For its first production of 2025, Royal Manitoba Theatre Centre staged a production of the musical Waitress. Based on the 2007 film of the same name, the show features music and lyrics by Grammy Award winner Sara Bareilles. Waitress achieved success during its four-year Broadway run and was nominated for four Tony Awards, including Best Musical.

The musical follows Jenna, a small-town waitress with a talent and passion for baking pies. Behind the scenes, she is trapped in an unhappy marriage with an abusive husband. When she unexpectedly becomes pregnant, Jenna learns about a pie-making contest and sees it as her chance to start over and find the happiness she’s been searching for. With the support of her friends and co-workers, she embarks on a journey of self-discovery.

“Jenna kind of goes through a journey and figures some stuff out in the show,” said Omar Alex Khan, who plays Cal, the diner’s cook.

Khan described Cal as a “guy’s guy,” who is confident, charismatic and content with his life and marriage. When Jenna asks if he is truly happy, Cal simply says he is “happy enough,” comfortable with how things are, even if he senses there could be more.

“I feel like [Cal is] a guy who is working it out,” Khan said. “He knows who he is, but at the same time I think he knows, maybe, there could be more. So, he’s tuned into that possibility. Not that he’s actively seeking that, but he knows that maybe it’s out there and it could find him.”

Khan described working on the show as “fantastic.”

“The company that has been assembled, the people that I get to act with […] to actually go out there, and be there, and be an actor in front of people on that stage is exciting,” he said.

When asked what he loved most about the show, Khan highlighted Bareilles’s songwriting, particularly the ballad, “She Used To Be Mine.”

“The songs are so good,” he raved. “There’s this one song, that Steph Sy [who plays Jenna] sings by herself, and I sit in the wings, and I can’t watch her do it, because she just gives all of herself, and all of the character. It’s called ‘She Used To Be Mine,’ and […] when Steph does it, it’s absolutely fantastic,” he said.

Khan also credited director Ann Hodges and music director Floydd Ricketts for their work on the production.

The audience has enjoyed the show during its run, something that Khan said is “lovely.”

“The audience really has been reacting as a group,” he said. “It’s not just some little chuckles here and there. I just feel like the audience as a whole has really been buying in and loving it and going on the journey, and they’re with us at the beginning, and they embrace us, and they’re with us at the end.”

Khan advises other actors not to take themselves so seriously, and to just have fun with the experience.

“There’s so much fun to be had, and that’s one of the things I love about this show, is that everybody seems to be having a lot of fun,” he reflected. “You can take it seriously, and you can have fun at the same time.”

Khan also praised his fellow cast members and the entire company of Waitress. “The assembled company are some of the best humans that I’ve ever encountered, and I just love going to the theatre every day,” he said.

For tickets and information on upcoming shows at Royal Manitoba Theatre Centre, visit royalmtc.ca.