Drew Gehling Opens Up About Coming Back to Waitress, Honoring Nick Cordero & More

The doctor is in! Drew Gehling has stepped back into Waitress as Dr. Pomatter for the Sara Bareielles-scored musical's Broadway return. He spoke with Broadway.com correspondent Charlie Cooper on the latest episode of The Broadway Show about the homecoming.

"Everybody has been so starved for theater. People are so hungry for it—pardon the pun," Gehling said. "Getting to welcome audiences back has been awesome. It is such a gift. The thing that we get to be a part of every night is spectacular. To revisit something that I'd had such a long experience with and to get to revisit it again through the lens of the past year and a half that we all had lived through together is really kind of beautiful."

Gehling opened up about one of the tougher spots for the company's return: missing original cast member Nick Cordero, who died from complications with COVID-19 on July 5, 2020. "The hardest part about coming back was the first day of rehearsal. Chris Fitzgerald, Eric Anderson and I all looked at each other and couldn't help but feel like something was missing," he said. "But then we really quickly realized that he's with us every day. He was such an integral part of the creation of the piece. We've named a pie after him in the show and have actually permanently altered a set piece of the diner in the show, in every company, all over the world to include a big old slice of 'Live Your Life' pie. It's become a huge part of the heart of what the show is." The new pie name refers to Cordero's hit song, which people worldwide played from their homes daily during his battle with COVID-19.

Watch the interview below, and head here to check your local listings for The Broadway Show. Hosted by Emmy-winning anchor Tamsen Fadal, it is the only nationally syndicated weekly theater news program.