Sara Bareilles didn’t know quite what she was getting into when she signed on to write the score for “Waitress,” the musical-stage adaptation of the late Adrienne Shelly’s film about a diner server who dreams of a better life through pies. Now, Bareilles calls it the proudest moment of her career.

That’s saying something for this top pop-rock hitmaker and six-time Grammy Award nominee — throw a Tony Award nod in there, too — who also has ventured onstage of late in both “Waitress” on Broadway (in the lead role of Jenna) and in NBC’s live broadcast of “Jesus Christ Superstar.”

As the touring production of “Waitress” lands in San Diego for the first time — not with Bareilles in the cast, alas — we chatted with her about theater, pie and the power of the fist-pump.

Q: This seems like an especially good time to be talking with you about “Waitress” because we’re kind of reaching “peak pie” right now, with the holidays.


A: (Laughs.) Well said — yeah, I didn’t even think of that. This is high pie season!

Q: I have a treasured picture of my daughter, around age 3, just covered in flour as we were baking together one day. And I’ve read that you and your mom likewise used to make blackberry pies together when you were growing up (in the Northern California town of Eureka). Do you have fond memories around those experiences?

A: Oh yeah, of course! We had wild blackberry bushes growing in our back yard, so we would go and gather the berries in big silver bowls, and then she would let me help her roll out the crust. She would do everything from scratch.

I think the memories and the food itself all get rolled up into one — that’s part of why it’s all so delightful.


I haven’t made that pie in a long time, but my mom is now making those pies with my nieces, my sister’s kids. So it’s a tradition that has carried on. It’s very sweet.

A scene from the national touring production of “Waitress.” (Joan Marcus)

Q: Speaking of which, I love the lyric, “Even doubt can be delicious,” from the “Waitress” song “What Baking Can Do.” Did that spirit of going against the grain and kind of thinking outside the recipe help inspire you to jump into writing a musical-theater score for the first time?

A: Yeah — it was a multitude of things. It was kind of being in a place in my career where I was really ready for a change. I was really entrenched in the cyclical nature of making records, and then touring the records. Then you come home, write (another) record, make the record and go on tour.


So I found myself just really craving anything else. I had moved to New York very recently; I had reached out to my agent about theatrical projects, and this was just percolating at the time.

I met with Diane Paulus, the director, and she told me about the film and that they were working on an adaptation. And so I went home and watched the film. I didn’t know what I was saying yes to initially. (Laughs) So I said yes to this interesting exploration of a totally unknown world to me — although as I started working deeper and deeper on the project, I realized how familiar theater felt to me, because I’d grown up doing musical theater, and I have such a love for it.

So it’s been this really lovely, meandering process that has completely consumed my life and changed just about everything about it. It’s really been amazing.

Q: Was the collaborative nature of doing a project like this a revelation at all to you?


A: It’s one of the more challenging things about this kind of project, but it’s by far the thing that makes it the most rewarding — the fact that you’re a part of a team. I really have grown so much and learned so much from all my team members and our producers — it’s been a very, very hands-on process.

The tour that’s coming to you, we were all in the room for those rehearsals. Casting is something we take very seriously. We go check in on the tour all the time.

It’s just such a beloved project. Of everything I’ve ever done in my life as an artist, this is the thing I’m most proud of. And so it means so much to me that this show gets to have a life out on the road and in communities that might not have easy access to Broadway.

It’s already beyond my wildest dreams, so I’m just pinching myself that this is even happening.


Q: Just rewinding for a minute: Do you remember any particular roles or shows you did as a kid — any that especially stood out for you?

A: The show that sticks out to me the most, because I did it twice, is “Little Shop of Horrors.” The first time I did it I was one of the street urchins, and got to sing all those wonderful parts. (She breaks into song.) “Little shop, little shop of horrors!” All those great hooks.

And the second time around, I was in my high school production and I played Audrey. So I got to do “Suddenly Seymour” and “Somewhere That’s Green.”

That’s one of my favorite shows. And (composer) Alan Menken is a huge hero of mine. That show is campy and silly and poignant. It’s just such a wonderful show.


Sara Bareilles (Mel Melcon / Los Angeles Times)

Q: I talked recently to Stephen Schwartz, and he said he still hears from people whose lives were changed by the message of empowerment in “Wicked.” I’d imagine you hear plenty of stories along those lines as well, both about “Waitress” and your other music, such as the new single “Armor”?

A: We’ve had a really beautiful journey with the way the show has been embraced, and the story of Jenna. I think what I love being a part of is telling this story about resiliency and hope — in a time where, you know, it’s easy to feel hopeless, because life can be exceptionally hard. And I know that it feels exceptionally hard for a lot of people right now.

This is a story that celebrates community and coming together, and one woman’s journey to sort of rediscover how to love herself through the love of her child. It’s just such a familiar and relatable story.


So yeah, it’s been an incredible time for women right now. And us being the first all-female creative team on Broadway — it’s just a huge triumph for our show that was kind of an accident. That’s one of the things I’m most proud of, is that it wasn’t an agenda. We just sort of looked around at one point and said, “Oh, I don’t think this has happened before.”

I love that young girls — the (budding) composers and directors and choreographers and music directors and book writers out there — get to look at our show as an example of one way it can look. And I love thinking about people like your daughter who get to experience a story about women — but that celebrates men, too. It’s not meant to be exclusive. It’s just about empowerment.

Q: You went to college just up the road in L.A., and you’ve also performed in San Diego. Are there certain places or things here that stick in your mind?

A: (Laughs.) I have one memory that jumped out immediately — it happened in San Diego at the Sun God Festival (at the University of California San Diego in 2009). It was the only time in my life I’ve ever had an entire audience fist-pump to one of my songs! There’s a video of it online, and it gives me a huge smile to this day.


I have always been so enamored with the audiences in San Diego — they are passionate about music and they clearly have such a love for the arts.

So I am hopeful that this show will get embraced with as much love as I felt embraced by (people there) in the past. I’m just so grateful in advance for everybody who comes out and supports this show. I know that our cast and crew work so, so hard, so we send them a lot of love and we’re glad to have people in the seats laughing and clapping along with them.

Q: And maybe even fist-pumping.

A: Fist-pumping! Yeah, it’ll be a first.


“Waitress”

When: Opens Tuesday (Nov. 27). 7 p.m. Tuesday-Wednesday; 7:30 p.m. Thursday; 8 p.m. Friday; 2 and 8 p.m. Saturday; 1 and 6 p.m. Sunday. Through Dec. 2.

Where: San Diego Civic Theatre, 1100 Third Ave., downtown

Tickets: About $26-$136

Phone: (619/858/760) 570-1100


Online: broadwaysd.com

jim.hebert@sduniontribune.com


Twitter: @jimhebert