A young woman fresh out of prison seeks a second chance at life in James Valcq and Fred Alley’s tuneful, inspiring crowd-pleaser The Spitfire Grill, Actors Co-op’s first musical in nearly seven years and one that is well worth the wait.

 Like the 1996 Sundance Audience Award-winning film by Lee David Zlotoff on which it is based, Valcq and Alley’s 2001 off-Broadway adaptation introduces audiences—and Gilead, Wisconsin—to 20something Percy Talbott (Hannah Howzdy), hoping to begin life anew in a town whose autumn colors glimpsed in a travel guide promise new beginnings to a woman whose life has been the very definition of hard-knock.

 Introduced to Spitfire Grill owner Hannah Ferguson (Lori Berg) by her parole officer Sheriff Joe Sutter (Gavin Michael Harris), Percy first finds herself waitressing unfriendly customers suspicious of a stranger in their midst, then making unfortunate attempts at cooking when a broken leg has Hannah temporarily out of service.

It doesn’t help that Hannah’s nephew Caleb (Spencer Rowe) is the suspicious sort or that gossipy mail carrier Effy (Treva Tegtmeier) soon has townsfolk believing the worst of Percy. (“They say she has tattoos!”)

 At least our plucky heroine’s got fellow Spitfire employee, Caleb’s wife Shelby (Caitlin Gallogly), around to provide moral support and a bit of local history. (It seems the entire town lost hope when Hannah’s son Eli went off to fight in Vietnam and never came back.)

No wonder then that Hannah’s been trying to sell the Grill for the past ten years. No wonder, too, that given its less than favorable location far from the nearest major highway, there hasn’t been a single taker so far.

Then one day Percy comes up with the idea of holding a hundred-dollar-an-entry essay contest whose first prize will be the deed to the grill, and before long the town is buzzing about the sackloads of submissions arriving on the Spitfire doorstep, each more heartrending than the next, and the contest to win the Spitfire Grill is going full steam ahead.

Valcq and Alley’s feel-good book is complemented by Valcq’s catchy bluegrass-folk-pop melodies, making this a musical whose songs you’ll likely hear echoing in your head long after Hannah has determined her grill’s future owner.

It’s also a musical that will have you cheering Actors Co-op’s long-awaited return to a theatrical genre it has excelled at for decades in intimate revivals of such Broadway gems as She Loves Me, Big River, and 1776, to name just a few.

 Not only that, but I can’t think of a better show for L.A.’s Christian-based membership company to stage than The Spitfire Grill, dark and gritty enough to avoid a G rating but inspirational enough to fit Actors Co-op’s mission to bring impactful, redemptive stories to life.

Insightfully directed by Bonnie Hellman with pitch-perfect music direction by Stephen Van Dorn (both making welcome returns to the Co-op, Van Dorn doubling on keyboard*), The Spitfire Grill is blessed with one dynamic star turn after another from a cast made up of promising new members, gifted guest artists, and two of the company’s finest longtime vets.

Howzdy gives us a Percy so hardened by hardship that her gradual blossoming into a young woman capable of love, hope, and joy is all the more stunning while Gallogly takes Shelby on a transformative journey from cowed to self-confident that will have audiences cheering, and just wait until Gallogly’s exquisite soprano meets Howzdy’s rich, resonant mezzo in “The Colors Of Paradise” to heartstopping effect.

As for Berg, not even the Co-op treasure’s Scenie-winning performances as Amanda in The Glass Menagerie, Dolly in The Matchmaker, and Clairee in Steel Magnolias could have prepared me for Berg in musical theater powerhouse mode whenever the endearing cranky Hannah reveals Berg’s rich, rafters-reaching vocals, and never more so than in a tear-inducing “Way Back Home.”

Fellow Co-op longtimer Tegtmeier plays deliciously against type as the nosiest and most deliciously entertaining of busybodies, Harris is a bearded, mop-headed charmer as salt-of-the-earth Joe, Rowe is terrific as always as a man who’d much prefer the status quo than a wife striking out on her own, and Ben Kientz goes from a brief Act One bus driver cameo to an ultimately moving featured performance as a man whose deliberately hidden identity the program goes ahead and reveals from the get-go.

Scenic designer Tim Farmer gives us a detailed rendition of the time-weathered Grill centerstage, with Hannah’s bedroom on one side and the great outdoors on the other, and projection designer Nick Santiago earns special snaps to for taking us from one gorgeous Wisconsin season to another.

A. Jeffrey Schoenberg just-right costumes, Nick Foran’s vibrant lighting design, Rachel Kupfer-Weinstein’s Grill-appropriate props, Judi Lewin’s fine hair, wig, and makeup designs, and Mark Antonio Pritchett’s pitch-perfect sound design are all topnotch.

The Spitfire Grill is produced by Kimi Walker. Nikki Alday is stage manager and Jennie White is assistant stage manager. Nora Feldman is publicist.

 With its compelling storyline, colorful cast of small-town characters, gorgeous folk-meets-Broadway score, and much-needed message of forgiveness and redemption, The Spitfire Grill is right up Actors Co-op’s alley, and as it has in dozens of musicals in years past, the Co-op does this musical theater gem absolutely right.

*A mandolin player accompanies Van Dorn

Actors Co-op, 1760 N. Gower St., Hollywood. Through June 8. Fridays and Saturdays at 7:30. Sundays at 2:30. Also Saturdays May 17 and May 31 2:30.
www.actorsco-op.org

–Steven Stanley
May 2, 2025
Photos: John Dlugolecki

Visit www.theatreinla.com/nowplayingrs.php for a review roundup of what’s now playing in theaters around Los Angeles.

Tags: Actors Co-op, Fred Alley, James Valcq, Los Angeles Theater Review