Theater Review

Waitress has all the ingredients for a hit at Bass Hall

Charity Angel, Dawson Desi Oakley, and Lenne Klingaman in the National Tour of Waitress

Charity Angél Dawson, Desi Oakley, and Lenne Klingaman lead the national tour cast.

Photo by Joan Marcus

When you are literally the target demo for Waitress, the Sara Bareilles musical based on Adrienne Shelly's indie film, it's that much harder to pinpoint why you don't like it. Each visit I pay to the show, which is still running on Broadway and comes to Bass Hall via Performing Arts Fort Worth, feels to me as artificial as store-bought pie crust.

One guess is that its heart is buried under layers of syrupy shtick, as broad and as bland as a bad sitcom. Director Diane Paulus, who was behind the similarly cloying Finding Neverland but also the gut-wrenching production of The Gershwins' Porgy and Bess, has here used the tactic that served her well for the Pippin revival: rely on spectacle to distract.

Now, you won't find any literal hoop-jumping in Waitress; the spectacle here is Bareilles' score (and the real pies used onstage, which are peddled to the audience in the lobby). The remarkable theatrical effort works just as well — better, even — as a solo album from the decorated songstress, blending her soft-rock hooks with clever, soul-searching melodies and a hint of playfulness.

Jessie Mueller was fresh from portraying Carole King in Beautiful when she tied on the diner apron of protagonist Jenna Hunterson, and Bareilles herself took a few spins onstage in the role (Katharine McPhee is next to join the Broadway cast). On tour, Desi Oakley brings a throatier tone to the songs, many of which are Jenna's wistful longings about leaving her abusive husband and winning a lucrative pie-making contest.

These "pie reveries," where Jenna recites ingredients that echo her emotions and help act out her fantasies, add a dollop of genuine whimsy to Jessie Nelson's otherwise contrived book.

This is a world where the waitresses are always wisecracking and the male townies are as dense as their heavy tool boxes, and everyone's Southern accent is so thick you could stir it with a spatula. The diner where Jenna and her two best gal pals — one brassy and sassy (Charity Angél Dawson), one timid and quirky (Lenne Klingaman) — is always full up with regulars, but on closer inspection it's mainly because this show needs bodies to move its scenery, and sometimes sway a little in the background (Lorin Latarro's choreography is very much of the step-touch variety).

Even the Yankee interloper, Dr. Pomatter, is afflicted with too many tics and twitches to render him an actual human. Bryan Fenkart works miracles in making each of the nervous doc's flinches and stutters feel spontaneous, and he projects such a solid nice-guy front that it's easy to forget he's cheating on his wife with Jenna, his new patient who has a newly unwanted pregnancy from her mean lunk of a husband (Hood's Nick Bailey).

If you've read this far, you might wonder, "what's your problem with this show? It all sounds fine." And that's exactly it: It's fine. It's adequate. It'll do. The groan-worthy jokes drown out the gravity, there's a scene-stealing character who pretty much stops the show with his athletic ode to clingy relationships (yes, Jeremy Morse milks it here), and you get to smell pie baking in the lobby. Show after show, the majority of the audience will most likely leave thinking they had a really great time.

But for a woman-centered musical developed by an all-female creative team and scored by the magnificent music of Sara Bareilles, it continues to feel sadly, overwhelming, disappointingly underdone. We got store-bought, and what we deserve is homemade.

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Performing Arts Fort Worth's presentation of the national tour of Waitress runs at Bass Hall through June 24.

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Ancient Sculpture News

Fort Worth museum one of only 3 in U.S. to get rare sculpture exhibit

Lorenzo di Masi/Torlonia Collection

The Torlonia Nile

A major exhibition of ancient Roman masterworks is coming to the U.S. for the first time to be viewed at only three museums — including the Kimbell Art Museum in Fort Worth.

Called Myth and Marble: Ancient Roman Sculpture from the Torlonia Collection, it's an assemblage of works stewarded by the Torlonia Family beginning in the early-19th century, and will be installed at the Kimbell from September 14, 2025 – January 25, 2026.

As part of the Foundation’s mission to showcase these historical works to the public, the exhibition will premiere at the Art Institute of Chicago on March 15 through June 29, before traveling to the Kimbell Art Museum in Fort Worth. Its third stop will be at the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts, from March 14 - July 19, 2026.

The Torlonia Collection was established during the course of the 19th century by the Franco-Italian banker Prince Giovanni Torlonia and his son Alessandro, then handed down over generations, eventually growing into the largest private collection of ancient Roman sculptures.

Today, the Torlonia Foundation represents the culmination of the Family’s continued passion for art. Created at the behest of Prince Alessandro Torlonia (1925–2017), the Foundation’s mission is to preserve and promote the Torlonia Collection and Villa Albani Torlonia.

In 1876, Prince Alessandro Torlonia (1800-1886) created a museum to house and exhibit the Family’s holdings, which was open to small groups until its closure at the onset of World War II. The sculptures remained unseen by the public from that time until the Foundation’s first exhibition at the Musei Capitolini in Rome in 2020. That was followed by a stint at the Louvre, the first presentation of the collection outside of Rome, where it has drawn more than 600,000 visitors to date, an unprecedented feat.

The exhibit
The curators of Myth & Marble: Ancient Roman Sculpture from the Torlonia Collection are Lisa Ayla Çakmak and Katharine A. Raff of the Art Institute of Chicago. The exhibition is co-organized by the Art Institute of Chicago and the Torlonia Foundation, in collaboration with the Kimbell Art Museum, the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts, and The Museum Box. All of the sculptures in the exhibition have been restored by the Foundation with the support of Bvlgari.

The exhibition is accompanied by a catalogue co-published by the Art Institute of Chicago and the Torlonia Foundation, edited by Lisa Ayla Çakmak and Katharine A. Raff, with essays by Silvia Beltrametti and Salvatore Settis.

The North American presentation will feature 58 highlights from the Torlonia Collection, including 24 newly restored works that have not been on view in nearly a century. The sculptures date from approximately the 5th century BCE to the early 4th century CE, with the majority of the works dating to the High Imperial period (1st–2nd centuries CE). Highlights include examples of the most emblematic genres of ancient marble sculpture, acquired by the Torlonia Family from the most prominent collections of Rome’s patrician families, as well as from excavations made on the Family’s own estates throughout Italy.

“The Foundation is excited to be sharing the Torlonia Collection with audiences in North America for the first time. This exceptional group of ancient sculptures is a testament to the enduring cultural legacy of ancient Rome, as well as the vision and passion of multiple generations of the Torlonia Family,” said Alessandro Poma Murialdo, President of the Torlonia Foundation.

The presentation is organized thematically in six sections, featuring sculptures found on the Torlonia Family’s properties in Rome and the surrounding suburbs and their estate in Porto, Portugal, as well as a number of exceptional sarcophagi (stone coffins), among the largest sculpted works in marble to survive from ancient Rome.

The tour reinforces the work of the Foundation to advance the appreciation and understanding of this unparalleled collection and the rich cultural heritage it represents. The Foundation’s mission is carried out through a continuous joint effort between the public and private sectors, including with the cooperation of the Italian Ministry of Culture. The Foundation is supported by a longstanding collaboration with Bvlgari as the principal sponsor of the restoration project since its inception in Rome and throughout the global tour, and Chiomenti, who has lent invaluable support to the Foundation’s core activities.

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