How ‘Waitress’ Changed the Way Sara Bareilles Writes Music, Even for Herself

variety.com:

Gordon Cox Theater Editor Sara Bareilles has always spoken openly about the fact that her work on the musical “Waitress” changed her life. “My life is in two categories: It’s before and after ‘Waitress,’” she said on the new episode of “Stagecraft,” Variety’s theater podcast. “Everything about my life is different and better because of this show.” Listen to this week’s “Stagecraft” podcast below: The singer, songwriter and actor (“Girls5Eva”) has had a chance to revisit “Waitress” and reflect on its impact on her life with the filmed version of the Broadway production, which was filmed with Bareilles in the lead role when the show played a return engagement in New York in 2021.

The movie arrives in cinemas this week following its premiere earlier this year at the Tribeca Film Festival. Bareilles said her work on “Waitress” and in musical theater has even changed how she writes the songs for herself to perform on her own albums. “In fact, I’m finding it harder to write songs for myself,” she noted. “It was really a relief to go into someone else’s psychology and to practice empathy and tell someone else’s story.

I was so used to telling my own story, and don’t we all get sick of ourselves at some point? I’m like, ‘Oh my God, can I be sad about one more thing?’” She continued, “I think what writing musical theater did is it just broadened or widened the aperture.

It reminds me that there are so many different ways to tell stories and to write music, and so many different kinds of songs to write.” In addition to writing the score for “Waitress,” Bareilles has also starred in the show four times over the course of its two runs on Broadway.