Sara Bareilles Explains Why She Decided to Star in 'Waitress'

Sara Bareilles is gearing up to make her Broadway debut in the musical Waitress next weekend and she’s opening up about why she decided to star in the show she helped write.

The Grammy-nominated singer appeared alongside her future co-stars Will Swenson and Chris Diamantopoulos at a cast meet and greet on Thursday (March 23) in New York City.

“There was just a perfect storm of things that lined up,” Sara told Variety about taking over for Tony-nominated actress Jessie Mueller.

“I had originally thought that this year would get dedicated to making my next record, and I had gone into the songwriting process. And then when we got the news that Jessie was moving on, I hadn’t made a lot of headway with my own record yet and I was still sort of holding space for this show in a strange way,” Sara said. “It just felt like this was the time. I’m as close to the show as I’ll ever be. My friends are in the show. The band is the original band. Lots of things are still very similar to how it was created, and I feel like that’s the show I want to be in.”

Catch Sara in the show from March 31 until June 11 and watch a sneak peek at rehearsals below!