Following its world premiere at Tribeca Film Festival in June, the ‘Waitress: The Musical’ stage film has set its nationwide release date for Dec. 7, with Bleecker Street acquiring U.S. distribution rights.
Adapted from the 2007 film of the same name and featuring star and songwriter Sara Bareilles’ Tony-nominated score, the Diane Paulus-directed musical first debuted on Broadway in 2016, and at over 1,500 performances is one of the longest-running Broadway musicals – and is also the first to feature four women in top creative spots (Bareilles, Paulus, a book by Jessie Nelson, and choreography by Lorin Latarro). After the COVID-19 shutdown, the musical made a limited return for the final months of 2021 to celebrate the reopening of Broadway and pay tribute to the late Nick Cordero, who originated the role of Earl in the musical and lost his life to COVID-19 in July 2020.
The footage for the stage film was captured from the 2021 run of the musical.
Bareilles originally played Jenna as a replacement to original star Jessie Mueller, and will be featured in the stage film, first unofficially teased on Bareilles’ Instagram story as she shared her reaction to the live footage, and later confirmed on the musical’s official social media in April.
The rest of the stage film’s cast includes Christopher Fitzgerald as Ogie, Drew Gehling as Dr. Pomatter, Charity Angél Dawson as Becky, Caitlin Houlahan as Dawn, Eric Anderson as Cal, Dakin Matthews as Joe, and Joe Tippett as Earl.
Bleecker Street is partnering with Fathom Events for the theatrical release.
