<b>WAITRESS</b> Daemen University/MusicalFare Theatre SpeakupWNY | Buffalo NY and Buffalo News

Through May 18
WAITRESS Daemen University/MusicalFare Theatre

By Augustine Warner

Life happens.
That�s one of those rules and it�s sometimes good and sometimes bad and sometimes cloudy.
That�s why people have devices to ease the better and the worse.
Jenna takes her clue from her mother, who took to baking to overcome a bad marriage �What Baking Can Do.�
So does she.
In �Waitress,� Jenna (Maria Pedro) makes the pies for a restaurant in a small Southern town, surviving a really bad marriage to the violence-prone Earl (Dan Urtz).
The plot twists when the two get really drunk one night and have sex and Jenna becomes pregnant, �The Negative.�
That wasn�t in her plans, recently based on divorce and getting out.
Now, she�s pondering what to do, with the baby on the way.
Meanwhile, she�s coming up with pies like �Old Joe�s Slice of Heaven� or �White Knuckles Cream Pie.
Old Joe is important because Joe (Michael J. Galante) owns the restaurant and most of the other profitable businesses in town.
He�s also fond of Jenna�s pies and shows up at lunchtime to sample today�s pies and suggests entering a pie contest which would give her the cash to get away from Earl.
(A shoutout to Brian Cavanagh who created the stage fake pies used in this show.)
This musical is based on the low-budget hit movie of the same name put together by Adrienne Shelly.
She was murdered and this stage show was put together by Jessie Nelson (book) and Sara Bareilles (music and lyrics).
It�s a one-set show of Joe�s Pie Diner and the Chris Cavanagh set is far fancier (and cleaner) than most small-town diners I�ve ever been in, although sub-sets help keep the show moving.
It�s the same story as the movie, built around Jenna and her fellow waitstaffers, Dawn (Rheanna Gallego) and Becky (Lily Jones) and the cook Cal (Nicholas Lama).
It�s an endless grind of work, interrupted by mad dancing and singing which breaks out periodically among the tables.
Their private lives are tangled, Dawn with no man in her life until Ogie (Jeremy Ephraim Meyers) appears, singing and eating pie; Becky�s secret relationship with the equally married Cal; and Jenna�s new relationship with her married gynecologist, Dr. Jim (John Kaczorowski).
Dawn and Ogie�s relationship takes off to the point there�s a wedding in the diner, �I Love You Like a Table.�
Earl appears and drags Jenna away to make it clear she will have to love him more than the impending baby.
With �Contraction Ballet,� baby Lulu arrives and Jenna tells Earl she�s getting a divorce, which he doesn�t handle well and she tells Dr. Jim their fling is over.
Then, her life turns around because the dying Joe has left her the diner and tells her to name a pie after him.
The ending is that the renamed Lulu�s Pies is running well, with Jenna in charge of the diner and her life, �Opening Up (Finale).�
Waitress is an entertaining and well-done show, although the enthusiastic reaction of the overwhelmingly female audience suggests the story skews female.
Director Susan Drozd has filled the cast with strong performances for what is MusicalFare�s last show on the Daemen Campus, shifting to Shea�s 710.
You will remember Pedro�s Jenna, Meyers� Ogie, Urtz� Earl (he does so well with these awful roles), Gallego�s Dawn and Jones� Becky and Kaczorowski�s Dr. Jim.
Interestingly, the closest to a listed choreographer is Collin McKee�s �movement direction.�
The dancing is strong and well-integrated with Chris Cavanagh�s set for "Waitress."
MusicalFare is heading Downtown on a very high note.