Sugar, butter, flour.” And then, with a single note from a keyboard, a high piano chord and a whoosh from a cymbal, she launched into a song about baking.
Even on this first night, there was a reminder of the challenges involved: An actress in “Waitress,” who had been fully vaccinated, tested positive for the coronavirus, and couldn’t perform.
The return of musical theater — the financial backbone of Broadway — marks another milestone as the theater business, and the theater community, seek to recover from the coronavirus pandemic, which forced all 41 Broadway theaters to close on March 12, 2020.
At “Hadestown,” Joey Casali, 18, was wearing the show’s signature bloom — a red ranunculus — behind his right ear.
Among those celebrating the “Waitress” reopening was Senator Chuck Schumer of New York, the majority leader, who had worked to secure aid to help live entertainment businesses and cultural organizations recover from the pandemic.
The first two shows have small bands — “Waitress,” with a pop score written by Bareilles, has six musicians, five of whom are seated onstage throughout the show, while “Hadestown,” with a folk/jazz score written by Anaïs Mitchell, has seven, all of whom are onstage.
For the “Waitress” band, which had said goodbye to the show two months before the shutdown, the return is an unexpected treat.
At “Hadestown,” there’s similar joy, along with reassuring familiarity.
“We’re all still holding our breath a little bit,” said the “Hadestown” musical director, Liam Robinson.