By Marilyn Jozwik
Unlike many musicals, “The Spitfire Grill” doesn’t have a stage full of frolicking dancers and singers for big, rousing production numbers. Instead, there are several well-defined characters, each with a thoughtful story that is often told in song.
And in Sunset Playhouse’s 2022-23 season opener, those “Spitfire Grill” stories are told and sung beautifully by a superb cast that on opening night had sharpened their performances to a finely honed edge.
This is a wonderful story with a bit of mystery, and themes of friendship, redemption and the highs and lows of small-town life. A big plus is James Valq’s lovely music – with lyrics by Fred Alley -- mostly bouncy bluegrass beats marvelously executed by this talented cast and first-rate musicians. Valq and Alley also did the book for the show.
Shelby (Katie Gruell) and Percy (Eliza Lambert), from left, sing the beautiful “Colors of Paradise” in a scene from Sunset Playhouse’s “Spitfire Grill.”
The story is set in the fictional northern Wisconsin town of Gilead. Percy (Eliza Lambert) has just been released from prison and hopes to release herself from her troubled past in West Virginia. She gets off the bus in this one-horse town, where gossip travels like wildfire. She is greeted curtly by Joe (Corey Klein), the town sheriff, and gets a room at the Spitfire Grill, run by the crusty Hannah (Marilyn L. White), who puts Percy to work slinging hash. When Hannah breaks her leg, the Spitfire Grill is put in the not-so-capable (at least at first) hands of Percy and Shelby (Katie Gruell), a young wife whose husband, Caleb (Josh Scheibe), a not-so-successful real estate agent, has always tried to live up to the town’s MIA war hero and Hannah’s son, Eli, and has failed in his own eyes. Hannah has been wanting to sell the place for years and with the help of Percy and Shelby devises a clever plan that makes everyone finally see the forest for the trees.
Director Michael Pocaro hit the jackpot with this cast of seven, each one fitting his/her role perfectly. Lambert’s Percy gets the story moving as she lands in Gilead, “a place to start again.” She sings the toe-tapping, pulsating “Ring Around the Moon,” which shows off her strong, emotion-filled vocals and convincing Southern accent as the stirring melody crescendos.
Spitfire Grill owner, Hannah (Marilyn L. White), sings the touching “Way Back Home” in a scene from Sunset Playhouse’s “The Spitfire Grill.”
Lambert grows beautifully as Percy, a young woman who travels to Gilead with lots of baggage that the townsfolk want to unpack, especially postmistress and busybody Effie, played with fine comic timing by Caitlin Kujawski Compton. Percy gradually gains confidence and the town’s trust as its citizens learn her story. Even the grill’s irascible owner, Hannah, warms to the plucky Percy. Hannah’s gruff exterior is wonderfully displayed by White, who intones solo tunes like ”Forgotten Lullaby,” an ode to her MIA son, with passion and feeling.
Percy also finds a friend in Shelby, who frees herself from a suffocating marriage by working at the Spitfire Grill. As Shelby, Gruell does a nice job showing her character’s joy in the independence she finds in her work, while retreating inward to the dutiful wife in her scenes with Caleb. She sings a soulful “Wild Bird” in her struggle to find herself.
Klein, too, displays a very pleasing tenor voice in his earnest portrayal of Sheriff Joe, especially in his “Forest for the Trees,” in which he describes his feelings for the town he grew up in. Scheibe’s Caleb simmers with anger and angst as he lashes out, questioning his manhood in “Digging Stone.” Klein, Scheibe and Compton navigate the tricky “Ice and Snow” movements and tune nicely as their characters bemoan the harsh winters Up North in a kind of mariner vibe.
That bitter seasonal picture is followed by the gorgeous “Colors of Paradise,” a dreamy ode to the fall season and the Spitfire Grill’s hopeful plan, with Gruell’s Shelby and Lambert’s Percy lending their soaring voices that glide easily over the lovely lyrics, accompanied by a color-filled back wall of the stage.
Music director Mark Mrozek on keyboards and percussion gets a full, heavy-on-bluegrass sound from his small ensemble of Tim Karth (assistant music director/keyboards), Jay B. Kummer (guitar/mandolin), Mirannda Keppinger (violin) and Bridget M. Hirthe (cello). The cast executes beautifully with balanced harmonies and strong solos that really showcase this fine music.
I really loved everything about this show, from its charming – if not derivative – story, fine performances and great music, to the set that effectively creates a street in town, the cozy restaurant, Hannah’s quarters plus a woodsy outdoor area and background scenes.
What a wonderful start to the 2022-23 season!
If you go:
Who: Sunset Playhouse
What: “The Spitfire Grill”
When: Through Sept. 25
Where: 800 Elm Grove Road, Elm Grove
Tickets/Info: 262-782-4430; SunsetPlayhouse.com