I bought this instantly, because of course I did. I love this musical adaptation of the film with original songs written by Sara Bareilles, who takes the opportunity to star in her own show. It’s the biggest flex of all time. Write your own musical, and then star in it as legions of fans come to see you. Sadly, because this features her, it also is missing key original cast members, like Keala Settle and the late Nick Cordero. And for reasons unknown it does not have audio description. Bleaker Street has been around too long to use being poor as some reason to not provide accessibility. Just saying.

When I review a stage adaptation, like the stuff I pull from Broadway HD, I always ask myself at the end of it all, can you just listen to the cast album? Is there a larger benefit to watching this without accessibility over just listening to the album? Here, I’m betting there is a soundtrack with this cast specifically singing these songs, otherwise I would point out that the cast change would be a strong reason.

But really, when you listen to the soundtrack, song by song, the beats in between are gone. While this musical doesn’t have a ton of dialogue, it has a lot of crucial dialogue that sets up songs in a far more contextual setting than if you were to just listen to the recording. Therefore, I lean on the side of saying to a Waitress fan, to watch the show.

The cast replacements are really good. i thought I’d have a problem with the replacement for Settle, because her voice is just so powerful, but not a beat was missed.I remember watching Renee Elise Goldsberry play Mimi in the Rent Live broadcast, and thinking she was the best Mimi I’d seen thus far. That’s not quite the case here, as I’d still give Settle the edge, but she came close.

If this interests you, you are here as a fan of the show, or Sara, or wondering what all the fuss is about. i think this is self explanatory. While I would much prefer audio description, I’m also a bit of a music theatre purist, and I don’t want audio description on top of singing. If you watch the Hamilton production, I think it is a best case scenario for that, but a lot of people hate it because it doesn’t do enough describing. What it does do though, is let the music speak for itself.

For a show with a song as iconic as She Used To Be Mine, and the complications of having a baby while being in an abusive relationship, and unable to find money to help get yourself out, you let the material speak for itself.

Final Grade: A