If, like me, you’ve somehow not met Waitress in its ten-year life, allow me to introduce you. We follow Jenna, the sparkiest of the three waitresses at Joe’s Pie Diner, and its star baker. Jenna bakes pies from the heart, names them extravagantly and infuses them with emotion, like a sort of mid-West Like Water For Chocolate.

Her life needs to change: can she escape her manchild husband and get together with her hunky gynaecologist? Can she break the cycle of unhappy women? Maybe the key is winning the Springfield Baking Contest. Only two things stand in her way: the whopping entry fee and her unwilling pregnancy. We start with tangled lives over which our heroines have little agency, and fate only tangles things further.

You’re thinking you know where this goes, but for a modern fairytale I’m delighted to say nothing works out as you’d expect! Before Waitress was a musical it was a sharp and funny film, written by Adrienne Shelly, who I think might have got on well with Nora Ephron. It isn’t candyfloss, more like a good sorbet: sweet yes, but fruity, and with a bite to it.

The cast have great voices, not surprising since Carrie Hope Fletcher is a Grammy-nominee and solo artist as well as a theatrical star. Her voice is deep and perfect for Jenna. Sandra Marvin and Evelyn Hoskins are brilliant too, pursuing morality and happiness in their own peculiar ways. I will never think of historical re-enactment in quite the same light. Everyone is brilliant, but we particularly loved the hidden ensemble who are often seen only as hands making jugs, pies, butter, and flour fly magically.

Similarly the design was amazing, in particular the lighting. The stage set was very detailed with hundreds of moving elements creating four or five different settings, but throughout it was framed by the vast skies, lit with purple sunsets, peachy sunrises and bright high noon. It gave such a vivid flavour of flat, empty space. So much nothing out there.

This show celebrates the repressed, and the seedy flipside of the American Dream - those who live on tips, those who aren’t free to be themselves or follow their dreams. Although there are no actual gay characters, this show has a big following within the LGBTQ+ community and allies. A Stars&Stripes flag makes an appearance, but its stripes turn rainbow, and the cheer that went up tells you plenty about who made up the packed audience last night!

If you can get a ticket, do! It’s a great musical done brilliantly. What more can you ask?