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Review: ‘Waitress’ serves up a heaping helping of top-notch theater in La Mirada

September 24, 2024

“Sugar, butter, flour.”

At La Mirada Theatre for the Performing Arts now, this soothingly murmured mantra might be a dietician’s nightmare, but it keeps a troubled pie-baker extraordinaire sane and sure helps turn an audience giddy.

“Waitress,” a hit Broadway musical in 2016, is well revived here at a regional theater level of engagement. In fact, the engaging production and its spot-on cast wouldn’t be out of place in midtown Manhattan.

Ben Jacoby and Desi Oakley appear in a scene from “Waitress” at La Mirada Theatre for the Performing Arts. (Photo by Jason Niedle, TETHOS)

Dominique Kent, Desi Oakley and Rianny Vasquez star in “Waitress” at the La Mirada Theatre for the Performing Arts through Oct. 13. (Photo by Jason Niedle, TETHOS)

Desi Oakley and Cleavant Derricks appear in a scene from “Waitress” at La Mirada Theatre for the Performing Arts. (Photo by Jason Niedle, TETHOS)

Desi Oakley and Brian Krinsky appear in a scene from “Waitress” at La Mirada Theatre for the Performing Arts. (Photo by Jason Niedle, TETHOS)

Desi Oakley, center, stars in “Waitress” at the La Mirada Theatre for the Performing Arts through Oct. 13. (Photo by Jason Niedle, TETHOS)

Desi Oakley and Ben Jacoby appear in a scene from “Waitress” at La Mirada Theatre for the Performing Arts. (Photo by Jason Niedle, TETHOS)

From left, Desi Oakley, Dominique Kent and Rianny Vasquez appear in a scene from “Waitress” at La Mirada Theatre for the Performing Arts. (Photo by Jason Niedle, TETHOS)

From left, Dominique Kent, Desi Oakley and Rianny Vasquez star in “Waitress” at the La Mirada Theatre for the Performing Arts through Oct. 13. (Photo by Jason Niedle, TETHOS)

Desi Oakley stars in “Waitress” at the La Mirada Theatre for the Performing Arts through Oct. 13. (Photo by Jason Niedle, TETHOS)

Desi Oakley and Ben Jacoby appear in a scene from “Waitress” at La Mirada Theatre for the Performing Arts. (Photo by Jason Niedle, TETHOS)

Rianny Vasquez and Jared Gertner appear in a scene from “Waitress” at La Mirada Theatre for the Performing Arts. (Photo by Jason Niedle, TETHOS)

From left, Dominique Kent, Desi Oakley and Rianny Vasquez star in “Waitress” at the La Mirada Theatre for the Performing Arts through Oct. 13. (Photo by Jason Niedle, TETHOS)

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Ben Jacoby and Desi Oakley appear in a scene from “Waitress” at La Mirada Theatre for the Performing Arts. (Photo by Jason Niedle, TETHOS)

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The surety of this staging stems from the production’s director, Abbey O’Brien, who was part of the original show’s creative staff as an assistant choreographer.

The musical’s cross-country transfer from its spring mounting at Maine’s Ogunquit Playhouse is a fine one, as O’Brien propels a well-paced, fluid swirl of scenes buoying the comedy with its darker thematic underpinning.

Swirling along, thanks to a six-member band neatly slotted away on a back corner of the stage, the musical’s baked-in strength is songwriter Sara Bareilles’ beguiling score.

Impactful tunes, ranging from catchy, upbeat pop and jazz rhythms that propel ensemble scenes, to heartfelt, introspective ballads digging deeper into individual character’s emotional tugs and pulls, are an ideal tutorial for Musical-Making 101.

The central character is Jenna (impeccably inhabited by Desi Oakley). Jenna waitresses to make ends meet but she exists to create wonderful pies with fanciful names reflecting her moods and situations of the moment.

Jenna learned her baking and naming skills from her mother in a happy refuge — the kitchen — of a larger, unhappier space — marriage to an abusive husband and father.

Like mother, like daughter has extended beyond baking, though, with adult Jenna now in the menacing grip of an intolerable husband and newly finding herself pregnant.

Her early plot trajectory is mentally signposted by Jenna’s creation of “My Husband Is a Jerk Chicken Pot Pie,” “Pregnant Miserable Loser Self-Pitying Pie” and “I Can’t Have No Affair Because It’s Wrong And Earl Will Kill Me Pie.”

The self-knowing scrutiny and laconic humor in these titles reflects Jenna’s states of being. Oakley, reprising the role from originating it for the U.S. tour and starring in London, has excellent comedic timing with an almost Zen-like assuredness at handling the fun and the not.

Equally important, as a singer with a fine voice, she is an acting vocalist who reveals the dimensionality of the inner life of a woman leading an unremarkable life by virtually reporting her inner emotions in the process of singing about them.

This trait is on display during Bareilles’ cathartic and beautiful warhorse confessional number “She Used to Be Mine.”

The diner workspace provides Jenna with two sidekick waitresses, a persnickety employer and, overall, a flavorful, if immediately identifiable, array of comic personas.

There is non-stop wisecracking, amusing subplots — mostly stemming from romantic foibles that play out amusingly if predictably — and an upbeat, cloistered environment for duets, trios and cast numbers.

There are notable performances to relish.

Dominique Kent is an engaging presence as Becky, another waitress with her own set of complaints and issues. These are articulated by Kent with well-timed knowing pauses and a fair dollop of verbal sass.

The show’s villain could be just a one-note heel, but as Jenna’s unappealing husband Earl, actor Brian Krinsky, deftly pokes and prods within to show the neuroses driving the martial psychosis. Our understanding doesn’t make us like the creep, but Krinsky’s lanky physicality is not just imposing, but warily self-obsessed.

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Late in the first act is the comic showstopper “Never Ever Getting Rid of Me.” This is sung by the socially awkward character Ogie. Extremely energized by talented comic actor Jared Gertner, it’s safe to say this guy is no humble pie for bringing the house down in a number designed and choreographed to do exactly that.

As pie shop owner Joe, Cleavant Derricks brings a Tony award — from the long ago “Dreamgirls” — to his querulous rendering of may be the most consequential figure in the play to ultimately have Jenna’s back.

Usually, it’s a waitress who gets a tip, but in this case it’s for readers: This production is worth your while.

‘Waitress’

Rating: 3 ½ stars (of a possible 4)

Where: La Mirada Theatre for the Performing Arts. 14900 La Mirada Blvd., La Mirada.

When: Through Oct. 13. 7:30 p.m. Thursdays, 8 p.m. Fridays, 2 and 8 p.m. Saturdays, 1:30 and 6:30 p.m. Sundays

Tickets: $12.10-$93.50

Information: 714-994-6310; lamiradatheatre.com

Orange County Register

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Review: ‘Waitress’ serves up a heaping helping of top-notch theater in La Mirada

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