Waitress: The Musical will be released in cinemas starting Dec. 7, lasting five days as part of a nationwide special-event screening, Variety reported.

Sara Bareilles, who wrote Waitress’ music and lyrics, was inspired to film a live recording of the show when she and the team received an arts grant from Sen. Chuck Schumer’s office during the COVID-19 Broadway shutdown. This grant allowed the show to reopen in 2021

Bareilles, who plays the lead, Jenna Hunterson, reprised the role in the film production. She said that filming the show live helped bring the theater goers “closer to the emotionality of the performances.”

Waitress: The Musical LIVE 

“The shift from just being in front of a live audience and then adding a camera is almost to just lean into the intimacy of it, to let each moment feel really truthful between two people or three people or whoever’s on stage,” Bareilles stated.

Waitress’ creative adviser and musical book’s writer Jessie Nelson said the filmed production gave the team the chance to highlight the characters’ feelings and motivations more.

“When Sara and the doctor ultimately make love in the gynecological office, it was very important to us in the direction that Jenna’s character was leading it, in that she kissed him first. She jumped on the table. She beckoned him to come,” she said.

“She had agency in the scene. It was important to us in the filming of it that it really captured where her character was coming from,” Nelson added.

The live production was filmed over four days. It was shot twice in front with a live audience. The other two days were for closeup shots. These shots were used to enhance performances of songs such as A Soft Place to Land. Due to its comedic nature, the musical number Never Getting Rid of Me made the most out of being filmed in front of a live audience.

The live production also brought about a big change in the show. Instead of using a prop doll for Jenna’s birthing scene, the musical employed a real baby. Bareilles said, “The whole scene kind of cracks open, and you just realize that gravity of this moment for this character.” The show was allowed to have the baby on stage for only 10 minutes per day.

Waitress is based on the 2007 movie with the same title, written and directed by Adrienne Shelly, starring Keri Russell. The musical premiered on in 2016 and is currently one of the longest-running stage shows in recent Broadway history. It also ran on West End, as well as U.S. and U.K. tours.

The musical is reportedly the first Broadway production to have an all-female production team, with Diane Paulus as director, Bareilles as composer and lyricist, Nelson as book adaptor and Lorin Latarro as its choreographer.

Bareilles is also on the former Peacock show Girls5Eva, which has now moved to Netflix.