New musical 'Waitress' is heading to Broadway this spring

The show with music by singer Sara Bareilles will open officially on Broadway in April. The musical is based on the 2007 Keri Russell movie of the same name.

Music from singer Sara Bareilles is coming to Broadway. 

The new musical “Waitress,” which is an adaptation of the 2007 Keri Russell movie of the same name and features music by Bareilles, is set to officially open at the American Repertory Theater (ART) in Cambridge, Mass. later this month and will premiere on Broadway in April. 

The movie and show center on Jenna (Tony winner Jessie Mueller), a pregnant waitress who is unhappy in her marriage and who enters a baking contest. 

ART artistic director Diane Paulus directed “Waitress” in Cambridge, where the show officially opens on Aug. 20. 

Bareilles has been nominated for several Grammy Awards, including Album of the Year and Song of the Year. 

The ART has become a successful launching pad over the last several years for Broadway shows. Recent awards-season favorites like a circus-based revival of “Pippin” and “All the Way,” which starred “Breaking Bad” actor Bryan Cranston as Lyndon B. Johnson, played there before heading to the Great White Way. “Finding Neverland,” the musical based on “Peter Pan” writer J.M. Barrie’s life, also played in Cambridge before heading to Broadway, where it’s still being staged. 

Other successful shows at the theater have recently included “The Gershwins’ Porgy and Bess,” which played at the ART with many of the cast members who went to Broadway, including Audra McDonald, Norm Lewis, and David Alan Grier; and “The Glass Menagerie,” which played at the ART with the actors who would later star in the Broadway production, including Cherry Jones, Zachary Quinto, and Celia Keenan-Bolger.

Even productions that have not gone on to Broadway have often attracted A-list talent, like “The Last Two People On Earth,” which starred Mandy Patinkin of “Homeland” and played at the ART this May.