Sara Bareilles to soon star in her Broadway show ‘Waitress’

NEW YORK (AP) — Sara Bareilles’ songwriting skills are all over the new Broadway musical “Waitress” — and soon she will be, too.

The singer-songwriter of “Brave” and “Love Song” will make her Broadway acting debut on March 31 in the lead role of Jenna Hunterson. She’ll be in the show for 10 weeks until June 11.

The musical tells the story of a waitress and pie maker trapped in a small-town diner and a loveless marriage. It’s adapted from a 2007 film starring Keri Russell. Bareilles will take over from Jessie Mueller, who won the best leading actress Tony Award for playing Carole King in the musical “Beautiful.”

Bareilles has already released her versions of the musical’s songs in “What’s Inside: Songs From Waitress,” including the standout single “She Used to Be Mine.”

She joins other composers who have gone into their own Broadway shows, including Sting in “The Last Ship” and Green Day’s frontman Billie Joe Armstrong, who made several onstage visits to his show “American Idiot.”

Mark Kennedy, Associated Press