A small-town pie baker with dreams bigger than her diner counter carries this filmed capture of a beloved stage musical to the screen. Waitress: The Musical, released in 2023, brings the Broadway production's songs and performances directly to viewers who never made it to a theatre seat.
What is Waitress: The Musical about?
Built around a waitress whose gift for inventing pies doubles as a kind of emotional survival, the musical follows her push toward a life she actually chose rather than the one circumstance handed her. Songs carry much of the emotional weight here, moving the story forward through numbers about ambition, friendship, and the quiet math of getting by in a small town. As a filmed stage production rather than a reimagined movie musical, it keeps the intimacy of live theatre — audience energy, a fixed set, performers working a single space — while giving home viewers a clean view of a show that toured widely on the strength of its songwriting.
About the cast
The production is led by Sara Bareilles, whose songwriting shaped the musical itself, alongside a company that includes Charity Dawson, Caitlin Houlahan, Drew Gehling, Dakin Matthews, Eric Anderson, Joe Tippett, and Christopher Fitzgerald. Together they carry an ensemble piece where the diner setting and its regular cast of coworkers and customers matter as much as any single lead, with Brett Sullivan directing this filmed version of the stage show.
Context & significance
Waitress began as a well-regarded film before Sara Bareilles adapted it into a stage musical that became one of Broadway's word-of-mouth successes, praised for a songwriting voice that felt distinct from the genre's usual sound. This filmed version, a UK and US co-production running 144 minutes, preserves that stage energy rather than restaging the story for cameras, letting the songs and the live performances do the work they were built to do in front of an audience.
Watching Waitress: The Musical on Ktime
Waitress: The Musical streams on K-Time with a free account login — no purchase required to browse this page or its details. The release includes both Persian dubbing and Persian subtitles, so Farsi-speaking viewers can choose either option while following a musical built on dialogue-heavy songwriting, part of K-Time's Farsi-first approach to viewing for the diaspora.