IT is ten years since the musical version of Adrienne Shelly’s film Waitress made its way to the stage, and during that time it has amassed fanatical audiences across the English-speaking world. At Bristol Hippodrome this week, theatregoers are able to see one of our leading musical performers, the delightful, unusually subtle, endearing and totally convincing Carrie Hope Fletcher, in the central role of Jenna.

She is a girl from the South who believes her only talent is making pies. But WHAT pies! Not only uniquely made each day with deliciously-balanced-if-unlikely ingredient combinations, they are named for the mood of the baker. One day an I Don’t Want to Have Earl’s Baby Pie is inscribed on the specials board. The writing is literally on the wall.

Jenna is a waitress at Old Joe’s diner, where the finicky Joe takes his morning meal – she is the only one to find the time to talk to the lonely old man and provide the sustenance he needs. The other waitresses, her best friends Becky (married to a bed-bound man with complex health problems) and Dawn, a quirky and nervous beginner on dating apps with a liking for re-enactments of The Late Unpleasantness (as Southerners still call the Civil War). At home Jenna has Earl, a lazy, drunken, jealous and domineering husband whose shot-calling is backed up by his fists.

Domestic violence and coercive control have often made their way into musicals – think of Oklahoma and Jud Fry, Oliver and Bill Sykes. Earl might not be wearing a MAGA cap, but he has all the “sophistication” and self obsession of the stereotypical redneck bully.

One drunken night leads to two red lines on the test, and Jenna realises she can’t face bringing a baby into Earl’s world. And then a meeting with a new doctor spins her life out of true. Old Joe wants her to enter a pie contest, but it costs money, and Earl takes all the money she earns.

The musical version, brilliantly designed by Scott Pask and lit by Ken Billington, brings the wide open spaces of America, the atmosphere of a community diner and the oppression of an unhappy park home to vivid life. The excellent cast captures the spirit of the original film, and brings American responses to UK theatres – it’s a new thing to boo and jeer at the baddie at the curtain call, unless it’s a pantomime.

The on-stage band has the right down-home country style, even if the show lacks immediately hummable tunes, and those that need belting out certainly get the full treatment, from Jenna as well as the witty Becky (Sandra Marvin) and the zany Dawn (Evelyn Hoskins). Dan Partridge comes into his own in the second half as Dr Pomatter faces reality. Les Dennis downplays Joe’s erotic memories and culinary peculiarities with gruff charm. Mark Anderson creates a hilariously “poetic” Ogie, swept off his beat by Dawn’s unexpected talents.

Dan O’Brien’s Cal has a soft centre, but that is not something you could accuse Mark Willshire’s Earl of exhibiting.

Since I saw the show in Southampton four years ago, it has tightened up, added a few more saucy routines and deepened the poignant plight of the central character. It well deserves the fandom it has won, and has done creator Adrienne Shelly proud. The actress, writer and film director was murdered in her flat, days before the film opened in 2007. Her message is still being told.

The tour is at Bristol until Saturday 8th August, and at Bournemouth Pavilion from 24th to 29th August on its national tour.

GPW

Photographs by Johan Persson