["It Only Takes a Taste" from Waitress the Musical]
--Hey y'all! My name is Desi Oakley and I am starring as Jenna in the national
tour of Waitress. And I'm Broadway.com's newest vlogger. I am so excited to take
you behind the scenes, show you our life on the road, and for you to meet the
entire cast of Waitress as we go. So I'm gonna be playing a small game with
everybody called two truths in a pie, and that means everyone's gonna give two
little truths about themselves and maybe a slice of life, a slice of their journey
how they got to eat to Waitress the national tour, a little slice of info
about their their past, their upbringing, or maybe even some advice for aspiring
actors and actresses. So my two truths in a pie are one truth is I could eat
french fries every day second truth is I'm a yogi and I practice a handstand
almost every single day, and a pie a little slice of life. I feel like I
wouldn't be where I am today without the incredible teachers mentors and loved
ones that are in my life who have poured into me and encouraged me to be where I
am today. That is my little slice of pie. And so look forward to this episode to
me taking you around Dallas. I visited a sweet little pie shop, and I took you
around a little bit of backstage so you can kind of see our little slice of life
here on tour.
--Okay so most of the time on tour, we try
to avoid the hotels. So me and Linna and Em Cook have this
darling charming very cool Air B&B. All of it's very see the stop sign?
It's so cute. We love finding charming little local places because make it
makes it seem like you know we're living like one of the locals.
--Say good morning
y'all! --Good morning!
--This is Mark and this is Lenna. Look at her, look at this little counter
dweller. Okay Lenna, tell us your plan for the day
Well, today is a Wednesday so random kind of a Wednesday yeah in Dallas.
--Yes, random
Wednesday. Um I've got a phone appointment to do. I'm actually gonna go
check out my sinuses. See if everything is all good cuz I've had
phlegm.
--Okay so do you just call a local doctor? -- I call local ENT just to make
sure you know it's all going good. I've never had allergies before and the
south is proving very interesting. -- That must be hard on the road to find a
doctor but
--It's it's a it's like a new experience, you're meeting someone
new you're testing it out, but you also kind of have to just like trust it and
see how it all goes.
--Cool yeah I hope you have a good
appointment.
--Okay well thanks for tuning in. We're signing off at our cute
charming little Airbnb.
--Okay so sometimes we take classes outside the theater
Hi ladies. Look at these two.
Okay so tell tell everybody what we're doing today. Today's Wednesday and were
in Dallas. --And we're doing barre!
--We're doing some barre at the barre method.
So the barre method exists in other cities I did this in I did a lot of these in Boston.
Look at that the barre method. We love it. So they're our friends here at the barre
method are giving us a Waitress a Waitress class, maybe we'll talk about
pie while we work out. --Yeah.
--All right.
We're in Dallas Texas at very
well-known pie shop cop called Emporium Pie.
Look how cute.
--When we walked in she goes "Hey y'all!
I was like Jenna?
The cutest. Look at all these pies. Lord of the pies. Dr. Love.
Should have said Jenna.
Looks so good.
Look at that. Oh my goodness. I cannot wait to eat this.
--Okay so this is the blue steel pie at Emporium
Pies and it is a an all butter flaky crust with fresh blueberry filling with
notes of lemon, cinnamon and vanilla. Are you ready for this moment of truth? And
of course we got it warm and a la mode. Okay here we go.
It's perfect. It's absolutely perfect. Okay if the
crust is truly flaky. Haha, that's a line from the show. What do I say? Pour into a
truly flaky crust. This blueberry is deep purple. Perfect. And I can taste the notes
of lemon, cinnamon, and vanilla. Hmm. Okay so the crust is definitely where you're
getting the lemon flavor from. I wonder if they were like "Make it sour and serve with
lemon wedges." That's probably
what Mrs. Emporium said. Mrs. Emporium and Jenna would be best friends.
--Here is
the beautiful house in Music Hall at Fair Park. Look at this place. It's
gigantic.
Here's our set. Here's the band platform. I spy pie.
Here's what everybody sits. Looks like they cover up everything. We
just had a day off so to protect the instruments.
Okay here's a little bit
about our show deck. These are our tracks. When we travel on tour, we bring this
deck with us everywhere we go. So this deck never changes. So like for
instance that's one of our speakers, here are the tracks the automation goes on,
and we have our numbers at the front so that we maintain our spacing. So that
right there is the show deck or is the is the deck of the actual Music Hall at
Fair Park and then this is the deck that we put on top of it. So it's always
the same for us. Fun fact, fun facts. Here's some diner tables, menus. Our menus have
real things to order. Omelettes, just like a regular diner.
you might recognize this. This is the stall from The Negative. And I go inside
it, straight up toilet, obviously not working toilet, but a real toilet.
Fun fact again: That is a water that I drink during the show. So when I come in
here and I close the door, I can actually have a sip of water if I need one. So
many fun facts. Earl's couch. These are all set for us to grab, our little aprons.
We grab these. We all like them a certain way, so we all have them kind of set for
the opening scene. Also look how tiny here's another banquette. Look how tiny
these little banquettes are where people sit. They look bigger from the audience
I'm pretty sure. That's backstage realness. Backstage
moments.
Here's the other side of the stage. Sugars,
here's Cal's kitchen. So fun, a real chalkboard where we write the pie special
of the day. And speaking of pies, here's more pies.
Marshmallows for the mermaid marshmallow.
Life's just peachy peachy keen pie. Where
there's a whisk there's a way pie.
Look at my little lemon wedges cute. So
that's all set ready to go out on stage. There's more of our prop boxes. Look at
all those pies, pies, pies, pies.
Pies, pies.
--Hi again everyone. This is the sweetest T. I call her T. Her whole name is Teresa.
But I call her T. Or TT or Sweet T and she is our hair
supervisor here for the show. And let me make sure you're in the frame for one
second. Okay now there's. Yes, so before every single show, she comes and pincurls
my hair and preps it to where it will go into the wig. So surprise I wear a wig
in the show. My hair is not actually blonde, but I do have to say so many fans
I get compliments all the time on the wig because people think it's real.
People think my hair is real because of this woman and her insane skill to make
that wig look incredibly real. and we'll be putting it on in just a second. I also
want to show you someone else who is incredible in she's basically pivotal in
my process my backstage process. This is Betsy okay come here I want to make sure you're
in the frame first. This is Betsy. She is so amazing. What she does for me is, in
each city. She will set up all of this the station, I just showed you she she
makes me my tea, so I have it before the show and intermission. And she also
is um responsible for the smell of pies that the lobby smells like pie. And
there's a special concoction that she does that's top-secret where she makes
each lobbying --Theater Magic
--Theater magic. Where she makes each Lobby that we go to smell
like pie. So we're trying to emulate of course the Broadway show does that in
their Lobby, and so it's Betsy's job to do that as well. And anyway this
is sort of my team, the dream team. And it is so rewarding to do the show with
these humans. We talk about everything from silly girly things, to the show, to
everything about not the show, to you know what we did on the day off. And we
just keep each other sane and we laugh and we joke and it's it's so great. I
feel really blessed to have these two with me. And they make my job so much
easier.
--Okay, wig is on, uniform is on, sneakers
are on. Now the finishing touches, my lip stain. It's a stain on purpose because
you know what if I have to kiss somebody? What if I want to kiss somebody? I don't
know. Oh, okay. There she is Jenna Hunterson.
-- Okay y'all. We are in
Texas, Dallas Texas to be exact. And Jenna Hunterson
is here ready for her shift at the diner and we're gonna go get em.
They're gonna call places really soon, and thanks for watching me get ready a
little bit.
--So Broadway Cares/Equity Fights AIDS is this incredible organization that the
touring companies and Broadway companies come together to raise money for six
weeks. I think twice a year, so for six weeks once and for six weeks again. And
everybody gets together and we sell posters. So a lot of these babies go fast
in the lobby, and so the entire cast signs them as you can see these puppies
right now are going for $60, which is apparently cheaper than a lot of some of
the other shows. It's amazing, especially people see the show or if you're a
poster collector, we are starting to, I think, sell these online for our BC EFA
collection. So you can find us there or come and see us on the road and get one
in the lobby.
--Okay, they just called places, so this little pie Baker it's gonna go
to the stage. Here we go.
--Hi Lish!
--Hello --That's Alicia!
She's our A2, she's actually going to be mixing the show tonight.
Shout out. Look at all these, okay these are some costumes drying. That's a fun
trick for wardrobe a lot of shows use those fans to dry the costumes quicker,
you know, to get them done quickly. this is Ms. Maiesha McQueen.
--Hello! --Who's on for Becky.
Their lighting is a little a
--It is a little a little strange. --Little strange back here.
There she is! --Hi!
--How do you feel about the show
tonight? --I am so excited. Dallas!
--Yes, Dallas! Becky does Dallas that's what it's that's what it's called.
--Hey hey --Hey Elena!
--How's it going? --Hey, what do you do in the show?
--I play the drums in the show. Yeah
let me see. There's your face. Oh yeah there's a kit drum kit. Hey everybody!
How's it goin? This is Broadway.com, y'all.
More pie. There's Jenny and Ed, and so
here is backstage right before the curtain's gonna go up. That's where I
stand and there's the wings where the entire cast comes from on and off stage.
We have a common sight over here. This is a very common common sight. Do you mind
if I call you out for this? --Come on in.
--It's pretty this is a pretty common common thing
that goes on over here in up in wing 3. This is Jim Hogan everyone.
--I'm not doing so hot. --So he's planking and he planks for a
long time before before the curtain goes
up --It's really only 90 seconds.
It's about all I can take.
--That's a lot I think that's a long time.
That's a really long time. Oh, and it is it is Broadway's Jeremy Morris joining
the plank fest. No no no! You want to say hi to Broadway.com?
--Hi, Broadway.com! Papa's gotta plank!
--Papa!
--Hi Joanne. --Hi
--Tell us what you do in the show.
--I'm in the ensemble and I cover Dawn. --Yes how are you feeling in
Dallas? --Good.
--It's finally nice and warm. We've been in really cold cities.
--Yes love it! --Okay you
all, so the show just came down. And I just want to say thanks for tuning in to this
episode of Pie, A La Road with Desi Oakley.
That's me. And next week and for
the following weeks, I'm gonna really let you guys see some amazing
behind-the-scenes stuff. Next week we're in Fort Lauderdale,
so you I'm gonna take you behind the scenes to our travel day, and to us
arriving on the beach because we're definitely going to the beach next week.
Wahoo! Waitress does Fort Lauderdale. So tune in next time and meet much more
of a cast. I'm gonna let you kind of see all of the workings behind the scenes
and meet a bunch of different people and kind of get to know their life on the
road, and how everything's working for us, so thanks for watching! Again, I'm Desi
Oakley. This is Pie a la Road and this is Broadway.com's vlog. -
["It Only Takes a Taste" from Waitress the Musical]