Spring 2016. You’re at Waitress, and you’re hungry, because when you walked in you could literally smell freshly baking pies. You know three things about it: (1) it’s based on a movie Felicity was in 10 years ago, (2) it stars recent Tony-winner Jessie Mueller, and (3) the score is by Sara Barellis. “Ugh,” you think to yourself, why are they having pop stars who’ve never done theater write musicals?“ Well, by intermission you realize that’s humble pie you’ve been smelling, and you have to eat a big slice. It’s one of the freshest, most tuneful scores you’ve heard in years. You expected a number of good ballads, but there’s a lot of musical range with humor and warmth that makes each character vibrant and distinct. Mueller plays the titular waitress, Jenna, who works at a diner in the south. She bakes whimsically named pies to take her mind off her abusive husband, Earl. When she learns she’s pregnant, she realizes she has to leave Earl. To fund her new beginning, she starts concealing portions of her tips around the house and plans on entering a baking competition with a sizable cash prize. Her life gets more complicated when she starts an affair with her (also married) obstetrician (Dr. Pomatter). She hits a low point when Earl finds the hidden cash and storms off. She sings a powerful ballad lamenting what her life has become and resolving to “fight, just a little, to bring back that fire in her eyes.” (“She Used to Be Mine”)
Waitress certainly functions as a Star Turn in the traditional sense—a showy central performance of a character that is almost always onstage and attracts a number of acclaimed and notable performers. But oddly, it was a sort of star-making turn for Sara Barellis, even though she has always been the most famous person involved in the show. As a singer-songwriter, she was huge…and as far as anyone knew, those were her two skills. Then it was like, “oh, you can write a musical. Like…really write one.” Then she steps into the show for limited engagements, and it’s like, “oh, you can act. Like…really act.” Then she started being in non-Waitress things (like Jesus Christer Superstar Live in Concert, or the sitcom Girls5eva), while doubling down on being a theater girlie (contributing to Spongebob SquarePants: The Musical, starring in a revival of Into the Woods, and co-hosting the Tony Awards). When Broadway re-opened in 2021, Waitress came back with Barellis as the star with a proshot later released from that run.
The original production of Waitress bears the distinction of being the first Broadway musical with an entirely female “creative team.”1 Perhaps that’s why its treatment of abusive relationships feels almost revolutionary. Previously, Broadway’s biggest battered-women roles had ballads like “As Long as He Needs Me” or “What’s the Use of Wond’rin?,” which, as their titles suggest, resigns them to staying in unsafe situations because they’re in love. “She Used to Be Mine” is very much the opposite of that. Though it’s a slowish ballad, it’s composed of restless, churning thoughts. The melody constantly cycles up and down in pitch—if you were the connect-the-dots of the notes in the melody it would look like a perfect wave. The lyrical phrases sort of stretch out longer than the melody, so a musical phrase may hit an end point, but the lyric carries over into the next musical section. It feels like Jenna is figuring this out in real time, until she reailizes she’s been “used by a man who can’t love.” And while it doesn’t end with a definitive declaritive statement, like “I am here!” Or “I am what I am!,” her actions in subsequent scenes show her utilizing this newfound sense of self.
Recommended Recording: ”She Used to Be Mine” Waitress (2016 Original Broadway Cast)
Jenna is a vocally and emotionally demanding role, and I can’t imagine how difficult it was to build a sustainable performance from scratch while dealing with the changes and varying iterations of the development process. This song has been covered so SO many times, but no one quite has the same mix of Meryl-Streep-level acting (and accent work!) with powerhouse vocals. The rest of the recording is great with a fully rewarding score and strong performances from everyone.
Alternate Performances
Waitress has only received 1 real cast recording. “She Used to Be Mine,” is a different story. I’ve found 38 separate recordings of the song on Apple Music. It got the Kellyoke treatment; it’s appeared on a season 8 episode of The Vampire Diaries and an episode of Riverdalespin-off Katy Keene; and it’s a favorite of contestants on shows like The Voice and America’s Got Talent around the world.
Sara Bareillis - The music of Waitress first hit eager ears in the form of Sara Bareillis’s album What’s Inside. It functioned as a “concept album,” even though the show was written as a show first and then reworked for the purposes of a solo album. So they’re basically pop covers of songs no one had heard before. She later released a follow-up called What’s Not Inside featuring demos, cut songs, and the like. She sings “She Used to Be Mine” in concert a lot, including a fun duet version with Rufus Wainwright! And, as previously mentioned, she stars in the pro-shot.
Jeremy Jordon - In 2018, Jeremy Jordan sang “She Used to Be Mine” as part of the annual MCC Theater “Miscast Gala.” He’s currently one of Broadway’s most booked and blessed leading men, but in 2018, he was coming off a long stint in film and television and hadn’t been on Broadway for 6 years. This was back when the internet was a fun, even wholesome place, where people could freak out about a favorite performer they haven’t seen in a while absolutey crushing a performance. I deleted my X account, but I’m pretty sure if I looked at old posts from back then, I would have just said something like “THE FOOT STOMP!!!!” It’s still one of the top auto-complete searches when you type “she used to be mi—“ in YouTube, and Karafun, the karaoke app, has a separate “Jeremy Jordan” version of “She Used to Be Mine.”
Don’t Say Good Luck - Once again, my lethargic posting schedule has worked out in my favor, because otherwise this post might have happened before this movie came out in mid-August. Adam Sandler produced this sweet coming-of-age drama starring his daughter, Sunny, as a teenager navigating social and home problems while also appearing in her high school’s production of Waitress. I don’t want to say too much more other than that it’s delightful, “She Used to Be Mine” serves a major dramatic function, and I Claire Danes-level ugly sobbed by the end. And Max Greenfield is in it as a perfect dorky dad.
Is it Covered by The Rat Pack, Audra McDonald, or Glee?
Audra McDonald was in Shuffle Along… the same season as Waitress and performed “I’m Just Wild About Harry” in the same Tony Awards ceremony where Jessie Mueller and Sara Bareilllis sang “She Used to Be Mine.” McDonald and Mueller both had baby bumps, but Audra was the only one sued for it. Her husband, Will Swenson, was a replacement Earl.
Glee - Watiress was written after Glee ended, and I have to imagine that had it existed “She Used to Be Mine” would have made at least one appearance. But how? Surely it would have to play out as part of Quinn’s pregnancy story line. But I also don’t imagine someone other than Lea Michele getting to sing it. In real life, Gleealum Jenna Ushkowitz played a limited Broadway engagement as Dawn, another waitress in Jenna’s diner.
In the Wings
We only have one more song in this Playlist! No. 52 should drop on-or-around October 21. While you wait, you may want to consider donating to the Adrienne Shelly Foundation, which supports women filmmakers. Shelly wrote and directed the original film, in addition to playing Dawn, but was tragically murdered before its release. It’s also been a busy news week for 100Showtunes adjacent things.
Lincoln Center held a benefit reunion concert of Shuffle Along…AND it has been taped with intentions to air as part of Great Performances .
Annie will get a 50th Anniversary revival on Broadway in 2027 directed by Sam Pinkleton (whose revival of The Rocky Horror Show continues its extended run).
Ryan Murphy plans to reboot Glee, which has endless potential to include previously ignored showtunes.
Catch up with all the songs to date!
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They seem to define that as director, choreographer, librettist, and composer/lyricist, though I think the music director, who was also a woman, belongs in that cohort. Also, the musical Runaways also fits this criteria, but that’s because one person, Elizabeth Swados, took on all of those jobs.
English is my native language, but I could not understand 80-90% of the lyrics.