Based on the 2007 indie film written and directed by Adrienne Shelly, Waitress the musical is, like its inspiration, much loved at home in the United States.

It will be interesting to see how Australian audiences respond to this sweet confection, made with Middle American attitudes and sprinkled with plenty of distinctly American references.

Leads Natalie Bassingthwaighte and Rob Mills have popular appeal, and the songs are a strong calling card for Waitress, which opened on Broadway in 2016. They were written by two-time Grammy winner Sara Bareilles, who, together with Jessie Nelson (book), Diane Paulus (director) and Lorin Latarro (choreographer) were Broadway’s first all-female team of key creatives.

Waitress. Photo © Jeff Busby

Waitress is mostly set in a diner, where Jenna’s work includes creating delicious, evocatively named pies. It reminds her of her mother, and also offers distraction from her abusive marriage to Earl.

Aghast to discover she’s pregnant, Jenna is supported by fellow waitresses Becky and Dawn, and the old-fashioned wisdom of the diner’s owner, Joe, who suggests she enter a lucrative pie-making competition. Will that or the passionate affair with her obstetrician, the also-unhappy Dr Pomatter, be Jenna’s escape route?

While a lot of contemporary musical theatre’s stories have an air of New York woke, Waitress exudes what you might call cautious Midwest tolerance, so at times it’s a little hokey, possibly even awkward for some audiences.

Dawn’s neurodivergence, and especially that of her love interest Ogie, is presented as an adorable joke. There’s a strange, short exchange about someone we never meet being gay, while Joe’s comments sometimes veer into old-timey misogyny. Having an affair with one’s obstetrician seems creepy, but c’est la vie I guess.

Waitress threatens to be too saccharine, but finds a better balance of bitter and sweet in a second act that digs a little deeper and defies some predictable outcomes. There are funny lines throughout, sometimes lifted directly from the film.

Keanu Gonzalez and Natalie Bassingthwaighte in Waitress. Photo © Jeff Busby

What really sets this show apart are Bareilles’s songs, which are a breath of fresh air in an era when musicals can sound much the same. A bit indie pop-rock, a bit country, with some jazz, blues and soul here and there, her fun or heartfelt songs are consistently engaging. A tight six-strong band led by musical director Geoffrey Castles performs them on-stage with cello, bass, guitars, keys and drums.

Bassingthwaighte (Jenna) and Rob Mills (Dr Pomatter) are good but not great singers, so they mostly do justice to the songs but fudge a few notes on opening night; this lets down their duet You Matter to Me.

That said, Bassingthwaighte really delivered the show’s big number, power-pop ballad She Used to be Mine, while as an actor she’s always likeable lurching between hope and anxiety on Jenna’s search for happiness.

Mills has plenty of slightly goofy nice-guy charm, plus some comic flashes of athleticism, while Keanu Gonzalez (so memorable in a supporting role in last year’s Annie) thoroughly inhabits the underwritten, irredeemably bad boy role of Earl.

Rob Mills and Natalie Bassingthwaighte in Waitress. Photo © Jeff Busby

Another Annie-alum on the rise, Mackenzie Dunn, is a ball of comical nervous energy as Dawn, while Gareth Isaac turns up the silly energy to 11 as Ogie. Gabriyel Thomas nails Becky’s sassiness, and leaves you wanting more after her lone solo, bluesy-soul-pop number I Didn’t Plan It.

John Waters is so convincing as old Midwest gent Joe he’s almost unrecognisable, while John Xintavelonis is just right as grumpy but kind-hearted cook-boss Cal.

In Jenna’s numerous pie-making-meets-daydream sequences, which feature real ingredients and myriad prop pies, the seven-strong ensemble is kept busy with the precisely choreographed delivery of kitchen utensils and pie ballets.

Suttirat Anne Larlarb’s costumes and Scott Pask’s scenic design neatly drops us into a diner in the middle of nowhere. Occasionally obscured by small sets for the doctor’s consulting room, and Jenna and Earl’s lounge, Pask’s almost life-size, semi-open diner structure is backed by a vast photorealistic image of a road and powerlines in a flat Midwest plain.

Ken Billington’s lighting often transforms that big sky with sunset and sunrise colours, underscoring the story’s theme of hope and searching for happiness.

Maybe Waitress is a bit too all-American, a bit too old-fashioned and sweet, but it’s among the more memorable contemporary musicals, mostly because of songs that inspire toe-tapping and heartache.

Waitress is at Her Majesty’s Theatre, Melbourne, until 19 July, then at Sydney Lyric Theatre from 1 August. For more information and bookngs visit waitressthemusical.com.au