After New York and London, the musical Waitress arrives in Montreal… in French! A version very faithful to the original, but which adapts to the Quebec public.
The staging of Waitress at Espace St-Denis is an exact replica of its original version. It is difficult to find a difference between the sets, costumes and choreography of Broadway and Montreal. The cast is closely supervised by the New York team, the characters played by Marie-Eve Janvier, Sharon James and Julie Ringuette faithfully embody the spirit of Jenna, Becky and Dawn.
Although Waitress traveled to Quebec, Joe’s Pie Diner is still located in a small town in the southern United States near Highway 27. It evokes the neighboring county of Springfield, anchored in the American imagination, as do the Anglo-Saxon names of the characters.
However, the southern accents of the original characters are transformed into strong Quebec accents. Sometimes caricatured, these accents help to convey the feeling of a small town lost in Quebec territory. Let us mention in particular the use of the verb continue by Earl, a macho character played by Jean-François Beaupré.
The songs, whose lyrics are translated, use the original melodies of Sara Bareilles. Translators Joëlle Bond and Elizabeth Cordeau Rancourt opt for a few more symbolic interpretations in order to preserve the message of the songs. The famous duet of Jenna and Dr Pomatter It Only Takes a Taste becomes From the first bite.
The dialogues are faithful to the original text of Waitresswhile allowing himself a certain humorous freedom. The comic lines, which incorporate Quebec vocabulary, provoke laughter from the crowd. “Swing-toé la bacaisse!” shouts the character of Cal (Jonathan Gagnon) at the beginning of the play. We talk about pitoune, belly and Laval…
The Quebec adaptation of Waitress is located between Georgia and La Belle Province, somewhere where the display of Joe’s Pie Diner can afford to violate Bill 101.
Also read our review “The difficult recipe for happiness”