For my blog I have decided to write about the performance  “She Used to Be Mine” sang and performed by Jessie Mueller. This song is from the Broadway play “Waitress” that was based on the 2007 film by the late Adrienne Shelly, Waitress. Jessie Mueller plays Jenna, a pregnant waitress in the south trapped in an abusive marriage and looking for a happy ending. When I first saw this performance it brought me to tears and I felt overwhelmed with sympathy for the poor waitress. Jessie’s performance convinces you that she is in fact the woman stuck in an abusive relationship. The beginning of this song is extremely important because it is sang very softly, almost as if she is speaking to herself about her problems and trying to keep them a secret. Her exhausted expression and tone of voice gives off the image that she is fed up and needs to look for a way out. Throughout the song “She Used to Be Mine” is repeated multiple times and it really emphasizes the message that her husband has taken away all of the characteristics that used to make up who she was. As the song progresses her frustration and anger begins to become louder and she no longer wants her secret to be kept quiet. At the end of her song she finally realizes that she can’t fix what has happened to her, but she can try and prevent the abuse from happening to her daughter.

“Of the life that’s inside her
Growing stronger each day
Til it finally reminds her
To fight just a little
To bring back the fire in her eyes”

In this part she realizes that she has something fight for and this time she will not give up. Becoming a mother is now about teaching your children to be strong and to never settle for a man who doesn’t know how to love.