Bareilles' music — her songs often function as interior monologues and are suffused with hope — was the key factor. Bareilles did not so much write a traditional Broadway score as a song cycle, very much within the existing style that had gained her so many fans. And she threw out the rule book when it came to scale and style, focusing musically on a key group of empathetic characters, the dramatic power of human longing, and the wrestling within the hearts of ordinary people. As a result, "Waitress" proved able to communicate with a depth that most musicals never achieve. This had everything to do with the score. Bareilles did not try to change her fundamental identity as a singer-songwriter, most of whom communicate far more intimately through their compositions than your average musical.