Musical Review: The Spitfire Grill

After living in this community for over seven years we finally went to a performance by its community playhouse, The Key City Players, last night. The musical, The Spitfire Grill, is based on the movie starring Ellen Burstyn and has been a long-time favorite of mine. When we heard from our next door neighbor that he was going to be one of the performers in this musical, we knew right away that we wanted to go see it. The basic premise is this: Percy Talbott is a young woman who has just been released from prison (for reasons not revealed until much later) and takes a bus to the idyllic small town of Gilead, Wisconsin where she gets a job at the Spitfire Grill run by the crotchety Hannah Ferguson. Hannah, a widow who lost her only child in the Vietnam War, has been trying to sell her little diner (the only one in town) for 10 years without success. Hannah falls, breaking her leg, leaving the running of the diner to Percy and her nephew (Celeb)'s wife Shelby. They do a terrific job of bringing the sleepy little eatery back to life. In the meantime they concoct an idea having a raffle to get rid of the Spitfire Grill and even make a little bit of money. It isn't long before the entries come in by the mailbag loads. There are a lot of light moments as the letters are read (people have many reasons for wanting the Spitfire Grill). But a lot of questions to be answered -- who will win the Spitfire Grill? Who is the mysterious man showing up at the back of the grill every night? Will there ever be true love for Joe and Percy? And the music!!!! How wonderful to use music to give emotion to these wonderful characters. I particularly liked Percy's song "Into the Frying Pan" with sort of a country-western twang. Aimee Kelley Spencer who played Percy did a fabulous job in every aspect of this play. Other songs ranged from operatic-type songs done marvelously by Rowen Matkins to comedic relief by Deena Lien-Richards. Katherine Jensen did a fine job as Hannah Ferguson. The male actors, John Edwards as the villainous Caleb and James Milton as Sheriff Joe were no less sung and acted to perfection. And one mustn't forget the wonderful Mickey McKinney who actually speaks volumes without saying a word. As John and I both commented when we got home, it's marvelous and amazing to find that we have the talent in our small town to find actors who can so perfectly fit these roles. As much as we loved the movie, the musical was even better--the movie having ended tragically and the musical having left us with smiles on our faces. I can only hope we can find time to go see it again. Word is going to get out how marvelous this production is and the little theater only seats 45 people. Should we be selfish and see it again or let someone else have the experience???