PHILICIA ENDELMAN
In the original film, Adrienne Shelly played the character Dawn, seen here (played by Jessie Shelton) with Ogie (Jeremy Morse), her energetic, endearing love interest.
BiC: What is your favorite song in the show, and what song was hardest to write? SB: The hardest song by far was the opening number. I rewrote it 195 times and when we finally got it, I was in tears. We were in this tiny little backstage music director’s room and everyone’s piled in there and I’m like: Is this it? And Diane [Paulus], our director, was like: YES! And I was like: Oh my gosh! My favorite song to write I think was “She Used to be Mine.” It was the first song I wrote and it was my portal into the world of Waitress. It was me actively falling in love with this character and seeing so much of my story reflected in hers, even though our circumstances are very different. That song remains incredibly special to me. BiC: Do you want to write more for the stage? SB: I would love to do more shows. Going to the theater has been a great love of my life from childhood. So now being a part of a team that’s creating one of these experiences is deeply gratifying. I know better now how much time it takes and so I will think about that next time, but I’m hooked. I loved it and felt so warmly embraced by the community at large and I feel undyingly grateful for that so I would love to continue to get to lend whatever I can to this medium.
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