Keri Russell Can’t Bring Herself to See the “Waitress” Musical: ‘It Just Feels Weird’ Dave QuinnWed, August 12, 2026 at 5:47 PM UTC 0 Keri Russellat an event for ‘The Dipolmat’ in May 2026 | Sara Bareilles in ‘Waitress’ on Broadway in March 2017Credit: Gonzalo Marroquin/Getty; Noam Galai/Getty Keri Russell revealed that she still hasn’t seen the Broadway musical adaptation of her 2007 film Waitress, saying the idea “just feels weird” Russell originated the role of piebaking waitress Jenna Hunterson onscreen before Jessie Mueller brought the character to Broadway in 2016 The hit musical, featur...
Keri Russell Can’t Bring Herself to See the “Waitress” Musical: ‘It Just Feels Weird’
Dave QuinnWed, August 12, 2026 at 5:47 PM UTC
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Keri Russellat an event for ‘The Dipolmat’ in May 2026 | Sara Bareilles in ‘Waitress’ on Broadway in March 2017Credit: Gonzalo Marroquin/Getty; Noam Galai/Getty -
Keri Russell revealed that she still hasn’t seen the Broadway musical adaptation of her 2007 film Waitress, saying the idea “just feels weird”
Russell originated the role of pie-baking waitress Jenna Hunterson onscreen before Jessie Mueller brought the character to Broadway in 2016
The hit musical, featuring music and lyrics by Sara Bareilles, ran for nearly four years on Broadway and was later filmed for a 2023 theatrical release
Keri Russell has watched Waitress take on a life of its own, just not from a seat in the audience.
Nearly two decades after the actress starred in the 2007 film, the movie has gone on to inspire one of Broadway’s most beloved musicals of the past decade. But Russell, 50, has yet to see the stage adaptation — and it doesn’t sound like she’s in any hurry to change that.
“It just feels weird,” Russell told Variety in a joint interview with her husband, Matthew Rhys, published on Wednesday, Aug. 12. “It’s weird to think about this character that you did, and suddenly they’re like —”
At that point, the Diplomat star burst into an impromptu song: “And now I’m making a pie…”
Rhys, 51, happily joined in on the joke, chanting, “Pie, pie, pie-pie-pie!”
Keri Russell in ‘Waitress’Credit: Searchlight Pictures
Russell originated the role of Jenna Hunterson in filmmaker Adrienne Shelly’s Waitress. The film follows Jenna, a gifted pie maker working at a small-town diner who finds herself unexpectedly pregnant and desperate to escape her unhappy marriage to her controlling husband, Earl (Jeremy Sisto). As she secretly saves money in hopes of entering a pie-baking contest, Jenna begins an affair with her married OB-GYN, Dr. Pomatter (Nathan Fillion), and starts imagining a different future for herself.
Shelly wrote and directed the movie, and also appeared as Jenna’s coworker and friend, Dawn, alongside Cheryl Hines, Andy Griffith and Eddie Jemison.
The premiered at the Sundance Film Festival in 2007, several months after Shelly’s death at age 40. It went on to become a sleeper success, ultimately earning more than $22 million worldwide.
Charity Angel Dawson, Sara Bareilles, and Caitlin Houlahan in the filmed version of ‘Waitress’Credit: Courtesy Bleecker Street
Waitress’ popularity only grew when composer Sara Bareilles adapted it for the stage.
Working with book writer Jessie Nelson, direcotr Diane Paulus and choreographer Lorin Latarro, Bareilles’ show made history when it opened at Broadway’s Brooks Atkinson Theatre on April 24, 2016, as the first Broadway musical to have women in all four of those top creative positions.
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It also introduced musical theater audiences to an original score that would become one of the most celebrated in the last decade, featuring beloved songs like “What Baking Can Do,” “When He Sees Me,” “Bad Idea,” “You Matter to Me” and what would become one of Bareilles’ signature ballads, “She Used to Be Mine.”
Tony winner Jessie Mueller took on Russell’s role for the original Broadway production, earning another nomination for her performance as Jenna. Over the course of the show’s original Broadway run, the character was played by a lengthy roster of acclaimed performers, including Katharine McPhee, Nicolette Robinson, Shoshana Bean, Jordin Sparks, Betsy Wolfe, Jennifer Nettles and Bareilles herself — the latter who stepped into the role for several engagements, repeatedly providing a box-office boost to the production.
Critics and audiences embraced Waitress. It ultimately ran for nearly four years on Broadway, closing on Jan. 5, 2020, after 33 previews and 1,544 regular performances. The show also expanded far beyond New York, spawning a U.S. national tour, a West End production and productions around the world.
Even the end of its original Broadway run wasn’t really the end for Waitress.
In September 2021, Waitress became one of the first musicals to open on Broadway following the industry’s 18-month COVID-19 shutdown, returning for a limited engagement with Bareilles once again playing Jenna. The production was originally scheduled to continue into January 2022 but closed early on Dec. 20, 2021, amid a surge of COVID cases among the company.
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That return also gave Waitress yet another life on screen.
Bareilles and the 2021 company filmed the stage production for Waitress: The Musical, which was released in movie theaters in December 2023. The film brought in more than $6 million worldwide and later became available to stream, meaning Russell — should she change her mind — can watch the musical inspired by her movie anytime without even having to go to the theater.
As for the 2007 Waitress film, that’s currently streaming on Prime Video.
on People
Source: "AOL Entertainment"
Source: Entertainment
Published: August 12, 2026 at 02:01PM on Source: PRIME TIME
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