[music] Good Morning and welcome to
The Balancing Act.
I'm Olga Villaverde and I'm Amber Milt.
Okay, so I know it's morning but I know what she will eat this
morning, afternoon and evening and this is, PIE!
Yes!
I was wondering which one you're gonna come with because
pretty much I eat anything.
She loves it!
I love pie, I love to bake pies, I love to eat pies.
Yes I do.
And I know you're gonna love going behind the
scenes of Waitress, the smash Broadway musical.
What a treat.
It was so awesome.
You Know I loved getting to sit down with the all female
creative team.
You have that much in Broadway anymore.
No you Don't.
so go girls and we got to meet
multi Grammy nominee singer-songwriter Sara Bareilles
You know her hits include, Brave, Love Song
and of course we got to sit down
with Tony winning director Diana Paulus
we love her, fabulous.
Now sticking with
the cooking theme and we do love to eat
Chef Stuart O'Keefe is in the kitchen
this morning he's pre-gaming for us
that's right, there's a big football game
happening soon.
That's true.
We're gonna have some parties for that too
and you know what goes great with
football what avocado.
Yes it's the perfect combination
so Chef Stuart is gonna go beyond
guacamole.
He's got some great ideas.
What do you got?
That's right ladies returning
avocado into tasty treats and more for
the big game.
I love it I also love
seeing the Patriots in that game oops, sorry.
Ah, we'll see about that.
Go Birds.
All right we've got so much to get
to because the balancing act starts
right now.
[Music] Broadway balances America
brought to you by Broadway Across America
bringing the best of Broadway to a city near
you.
Time now for Broadway Balances America
our series that takes you behind the
scenes of some of the most beloved
Broadway musicals, I love this, as they
appear across the country and into your
local theaters.
Today Waitress.
Mm-hmm sugar, butter and yes a
spunky waitress, blended all together
with an original score that is so witty
by Grammy nominee Sara Bareilles and
guess what you've got what you've got a
recipe for the perfect Broadway musical
so let's head to the diner and meet the
women of waitress the musical.
[Music] The musical is inspired by
Adrian Shelley's beloved indie film of
the same name, with music and lyrics by
Sara Bareilles, a book by Jesse
Nelson and directed by Tony Award winner
Diane Paulus.
The story of Waitress is based
around three waitresses who work in a
small diner, small-town USA, there are
real people they work hard for their
living and at the center is the character of Jena and she is an
extraordinary pie baker.
She has this
incredible talent but her problem is she
doesn't deal with the real-life troubles
in her life, instead she puts all her
emotions and bakes a pie.
Jena is a character that is so precious
to me and has done so much for me in my
life and so getting to tell her story,
you know was just like such a I'll never
forget that.
It's hard not to instantly
fall in love with our heroine who often
balances life's toughest situations
through her whimsical pie recipes.
She's a wife we look at that
relationship between her and her husband, she
works at a diner where she and her two
kind of best coworker pals Dawn and
Becky, work all work together.
She bakes as an
escape.
What happens is these circumstances are so in her face
that she doesn't have the choice just
to bake it away, she has to face these
realities these deep kind of scary dark
emotional realities, and then it's
unbelievable how her life changes.
Jenna soon discovers
that she's become pregnant and is in an
unloving marriage with little hope of
getting out, dismayed by the news but
determined to keep the baby, Jenna heads to her doctor, pie
in hand and meets the handsome and
charming Doctor Jim Pomatter and suddenly
her life begins to take a turn.
But what's so
redemptive in our musical as this woman
who is an extraordinary pie maker
actually in the end of our story gets to
turn that talent into a form of empowerment.
She has to deal with her own
problems and she does it through so many
things that happen to her in the show,
relationships, encounters, her deep sister
friends that she has in that diner the
other waitresses, but in the end she has
to look inside herself.
Helping Jenna
summon the strength and courage to
rebuild her own life are her fellow
waitresses.
There's the feisty Becky played by
Charity Angel Dawson, she wants to you
know help spur her on toward greatness
and toward this life that she could have
of happiness and fullness without this
abusive relationship and I think that
she does it, she does it with a little, a
little sass on it but but she's it's all
in love to try to get her to the next
level in her life.
What is it like to
play her and how are you similar to her,
how much of your self do you bring into that
role?
I'm not as spicy you know as Becky
but so it's nice to have that that
release on stage to get to like tap
into a different part of myself that.
I become the person who reaches
out to help my friends a lot you know I
want to see them you know grow and and
live and thrive.
And rounding out this trio of
strong women is Lenna Clingerman who
plays the reserved Dawn.
She's you know
vibrant and has so much going on under
underneath that like turtle exterior
that she's hiding under and so I love
getting to bring kind of my own buoyancy
and vibrancy to that especially for when
those moments that it pops out she pops
out of her shell but also I'm a Capricorn,
so her perfectionism and control freakiness, it really speaks to
me too so I like to play the balance
between those two things.
Really getting to relish and
seeing the beautiful bond of friendship
and love between these three women I
hope the audiences see themselves in
one or all of them and just get to enjoy
something that we don't often see which
is this like beautiful bond of female
friendship.
Celebrating the bonds of friendship,
motherhood and of course the magic of a
well-made pie all comes together through
the music and lyrics of grammy nominee,
Sara Bareilles.
I think I just, I wanted
to give everybody some emotional depth,
and you know I think there was there was
lots to draw from from the world of
Waitress that though all of these
characters are so interesting and
complicated and messy and they were, they
were delicious.
Sort of like do a deep dive into and and try to give them you
know some real life and then as always
with my music my hope is to is to just
be a reflection that that someone
recognizes themselves.
And this beautiful masterpiece has been brought to
life by Broadway's first all-female
creative team.
It just seems like they were all
the people that were right for the job
you know and it just happened to be
women.
You know we weren't trying to be
the first all-female group we just
happened to be people who were working
hard and in the top of our fields and
found each other that way.
We had to
explore a lot of different versions of
everything and you're sort of trying to
find the answer but there's no playbook
to go to, so you're you're on this
constant exploration with each other but
you know we had a lot of laughs, we had some tears, we had you
know everything in between.
As we've worked the actors and the
people who are part of our team and
community you know will often pause and
say, can I just note that it never looks
like this in the room and I think that
visualization of seeing women lead in a
room creatively is just a sign that this
is possible and all the young women
across America who are aspiring to be in
these fields know there's a place for
them.
[Music] And of course there's always a
place for pie.
So for me I had never made up I
thought it was very important to make a
pie, and after I had found out that I
had won the role of Jenna, my mom flew to
New York City and in my New York City
studio apartment she taught me how to
bake a pie which was my great-grandmother's cherry pie
recipe, and we called it very
celeba-cherry pie.
My go-to pie is my mom's blackberry
pie and then it's pretty much just like
blackberries and sugar.
[music.]
I feel like my production is my pie, I
spend so much effort you know creating
the production and working with such
remarkable formers like Desi and kind of
like launching them those are my little
cooking creations.
Waitress is a little slice of
heaven and they can't wait to share this
winning recipe with audiences across
America.
I think people come away from
the show not realizing that they were
gonna laugh as much as they did and I
hope that we continue to just kind of
touch that heart center when people come
to see the show they leave with having
had an emotional experience but also
that they have gone on some sort of
journey themselves.
And this is a musical
that says “wake up it's never too late”
and I think especially for women to say
you deserve happiness, you deserve a kind
of empowerment, but it's everybody's
story and that's a really important
distinction you know stories about women
are not just for women because everybody
has a mother, a sister, a daughter and we
all care about these issues.
[Music] yYu have to see this show, from
the songs to the characters, to the witty
sarcastic funny, you will laugh, you will
cry, it is real, this this story is
life-changing for sure.
The North American tour of
Waitress is coming soon to a theater
near you.
Check out Broadway Across
America, Broadway Balances America or you
can always go to our website thebalancingact.com for all the
show information tour dates and more.
Sugar butter, flour.
[Music]
Olga did you know that avocados are
fruit and not a veggie.
I did and I also
know they are full of great nutrients,
vitamins, minerals and fiber.
Okay that's good because I'm eating like at least
one a day.
But I bet you didn't know that you
could use frozen avocados for all your
favorite recipes.
Takes away the green,
takes away the brown, I'm sorry it makes
it more green.
We've got chef Stuart here take it away.
[Music] Did you know that avocados are
fruit and not a vegetable.
They're delicious,
nutritious and so versatile.
Well guacamole may always be a fan favorite,
we're going beyond a traditional for your
big game entertaining.
I mean look at this spread
we have here in front of us using the
hero of the day, the avocado and it's not
just any avocado.
We're using Welch's
ripe frozen avocados to serve up tasty treats.
So you perfectly ripe chunks straight
out of the bag.
It's versatile, convenient,
you're not gonna waste any more avocados
and it's healthy of course.
So let's just
get right into it.
So right here in front
of me I have the perfect club sandwich,
using the avocado straight out of the
bag.
Just mash it up put it in your
favorite sandwich.
Super easy I love tuna
tartare and with this avocado, you smash
it up with some green onion in there,
have a tortilla with it, super delicious.
It's kind of elevated to for a nice
appetizer in the evening and we have a
red bulb with my favorite guacamole
recipe.
Super delicious again, good game
day favorite, love that.
Now if you're on
the healthier side, it's a new year you
want to stay healthier, you have your
crudit�s platter right here.
Some mashed up mashed up avocado, dip it
right in there.
super good too you know you always
have a few healthy people that come over
for a game day.
I don't know why they do
but you know they always turn up and we
have our beloved chicken wings.
I love these!
Ever since I moved to
America I just cannot get enough of your
chicken wings.
You make the best ones
here.
And as with chicken wings we need a
good dipping sauce.
So we're going to make a ranch but we're
not gonna use buttermilk today we're
gonna replace that fat with a healthy
fat.
We're going to use the frozen ripe
avocado.
So we're gonna put these
avocados, into a food processor and then
we're just gonna add a few ingredients
and guys making your own dressing at
home is so good.
I always find you'll
save a lot of money doing it this way
too.
So we got some onion, we got some
green onion in there.
We got some salt
and pepper.
Okay.
We got some dried mustard.
If you don't have dried mustard use some
dijon mustard a home, that's totally fine.
Some parsley, some dill.
You got to have
Dylan, you're a ranch dressing.
It's one of those staples, in a recipe
and of course our lemon juice.
Because we wanted
kind of tangy, since we're not using
buttermilk.
Because buttermilk has a nice
tang to it and I'm gonna thin it up with
some water.
Pop the lid on, okay that
is looking beautiful.
So think you want a
thinner than then quackamole and that's
how you know you have the right consistency.
See the way it just kind of
pours in there?
That's absolutely
delicious of course since you know
chicken wings are one of my favorite
things, along with spareribs, I love ribs
too.
But I'm gonna taste one of these,
really quickly.
And that is so different
and it's like a nice little surprise
when people come over.
If you know you've
you've really changed it up on game day.
You've made your own ranch dressing
using avocado.
That's kind of cool.
Lick my fingers!
Okay, for more information go to
WelchsFrozenFruits.com or go to our website
balancingact.com And for more recipes you can
also check out my cookbook, The Quick Six
Fix.
Guys, thanks for watching.
I'm gonna dig back
into these, okay.
To finish this [music]
[Music] Are you a wine aficionado?
Do you know what
food to pair with that wine?
Well not all of us are experts, not me and
figuring out what wine to buy can be so
overwhelming.
We'll have no fear this
morning, we're gonna have so much fun.
Here to help us out is entertaining
expert my friend, Christina Nicholson.
She has some great tips on creating
the perfect pairing.
Good morning.
Good Morning Olga!
We're gonna have fun.
We are gonna have fun.
We're gonna have wine!
The good news is you
don't have to be an expert to do This.
You're going to learn a little bit.
You just need to follow some
simple guidelines to match the food with the wine.
Well if the food is
mild you want to go with a more mild
wine.
If the food is flavorful you choose
a flavorful wine and I brought plenty to
choose from, from M�nage � Trois What?
M�nage � Trois Olga.
I said it, a little bit scared
this morning.
Fun and flirty.
That means three?
Yes well that's how the brand
started with three grapes, hence the name
M�nage � Trois.
Well I feel like we need
one more individual here.
Ok.
Can we find somebody?
Stand by.
I'm gonna get somebody.
My fabulous Photagrapher.
This poor man,
Oh.
Diego, lucky Diego.
And wait, wait, he's from
from Costa Rica.
You wanna be part of the
M�nage � Trois?
I would love to.
But you know I kind of got to get back to my
camera.
He's dying.
He's like Olga, stop it Back behind
the camera Diego, we'll save a glass for you.
Party pooper!
So what have you combined for me?
All right so let's start with the appetizer, we're
going to start with the Prosecco and this
is a light wine, Italian sparkler
made with a hundred percent glare grapes.
You can taste this kind of citrusy, some
floral notes, bright green apple
flavor.
Very light.
Really good.
It goes very well with
something sweet and salty so we paired
it with a smoked salmon bruschetta this
morning.
Okay it's very good.
Okay, my red.
Yes your red, you will like this
one.
If you want something a little richer
you want to go with the Merlot.
Hello this is made with some blueberries,
and juicy plums, it's got some hints of
coconut and sweet vanilla and this goes
really well with the cheese tray some
homemade jams and pickles.
Also light.
It's really good.
Okay, And then these two down here?
Okay, so we will finish up with Silk.
This is the newest
red blend offering and it also shows the
softer side and just like its name
suggests it's very silky and seamless.
Goes well with some sea bass, mashed
potatoes and mushrooms.
All right and
last, but not least.
Last but not least
well let's get one more dinner in there
for the steak & frI fans, just some
Cabernet Sauvignon.
All right.
Goes great with that.
Before we get to the
desserts, how to do these compare with
other wines?
M�nage � Trois is fun, flirty,
innovative, high quality.
Best grapes in
California put into the M�nage � Trois
wine.
She's ready this morning.
All right!
Dessert!
Desserts our favorite part
right okay.
So let's start with Midnight.
Midnight another richer wine.
Olga, right up your alley.
You will like this one
besides your dessert with the molten
chocolate cake and some salted caramel
sauce.
And then, back to white.
We end with the Moscato.
Moscato juicy peach, sweet,
tart, goes great with a citrus dessert
and some ice cream.
Okay, so thank you so much.
CHEERS!
Cheers to you.
Fabulous.
Appreciate your time.
Thank you.
For more information
about M�nage � Trois wines, go to
menageatroiswines.com or go to our
website thebalancingact.com and now
we're going to commercial.
Diego, this is for you.
[Music]
[Music] Oh my gosh
Broadway, pie and wine.
it's perfect.
I really hope that when they take
it on tour that they continue that,
serving of the pie there, because it was so
good.
That's great, I love that.
Well if you want more
besides it's just warm apple pie, you can
head to our Facebook and our website
thebalancingact.com and of course you
can follow us on Twitter.
Thanks for watching everyone we'll see you
next time.
Bye.
[Music]