SOMETHING TASTY AT UMBRELLA STAGE
Leo Tolstoy said there were only two stories in the world—either someone goes on a journey or a stranger comes to town. The Umbrella Stage Company’s musical Spitfire Grill, a celebration of community, redemption, and Americana by James Valcq and Fred Alley, is very much the latter. It’s a production that is well done—but not all the ingredients are of top quality.
Liza Giangrande as Percy and Sean Donnelly as JoePercy Talbott (Liza Giangrande), recently released from a five-year prison sentence, is the stranger who arrives in Gilead, Wisconsin, looking to start a new life. Percy chose Gilead because of a photo of autumn color she saw in an old travel magazine in the prison library. The local sheriff assigned to supervise her parole (Sean Donnelly as Sheriff Joe Sutter) informs her that Gilead doesn’t have much to offer these days, but he arranges a job at the Spitfire Grill, a diner that, like its owner Hannah Ferguson (Kerry A. Dowling), has seen better days.
Shonna McEachern as Shelby, Liza Giangrande as Percy, Kerry A. Dowling as HannahPercy is hardly qualified for the job. She has no cooking skills (Giangrande’s rendition of “Out of the Frying Pan” is a tour de force of clattering pans and dropped utensils as she sings); but neither does she have any other options. Ferguson, down with a broken leg, brings in Shelby Thorpe (Shonna McEachern) to aid Percy in the kitchen, and soon the two are buddies, plotting together to aid Ferguson in her aspiration to sell the Grill and retire.
Kerry A. Dowling as Hannah and Anthony Pires, Jr. as CalebIt’s not a very attractive property. Gilead’s major employer (a quarry) has shut down and a highway built a few years ago by-passed the town. But Shelby and Percy hatch a plan to raffle off the Grill to whoever writes the best essay and includes a $100 raffle entry. They craft a romantic image of a community of neighbors surrounded by natural beauty (“The Colors of Paradise”) and soon the entries pour in, letters from all over the United States and Canada in that express the alienation people feel from living in crowded cities, of jobs that have no meaning, and a general lack of connection to other human beings.
Liza Giangrande as Percy Talbot
Percy and Shelby start to believe their own PR, and soon they are sprucing up the Spitfire Grill, making it a place where people want to gather. But all is not perfect in Gilead. Hannah has a secret—a big one—and so does Percy, and eventually all these beans will be spilled and Hannah is able to make what seems like an impossible choice about the fate of the Grill.
Liza Giangrande as Percy, Catherine Lee Christie as Effy, Kerry A. Dowling as Hannah
Along the way, we get some impressive vocal performances, especially from McEachern and Donnelly, and plenty of entertainment. Dowling is very strong as Hannah Ferguson, as is Giangrande as Percy Talbott. Director Ilyse Robbins’s choreographic sensibility is evident again and again in the nicely paced action of this production. There is a lot of music, a lot of singing, and very little dancing, and yet props like pots and pans and table settings are handled in tight rhythm to the music. Music director Jack Cline and conductor James Haupt provide nostalgic Americana poignancy with their band of strings, accordion, and piano.
Liza Giangrande as Percy, Kerry A. Dowling as Hannah, Shonna McEachern as ShelbyAnd yet the play itself lagged at times. I found it odd that after one of the most climactic moments of story line—when Percy discovers the identity of a mysterious figure who has been lurking around Hannah’s property—we break for “Shine,” a song that focuses on Percy’s changing perception of herself rather than the very important discovery she has just made. The story line seems half-baked—it wasn’t clear how much time had passed between certain past events that have affected the town and the present of the action.
Liza Giangrande as Percy and Cristhian Mancinas-García as The VisitorThese are weaknesses of the book, not the production, but a tighter and clearer script would have allowed the considerable talents of this cast to create the sense of connection an audience longs for.
photos by Jim Sabitus
The Cast
The Spitfire Grill
The Umbrella Stage Company
Black Box Theater at The Umbrella Arts Center, 40 Stow Street in Concord, MA
Thurs and Fri at 7:30; Sat at 8; Sun at 3
ends on May 18, 2025
for tickets, visit Umbrella Arts Center
for more shows, visit Theatre in Boston
{ 1 comment… read it below or add one }
Lynn,
That opening line of your review is fantastic—such a great hook.
While I didn’t see this particular production, I share your take on the source material. The film the musical draws from is forgettable—its formulaic story is overly linear, emotionally heavy-handed, and populated by thinly sketched archetypes (the gruff sheriff, the nosy neighbor, etc.).
The musical stumbles by sticking too closely to that template. Two examples stand out:
Shelby’s emotional confinement in her marriage is barely touched until late in the show, missing an opportunity to deepen her arc. And Percy’s redemption—delivered via a feel-good raffle—could have instead opened a door to examine broader themes, like collective trauma or the decay of post-industrial towns.