Waitress Backing Tracks

Waitress Backing Tracks – Bad Idea … Everything Changes … Opening Up … She Used To Be Mine … When He Sees Me …

Waitress The musical is written by Sara Barilles, based on a book by Jessie Nelson and a film of the same name.

Jenna is a waitress and master pie baker at a diner in South America who becomes romantically involved with her doctor whilst suffering an abusive relationship. She wishes to escape her relationship and it is suggested that she enters a ‘pie making’ competition to raise the finances to be able to do so. The story follows the lives of other characters who are central to plot.

In the end, she files for divorce, ends the involvement with her doctor and becomes the owner of the diner.

Synopsis

Act I

Jenna is a waitress and expert pie baker at Joe’s Diner in the American South who imagines tough situations as pie ingredients (“What’s Inside”). She begins another day at the diner with her boss Cal and waitresses Becky and Dawn (“Opening Up”). After she almost throws up, Becky and Dawn convince her to take a pregnancy test which, to Jenna’s dismay, comes back positive due to a drunken night with her abusive husband, Earl (“The Negative”). Earl comes to the diner and suggests he may make Jenna quit and give up her passion for baking. He takes the tips she’s earned from working so far that day. She decides not to tell him about the pregnancy and recalls her late mother, who also found solace from an unhappy marriage in baking (“What Baking Can Do”).

At her OB/GYN’s office, Jenna is taunted by other pregnant women (“Club Knocked Up”) and meets Dr. Jim Pomatter, a new doctor from Connecticut. Jenna explains she does not want her baby but is going to keep it, and leaves Dr. Pomatter with a Mermaid Marshmallow pie, which, despite the fact that he is off sugar, he eats and loves it (“Pomatter Pie”).

Word of Jenna’s pregnancy reaches Joe, the diner’s curmudgeonly owner, who suggests she enter a local pie-baking contest with a large reward which would allow her to leave her husband. Dawn has turned to online dating but is terrified of the possibilities (“When He Sees Me”).

Jenna runs into Dr. Pomatter at the bus stop. He compliments her pie, saying it could “win contests and ribbons and things”. (“It Only Takes a Taste”). Jenna arrives home to learn Earl has been fired. He berates her, and his anger almost turns physical until she confesses she is pregnant. Earl makes her promise not to love the baby more than she loves him (“You Will Still Be Mine”). Jenna tells Dawn and Becky her plan to enter the pie contest and use the winnings to leave Earl for a new life with the baby. The three waitresses see their dreams of a better life within reach (“A Soft Place to Land”). Jenna begins to give Earl only half her earnings, hiding the other half around the house in order to save up for entering the pie contest.

Dawn’s date Ogie visits the diner and insists he get to know Dawn better (“Never Ever Getting Rid of Me”). Dawn and Ogie realize they both enjoy American Revolution reenactments and how much they have in common. Jenna makes an appointment with Dr. Pomatter, where she impulsively kisses him. Though both are married, they decide to escape their frustrating lives, and have sex in his office (“Bad Idea”).

Act II

After her tryst, Jenna discovers Becky and Cal making out at the diner. The married Becky is unashamed of giving in to passion (“I Didn’t Plan It”). Jenna and Dr. Pomatter continue their affair, as do Becky and Cal, and Dawn and Ogie (“Bad Idea (Reprise)”). Jenna wonders if their affair is a mistake, but Dr. Pomatter reassures her. She begins writing a mental note to her baby (“You Matter to Me”).

Several months pass and Dawn and Ogie marry (“I Love You Like a Table”). At the reception, Jenna asks if Cal, despite his affair, is truly happy; he responds that he is “happy enough.” Joe tells Jenna his sincere hopes for her (“Take It from an Old Man”). Earl drags Jenna home and uncovers the money she has been hiding. She meekly tells him she has been saving for the baby, but Earl leaves with the money (“Dear Baby”). Jenna breaks down, lamenting her long-lost control over her life (“She Used to Be Mine”).

Jenna goes into labor (“Contraction Ballet”). She sees Joe at the hospital on his way to surgery; knowing he is dying, he gives her an envelope to open later. Earl, Becky and Dawn, and even Dr. Pomatter’s wife, who is a resident at the hospital, crowd the delivery room, and Jenna cries out in distress, giving birth in darkness. She names her daughter Lulu. Earl reminds her of her promise not to love Lulu more than him, and Jenna finally tells him she wants a divorce. He reacts poorly, and she vows to run him over if she ever sees him again. Dr. Pomatter visits Jenna alone in her room, but Jenna refuses his kiss. Saying she doesn’t want to remain “happy enough”, she ends the affair. As thanks for his positive impact on her life, she gives him a moon pie. Jenna remarks on her change in outlook with Lulu in her life (“Everything Changes”).

Jenna opens Joe’s note to discover he has left her the diner, asking her to name a pie after him. A few years later, the diner has been rechristened “Lulu’s Pies” and Jenna, the owner and head chef, is content that her life has finally turned around (“Opening Up (Finale)”).

Waitress Backing Tracks

Bad Idea … Everything Changes … Opening Up … She Used To Be Mine … When He Sees Me …