"A little essay on The Grill..."
NOTES FOR THE CAST ALBUM BY IRA WEITZMAN
My first encounter with the musical The Spitfire Grill was listening to a demo recording of a song about a town where the change of seasons brought a miraculous vision of the colors of paradise. It was compelling enough to entice me onto a train from NYC to New Brunswick, New Jersey during an intense blizzard to see the first production of the show right before Christmas 2000.
As I was drawn into this story of hope and reconciliation, the coldness of that December day melted into the warmth of a new American musical with a heart as big as the wide woods of Gilead, Wisconsin, where The Spitfire Grill takes place. Seeing the performance at the George Street Playhouse made me determined to bring this show about a young woman’s escape from her dark past to Playwrights Horizons, one of the country’s leading off-Broadway theatres where I have been developing new musicals for many years. David Saint, the Artistic Director of the George Street Playhouse and Director of The Spitfire Grill, responded to my inquiries about the show’s future with as much enthusiasm and excitement as I could hope for. He introduced me to the book and lyric writer Fred Alley and composer/co-bookwriter James Valcq. Artistic Director Tim Sanford saw the show on Christmas Eve and agreed that Playwrights Horizons was the right home for it.
The Spitfire Grill is adapted from a film of the same name, written and directed by Lee David Zlotoff. Valcq and Alley had been looking for an idea for a musical in which the characters were regular American folks whose relationships and emotions drove the story. After seeing the movie, they knew they had found their vehicle. Fred Alley, who was founder and artist-in-residence at the American Folklore Theatre in Door County, Wisconsin, and composer James Valcq were high school friends and now writing collaborators, having already written a show together, The Passage, about the American immigrant experience.
The writing and development of the musical version of The Spitfire Grill happened relatively quickly. Valcq and Alley changed the setting of the film to Wisconsin but kept the central relationship of three very different women, each with something to learn from the other. They also created a character out of the Grill itself, the place that leads each of the town’s inhabitants to reveal their wounds and begin to heal them. David Saint had the vision to produce the show after reading the first draft. Valcq and Alley wrote and rewrote throughout rehearsals. The premiere engagement at the George Street Playhouse evoked a tremendous audience response and the collaborators wanted to keep working on the show. They wanted to delve deeper into the growing life of their characters. We met a few times at Playwrights Horizons and set a deadline for the following spring to read a new draft of the show prior to the New York premiere in the fall.
With the new draft practically done, we were devastated by the news that Fred Alley had died suddenly of an undiagnosed heart condition while jogging in his hometown. James, David, Tim and I became more determined than ever to produce The Spitfire Grill and we went ahead with our scheduled reading just a few weeks after Fred was gone. The week of the reading was a time of awful sadness at the loss of Fred and wonderful joy in the act of creation. We all felt it, but perhaps no one more than James Valcq, who channeled Fred Alley’s creative spirit into the musical. After the reading we felt ready to go back into production.
The Playwrights Horizons production of The Spitfire Grill reunited the original production team: Andrew Wilder (music direction), Michael Anania (sets), Howell Binckley (lights), Theoni Aldredge (costumes), Luis Perez (musical staging) and Scott Stauffer (sound). Their work blended the simple look and straightforward sound of rural Wisconsin with the magic of nature and the reality of human emotions. The stage became a safe and beautiful place for the actors to share the honest directness of the story. The impeccable cast made the people of Gilead universal in their journey from lost to found.
The score of The Spitfire Grill is pure Americana right down to the country fiddle and the accordion in the lively, folk inspired orchestrations by the composer. But the score is also the key to the heart of the characters. From the frailty of shared secrets to the revelation of the power of nature to heal the human spirit, Valcq and Alley created a musical that moves effortlessly from dialogue to music, always sticking to the truth of the story in its joy, sadness and humor.
As previews began in September 2001, the unthinkable attack on the World Trade Center shook all our lives. How could we continue to make theatre in the face of such tragedy? When we returned to work, we found that our audience not only came to the theatre, but they came for the communal experience that is unique to theater. The Spitfire Grill is a musical about healing. The audience came for the healing. Thanks to this recording we can share it with you too.
-IRA WEITZMAN
