Theatre department to present ‘The Spitfire Grill’ next week

On Feb. 22 – 26 the Department of Music and Theatre will perform the musical rendition of Lee David Zlotoff’s “The Spitfire Grill.” The show is being directed by Theatre Chair Member Kathleen McGeever and is the largest show of the season, sporting the accompaniment of a full musical ensemble directed by Associate Professor of Music and Theatre Chris Hendley.

Although inspired by the original film by Zlotoff, the musical takes steps to separate itself from its big screen counterpart.
The movie was a drama set in the small town of Gillead where a young woman must build her future by helping the town’s people transcend their past. The play emphasizes the theological themes of the movie using by music and song rather than merely straight dialogue.

James Valcq and Fred Alley, of Playwrights Horizons, wrote both the music and lyrics for the off-Broadway play, which originally opened in September of 2001 but was quickly closed because of the 9/11 tragedy. During its short run it received remarkable reviews from USA Today, New York Magazine and The Star-Ledger.

Elysa Gardner, a critic for USA Today, called it “an abundance of warmth and goodwill. Some of the most engaging and instantly infectious melodies I’ve heard on an original musical in some time.”

The play has lain dormant since being set aside after the fall of the Twin Towers. Recently, however, it was reproduced for syndication and McGeever found it to be the perfect choice to finish the ’05-’06 season.

“It needs to be done today,” she said, “because of the war, hurricane Katrina, the economy. We need to find a way to heal.”

Healing, according to McGeever, is what “The Spitfire Grill” is all about.

The town of Gilead, Wisconsin is dying. All of its businesses have closed down, and the hope the people had of reviving it to its former glory is slowly withering away. That’s when Percy Talbott arrives, a former state prisoner exiled for manslaughter who’s only seen Gilead from her prison cell through its dreamy magazine photos of beautiful meadows and fields. She yearns to go there, and upon her release is free to pursue her dream. To the town’s people she is an outsider, but “through her, (the citizens) see their town with new eyes,” said McGeever.

This is McGeever’s first musical at GC&SU, and very different from the two plays performed last semester, Diana Son’s “Stop Kiss” and Tom Stoppard’s “Travesties.” She explained that the idea is to broaden the horizons of students throughout the year by performing a wide variety of theater types.

And with musicals taking a lot more work and being a much bigger production than the other selections, “it makes sense to do a show of this size in the spring,” said McGeever.

In order to accommodate the larger space needed for the production, this will be the first play performed by the Department of Music and Theatre to use a traditional proscenium setting in which the audience is seated on the floor below the actors rather than on bleachers around them. McGeever also ensures the play is a story of hope that whole family can enjoy rather than just students.

The play will begin at 8 p.m. Wednesday-Saturday and there will be a 2 p.m. showing on Sunday.

Posted by Colonnade Archives on Feb 17 2006. Filed under Other. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry