a waitress and gifted pie-maker trapped in an abusive marriage with Earl, working alongside her friends Becky and Dawn at Joe’s Pie Diner. When Jenna discovers she is pregnant, a pie-making competition offers a potential route to financial independence, while a new doctor, Dr Pomatter, complicates her already precarious life. Around her, Becky and Dawn navigate their own relationships, ambitions and problems as the diner becomes the unlikely centre of all their lives.

Carrie Hope Fletcher’s Jenna is carefully observed and naturalistic. She doesn’t overplay her fear of Earl, exhaustion at work or attraction to Pomatter, allowing those emotions to sit beneath the character instead. It gives Jenna the quality of someone accustomed to making herself smaller, making her gradual reclamation of her life all the more affecting. Fletcher makes Jenna feel like a woman rather than a collection of musical-theatre beats, with her vocal control always serving the character rather than becoming a showcase. “She Used to Be Mine” is the obvious high point: its emotional weight comes from everything Fletcher has held back until this moment.

One issue is that the production sometimes feels too subdued. The performances are natural, characterful and technically accomplished, yet the overall theatrical charge rarely reaches the level the material promises. This is one of those musicals where I wanted to be grabbed by the dramatic goolies, knocked sideways by powerhouse vocals and swept up in the story. Too often, I found myself thinking: “Okay, I’m watching a version of Waitress.”

Carrie Hope Fletcher as Jenna. Photo Credit: Matt Crockett.

Sara Bareilles’ score is one of Waitress’s greatest strengths. It tells the story with remarkable precision; the arrangements guide the storytelling and control the audience’s energy. They excite us, draw us in with luxurious melodies and high-energy pop numbers, before eventually landing the emotional gut punch in Act 2. The opening scene contains “What’s Inside”, “Opening Up”, “The Negative” and “What Baking Can Do”. These songs are energetic, funny and packed with plot, while giving us an immediate sense of the world we have entered.

Unfortunately, the band sounded off-balance, with the drums becoming particularly dominant in the reverberant Royal Concert Hall, while the piano was barely audible. More importantly, the music-to-vocal balance felt wrong, with the accompaniment sitting noticeably underneath the singers for much of the first third of the show. The volume also seemed unusually low at the beginning before noticeably increasing as the evening progressed. That meant the very songs designed to grab the audience and establish the show's musical energy came and went without much impact.

Sandra Marvin gives Becky a sharp comic edge and brings the vocal confidence the role needs, while Evelyn Hoskins finds exactly the right nervous, naïve energy for Dawn. Their friendship with Jenna feels genuine, and there is a sense that these three women actually know one another well.  Dan Partridge's Dr Pomatter is a likeable, awkward presence, and his nervousness makes the character immediately endearing. Pomatter describes himself as neurotic, yet I found myself thinking that Partridge had another gear to reach full throttle. The performance is funny and believable, but there is room for a little more eccentricity and comic chaos. 

Mark Anderson's Ogie is committed to the heightened performance of his role. He gets the biggest laughs precisely because he is willing to go big. It is hard not to wonder how much more explosive the rest of the diner could feel if everyone else let loose. Ellie Ruiz Rodriguez's Nurse Norma also finds some excellent comic timing, particularly once the audience has settled into her Spanish accent, which initially gets a laugh before the character does. 

And then there is Cal, who presents a rather different problem: Dan O'Brien is simply far too attractive to be Cal. Previous interpretations have been the rough-edged, ageing biker who has become part of the furniture at the diner; O'Brien's version is considerably more polished. That is not a criticism of the performance itself, but the casting works against the character comedy. When Cal's affair comes to light, part of the joke is the audacity of this unremarkable man having a secret sex life. With O'Brien looking like that, the audience is thinking, "Well... obviously someone would have an affair with him.”

Visually, the production retains the familiar warmth of Joe's Pie Diner, with the pies, props and food preparation helping to create a world that feels lived-in. Scott Pask's colourful diner has a theatrical charm, while the use of real ingredients and the constant presence of food give the space a tangible, handmade quality. It is an inviting environment that immediately establishes the diner as a genuine workplace and social hub, with the ensemble feeling like people who actually spend their days here rather than actors waiting for their next dance number.

Waitress is a funny, warm musical with a superb central performance, some genuinely beautiful writing, and plenty of moments to enjoy. For me, this tour doesn't consistently deliver the theatrical electricity that has made this show one of my repeat-viewing favourites. Waitress should leave you wanting another slice. This one left me appreciating the ingredients while wishing somebody had turned up the heat.