The Tony-nominated Broadway phenomenon comes to the big screen. Composer-lyricist Sara Bareilles is Jenna Hunterson, a waitress and expert pie maker stuck in a small town and a loveless marriage. When a baking contest offers her a chance at escape, Jenna fights to reclaim part of herself. Waitress celebrates the power of friendship, dreams, the family we choose and the beauty of a well-baked pie.

For in-depth thoughts on Waitress: The Musical, please see my colleague Larry Fried’s review from its original Tribeca debut here.

Video Quality

Decal Releasing brings Waitress: The Musical to Blu-Ray fresh from being filmed on Broadway with a stellar HD master which presents this perfectly. This presentation is the stage version of the musical captured with meticulous care professionally. The image is vivid and incredibly clear with natural skin tones and some highly detailed facial features that you would never be able to see from your seat in the audience. No matter the number, the transfer remains sharp and detailed with no real variance from song to song. The colors of the costumes, lighting, and production design radiate off the screen in a rewarding manner. The transfer does not feature much of anything in the way of compression artifacts or other digital nuisances. Fans are lucky to have such a presentation on Blu-Ray.

Audio Quality

This Blu-Ray disc comes with a robust DTS-HD 5.1 Master Audio track that captures every aspect of this musical effortlessly. There are scant few moments that are not delivered via song or at least complemented by a musical score. Normal dialogue and the performances come through with a peerless fidelity that hits appropriately given the content. The surround sound presentation makes the experience appropriately three-dimensional such as the orchestra and the laughter of the audience at the performance. There were no digital anomalies or other issues with the recording. The audio does everything that is asked of it exceedingly well. There are optional English SDH subtitles provided.

Special Features

There are no special features provided on this disc.

Final Thoughts

Waitress: The Musical is a really rewarding take on one of the great underappreciated movies of the 2000s. The story in its basic form is a home run, and somehow Sara Bareilles captured the heart of it when she composed songs that worked better than they had any right to. To see Bareilles come full circle and play the lead role and sing the songs she composed is a transcendent experience. This professional recording of the show works so well and offers audiences a chance to experience the magic of live theater without some of the barriers in place for many. The more productions we can get of this quality, the better. Decal Releasing has released a Blu-Ray featuring a pleasant A/V presentation and nothing in the way of supplemental features. If you are a fan of the show or the original movie, you are going to love having this in your collection. Highly Recommended

Waitress: The Musical can be purchased directly through MovieZyng or various other online retailers.

Note: Images presented in this review are not reflective of the image quality of the Blu-Ray.

Disclaimer: Decal Releasing has supplied a copy of this disc free of charge for review purposes. All opinions in this review are the honest reactions of the author.