Some characters were harder to find my way in than others, but ultimately that's what's so amazing about this story, and I give Adrienne Shelly В credit for that. If I could find my way into them from the inside out, then I stood a chance at giving them a soulful existence on stage-of course, in conjunction with an incredible script and great direction, but my job was to make them as three-dimensional as possible through song. I realized that with an exercise in empathy, I could kind of find myself in all these characters, and that's how I could give them an opportunity for storytelling. I wrote 'She Used to Be Mine'-her main theme song-I wrote that for her, and that song actually really served as my portal into the world of Waitress. I think I first related most closely to Jenna, the lead character. How did you relate toВ the show's characters? I'm somebody who grew up listening to a lot of musical theater, so getting to finally write musical theater songs and songs that sound that way-the emphasis being on the storytelling, but the arrangements and the orchestrations can be really varied-I found that to be, actually, a really joyful discovery. I get to sort of play in a way that I don't always feel is available to me on my own records. The greatest difference between writing for a Sara Bareilles record and this show is the liberation in terms of stylistically what I'm trying to achieve. How would you compare the songwriting for yourself versus for a musical? Here, we discuss her new role, the future ofВ women in the music industry, and what it means to her to be a part of the first Broadway musical in history to be helmed byВ an all-female creative team. BareillesВ has been working on it for a little over three years and released all the music last October in her fourth studio album What's Inside: Songs From Waitress. She spent the morning behindВ the piano performing some scenes with the cast on a bare-bones set.В 'This process has been deeply challenging, totally satisfying, as exhilarating and surreal as anything I've ever done before,' she says. 'I'm yet again reworking the opening number for the fiftieth time,' Bareilles tells me.В I meet her in a Broadway rehearsal studio just three weeks before previews start on March 25. As a five-time Grammy nominated singer-songwriter she isn't used to being behind the scenes, but has happily stepped intoВ her role as the composer behind Waitress, the stageВ adaptation of the 2007 film.В It tells the story of Jenna (played byВ Tony Award-winner Jessie Mueller), a pregnant, unhappily married, pie-makingВ waitress on a journey to rebuild her life. Sara Bareilles has written chart-toppingВ anthems aboutВ heartbreak ('Gravity'), defiance ('Love Song'), and triumphВ ('Brave'), and now she's taking her talents to Broadway.

Sara bareilles interview