More Closed Broadway Shows Should Live on Like This!

Right now, fans of the musical Waitress are getting to relive the magic of the Sara Bareilles musical released to a wider audience, which is a nice change of pace for what normally happens with musicals. From director Adrienne Shelly, who died prior to seeing the success it would have, the film Waitress has a soft spot in the hearts of its fans. Then, the musical came to make us love the story even more.

Originally starring Jessie Mueller as Jenna, the musical features music from Bareilles, who would eventually go on to star as Jenna herself. Now, you can see Bareilles’ take on Jenna alongside Drew Gehling’s Dr. Pomatter in a filmed version of the stage show. Released earlier this year at the Tribeca Film Festival, the filmed version is set to release in theaters on December 7, and really, we should be doing this with more shows that have closed on Broadway.

Waitress has had many lives on Broadway, including a tour, as well as two different theater runs pre- and post-pandemic. Still, that doesn’t mean that everyone who wanted to see the show has had the chance. In fact, when I saw the show, I was so far up in the balcony that I almost missed part of it (and didn’t have a great audience experience anyway). Getting a second chance to live Jenna’s story, especially with Bareilles as the lead, is exciting to me, and more fans will be able to experience the magic that is Waitress.

Make closed shows more obtainable!

Broadway is an interesting ball game because a lot of the time, when a show closes, that’s it. Yes, you can, in theory, go and watch filmed productions at the Theatre on Film and Tape Archive, but that brings up another issue: The archive does have all these shows, but people can’t easily access them. They often do not release the productions to the general public in a bigger way, and that’s not really fair.

Shows like, for instance, my favorite musicals (Spring Awakening and American Psycho the Musical) could have a second life in theaters, and that wouldn’t detract from future stage productions of them, either. Many of us love musicals but don’t live in an area where they’re available. Before I moved to New York, I would beg to come and see shows, but if I had theatre available to me at movie theaters, I could have seen shows I longed for but couldn’t make the trip in time to see.

This kind of release is for those theatre kids who long to see shows but maybe can’t afford it. That’s why Waitress the Musical getting a theatrical release is so special, and hopefully we begin to see more of this kind of thing with musicals (like we saw with Hamilton) in the future.

(featured image: Bleecker Street)