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Working in a positive collaborative setting for the first time was a transformative experience, not just professionally, but personally as well. “Waitress was this explosion of connection, which was so nourishing. And not just collaborators, but dear friends and my boyfriend — my community changed dramatically.”

It’s appropriate in a way, because Waitress is also the story of a woman whose life is transformed through her connections with the people in her community.

Likewise, Bareilles’ songwriting process for the show was one that emphasized connection. “I always use the same words to describe it, it was an exercise in radical empathy. It was finding my way into the psychology of all these different people,” she says. “I needed to start with the person who was the closest to me and I related so deeply (to Jenna, the main character). Her circumstances are very different, but I can relate to ending up in a place in your life where you don’t recognize yourself anymore and what that means and what you can do with that.”

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She found touchstones of identification with the other characters as well. “It was this gentle practice of trying to get into (their heads). Starting with Jenna and then tipping over into, ‘Well, what about Dawn’s character? What’s it like to be scared and invisible and scared to let someone see you?’ And then writing to that.”

The success of Waitresson Broadway when it first opened three years ago meant that Bareilles became known to a whole new audience. “I had been making music in the pop industry for a long time and it felt like I did Waitress and all of a sudden people knew who I was.”