Audiences rediscovering 2001’s ‘Spitfire Grill,’ opening at Wichita State

Despite enthusiastic reviews from New York critics, “The Spitfire Grill” – like most shows that opened in 2001 – never had much of a chance after planes crashed into the World Trade Center on Sept. 11.

The bluegrass-flavored musical about a young woman with a prison past, who settles into a small Wisconsin town full of suspicion and secrets and changes the lives of everyone around her, opened only four days before the terrorist attack. It closed four weeks later.

Since then, the show by composer James Val and lyricist Fred Alley has been slowly rediscovered by colleges and regional theaters. Now, Wichita State University is reviving it to kick off its 2014-2015 theater season, opening Thursday and running through Sept. 28.

“I saw the show in New York because it was the first big New York role for our Garrett Long, one of our frequent leading ladies at Music Theatre Wichita,” says Wayne Bryan, guest director for the WSU musical. “What I like about it is how well-crafted it is. It may be country music, but the lyrics are smart and sharp. It is also emotionally true to the characters and has a nice message about fresh starts and forgiveness. In an age where snark and self-reference are so common, there is nothing cynical about this wonderful show.”

Hannah Fernandes plays Percy – short for Perchance – an early twentysomething West Virginian who is released from prison after five years. She wants to start fresh so she picks a tiny, picturesque Wisconsin town at random and hopes for the best. Emily Monrad is Hannah, the cranky but motherly owner of the town’s diner, the Spitfire Grill, who gives Percy a job, despite the misgivings of her suspicious nephew Caleb (Max Wilson) and the town gossip, Effy (Rachel Gorman).

But Caleb’s shy, mousy wife, Shelby (Liz Jarmer), befriends Percy. And Sheriff Joe Sutter (Matthew Hale) finds himself falling for the spunky but closed-off young woman. Alex Castaneda rounds out the cast as the Visitor, a mysterious hermit who lives in the woods behind the grill, living off scraps of food left for him.

The musical is based on the 1996 movie starring Alison Elliott as Percy, Ellen Burstyn as Hannah and Marcia Gay Harden as Shelby. But, director Bryan says, there have been some changes, notably moving the setting from New England to rural Wisconsin, native state of the musical’s creators, and changing the movie’s tragic ending to one that is more upbeat.

“While the movie had supporters, I think audiences will respond better to the new ending,” Bryan says.

Hannah Fernandes, a sophomore musical theater major from La Crosse, Wis., described her Percy character as “defensive and headstrong but with a pure heart.”

“She’s been hurt. She spent five of her most crucial, formative years in jail from the age of 17, literally growing up behind bars. She is self-conscious and doesn’t have a lot of confidence. She knows she will automatically be judged because of her past, so she is very defensive. She stands up for herself and speaks her mind. She doesn’t let people in,” says Fernandes, who visited the Sedgwick County Jail to help research her role.

“She is very different from me because I’m a people person. But I have been known to be stubborn, so I can relate. She is also empathetic, which I can also relate to,” Fernandes says. “What I want people to take away from the show is that a person’s past should not define them. People can change if you give them a chance.”

For Emily Monrad, her grill owner Hannah is “a gruff mother hen for the whole town.”

“Hannah used to be a smiley person until her son went off to Vietnam and ended up missing, and her husband died shortly after,” says Monrad, an Overland Park fifth-year senior with a double major in music education and musical theater. “She had to become strong, but almost to a fault. She doesn’t let people get away with (stuff). She sees everything and knows everything. People in town respect her and trust her opinion, but they also fear her. She likes that.”

But Percy clashes with her right out of the gate, Monrad says.

“When I read the script, I saw that Hannah was sort of an older version of Percy. Both are hiding something – and both know it. Both are hard-shelled,” Monrad says. “It’s a very moving show about forgiveness. If you can forgive yourself, then redemption is possible.”

This story was originally published September 18, 2014 at 4:11 PM with the headline "Audiences rediscovering 2001’s ‘Spitfire Grill,’ opening at Wichita State."