Friday, Apr 26, 2024 | Last Update : 07:55 PM IST

  Sara Bareilles writes an original turn-off-your-phone song

Sara Bareilles writes an original turn-off-your-phone song

Published : Apr 25, 2016, 6:26 am IST
Updated : Apr 25, 2016, 6:26 am IST

Sara Bareilles’ songwriting skills are all over the new Broadway musical Waitress — even down to the cellphone warning.

Sara Bareilles
 Sara Bareilles

Sara Bareilles’ songwriting skills are all over the new Broadway musical Waitress — even down to the cellphone warning.

The singer-songwriter of Brave and Love Song has recorded the 40-second please-turn-off-all-electronic-devices warning that most Broadway theatres now provide.

Over staccato piano notes and shrill ringing, Bareilles sings: “Do it now, while I sing, because no one’s going to like you if your phone rings. Hurry up so that we can start the show. Thank you so much. Now turn off your cellphone.” Fans can find it on SoundCloud.

Bareilles said that she was inspired to write the ditty after being frustrated by the current bane of Broadway: Cellphones chirping during shows despite demands they be turned off. One went off during previews at a particularly tender moment in Waitress.

“The team and I spoke after the show, and I suggested a cellphone announcement that I would write and sing myself. I decided to rewrite the words to a song of mine called Cassiopeia, and try to make something funny, in the style of the show, but that would still get the point across,” Bareilles said.

“I wrote it in an evening and recorded it at home. It seems to have done the trick, although the errant cellphone still makes me crazy.”

The new musical tells the story of a waitress and pie maker trapped in a small-town diner and a loveless marriage. It’s adapted from a 2007 film starring Keri Russell and stars Jessie Mueller, who won the best leading actress Tony Award for playing Carole King in the musical Beautiful.

Bareilles has already released her versions of the musical’s songs in What’s Inside: Songs From Waitress, including the standout single She Used to Be Mine.