Bestselling Author Jodi Picoult Joins Waitress Talkback
(photo provided by Boneau/Bryan-Brown)
Following the performance of Waitress on Tuesday, March 6, at the Brooks Atkinson Theatre, New York Times bestselling author Jodi Picoult will join the production's choreographer Lorin Latarro in conversation to kick off the hit musical’s monthlong campaign celebrating Women’s History Month.
Each week in March, Waitress will host a notable woman (or group of women) to participate in a postshow talkback from the stage. The discussion will explore topics connecting the notable achievements of the guest panelists and the themes of this groundbreaking production, the first Broadway musical with an all-female creative team.
Picoult is the author of 24 novels including My Sister's Keeper, Nineteen Minutes, The Storyteller, Leaving Time, and her most recent bestseller, Small Great Things, which explores issues of power, privilege, and race.
In addition to her work on Waitress, Latarro has choreographed Broadway's Les Liaisons Dangereuses with Janet McTeer and Liev Schreiber, and Waiting for Godot with Ian McKellen and Patrick Stewart. Her additional choreography includes Chess (Kennedy Center), Lin-Manuel Miranda's 21 Chump Street for This American Life (Brooklyn Academy Of Music), the Public Theater's Twelfth Night and The Odyssey (Delacorte Theater), among others.
Inspired by Adrienne Shelly's 2007 motion picture, Waitress features songs by Sara Bareilles, a book by Jessie Nelson, and direction by Diane Paulus. The story follows Jenna, an expert pie maker in a small town, who dreams of a way out of her loveless marriage. A baking contest in a nearby county and the town's new doctor may offer her a chance at a new life, while her fellow waitresses offer their own recipes to happiness. But Jenna must find the courage and strength within herself to rebuild her life.
The cast currently stars Bareilles as Jenna, Christopher Fitzgerald as Ogie, Drew Gehling as Dr. Pomatter, Benny Elledge as Cal, Caitlin Houlahan as Dawn, Ben Thompson as Earl, Lee Wilkof as Joe, and NaTasha Yvette Williams as Becky.
