Is A Relaxing Reminder Of Why We Love Our Home

By Julie Stern

RIDGEFIELD —  The Spitfire Grill was an okay movie that came out some years ago, and was turned into a musical by James Valcq and Fred Alley, right before the tragic events of 9/11. According to program notes for Ridgefield Theatre Barn, where it is currently being produced, it was the one Broadway show that kept its seats filled in the ensuing weeks, as audiences flocked to the theater in search of comfort and reassurance.

Well that’s what you get. It’s a “feel-good” story, actually a folk-opera rather than a musical-comedy, that celebrates the myth of a kinder and simpler small-town America, as well as the transforming power of that ideal.

Gilead, Wisc., is a dying town. The quarry where generations of local men had earned a proud living cutting stone has closed down. Having clear-cut all the forests, the lumber company has moved on, leaving behind only worthless brush. With little prospect of meaningful work, those young people who can have all gone elsewhere.

But all this is unknown to the young woman Percy, who has fallen in love with the beauty of a place she has only seen in a magazine in a prison library. She imagines it as a kind of paradise. Released on parole after five years in jail, she arranges to be sent to Gilead, to be placed under the supervision of Joe, the sheriff.

A kind-hearted guy, he tells her she’s crazy to come to a ghost town, but since she’s there, he arranges for her to find a room and a waitress job at The Spitfire Grill, the only functioning establishment left in town. Hannah, the proprietor, is getting on in years and has a bad hip. Joe figures she could use some help.

As time passes – measured by the changes in clothing worn by the Grill’s steady customers – Sheriff Joe; Effy the gossipy postmistress; and Hannah’s sullen nephew, Caleb – a grudging relationship begins to grow between the cranky old woman and the tough young jailbird. It begins to include Caleb’s shy wife, Shelby. She and Percy are very different from one another, but they are both lonely and can each use a friend.

Hannah confides that with her only son missing in action since Vietnam, she’s been trying to sell the Grill for ten years, but nobody wants it. Percy suggests they raffle it off, selling hundred dollar tickets with the winner being chosen on the basis of an essay.

Although Effy and Caleb scoff, they are soon confounded by the sacks of letters that pour in from every part of the country, containing hundred dollar checks and writings from people who explain why they would like to live in a clean, beautiful, wide open piece of country where everyone knows your name and you don’t have to lock your doors.

All that remains is to unravel a few mysteries: Why was Percy in prison? Who is the mysterious visitor who comes to Hannah’s woodpile at night to claim a carefully wrapped loaf of bread? Who will get the Grill? Will Percy and Sheriff Joe get together on some basis other than Parolee and Probation Officer? Does Gilead have any chance of somehow reviving?

All of this is very pleasingly presented with an unobtrusive score and lyrics that celebrate Americana in a style that is folksy-country-pop, sung by a cast with uniformly strong and attractive voices.

Probably the two most powerful singers are Peter Waugh as Sheriff Joe, and Suzanne Panepinto-Yankowitz as Shelby. Listening to them is a definite pleasure.   Charlotte Delaney has plenty of presence as the “wild bird” Percy, and Cheryl Boyd is very convincing as the bad tempered but endearing Hannah. Laurie Brearley does a fine comic turn as the prying postmistress, and Rick Hulswit captures the humanity of Caleb, embittered by the loss of his job and the lack of dignity in his life.   Now that the fourth of July firecrackers are already popping in early anticipation of the big American holiday, The Spitfire Grill is an appropriate entertainment to celebrate the way we’d like to see ourselves, even as malls and McMansions have sprouted where farms and forests once stood, and the mills and quarries are only backdrops for car ads and movie sets.

No sex, no violence, a little mystery and some engaging music – this is a great treat for the whole family.

(Performances continue on weekends at Ridgefield Theater Barn until July 15. Call 203-431-9850 for performance and ticket information.)