She was an admired pop star with a voice like butter. But writing a musical about a woman who bakes pies? When Sara Bareilles was approached more than a decade ago about penning the score for “Waitress” on Broadway, she literally pictured a mountain in front of her, impossible to climb.
Bareilles hadn’t even yet seen the source material, the 2007 indie movie starring Keri Russell as Jenna, a small-town waitress in an abusive marriage who bakes for solace and self-expression. And though she loved musicals, Bareilles had never written from any character’s perspective but her own. But at that initial lunch meeting, theater director Diane Paulus suggested Bareilles go watch the film and then write something, anything: “Whatever pours out of you.”
