Customer Reviews

The Spitfire Grill

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I am about to direct a production of Spitfire Grill for a nearby professional theatre and as part of my prep and research I've been listening to this CD on a daily basis. It's a fine recording of a pretty fine production and I would recommend it to anyone who appreciates small dramatic musical theatre offerings. The singers and musicians give us a warm and heartfelt rendering of each musical number with just the right amount of dialogue to link up the narrative. A few of the singers shave the notes a little but the engaging performances more than make up for the bum notes. In particular the actors playing Percy, Shelby and Joe do the composers proud and the dramatic intent comes through clearly in this recording. If you're a fan of Liz Callaway (Shelby) you'll enjoy what she brings to this recording.
On first hearing a few of the songs seem overly long or seem to cover similar territory, but on repeated listenings you realize what a nicely crafted piece of work this is and nicely captured by this cast of actors and musicians. It's unfortunate that with the death of one of the writing partners we won't see more from this pair. Well worth buying!

This lively and enchanting musical never made it to Broadway because of bad luck - it's preview week was September 11, 2001. It is a shame because the story is compelling and the music is wonderful. Three of the voices of characters Percy, Shelby and Joe, on this recording are warm and inviting. Unfortunately, the other three are less than good with Caleb occasionally off key. This is sad because Caleb's big solo, Digging Stone, can be very moving when sung by a powerful voice. I saw a community theater production with six wonderful voices and, as a result, this recording pales by comparison. None-the-less, since most of the songs are sung by the stronger voices I recommend this CD. And if you want to listen to this musical, there is no other recording available. (Although some of the songs can be seen on You Tube sung in Korean by a South Korean production.)

Imagine a bittersweet movie, the beautifully filmed and acted Spitfire Grill, moving someone to add songs enough to transform it into a full-redemption musical, and you have Spitfire Grill, the musical. If you loved one, you'll likely love the other.

The haunting performances captured on the CD of the musical should convince you to seek out a live performance it, even if it does invert the movie's original ending to close with a more-traditional "Hollywood ending." (Note that the movie soundtrack is unrelated to the harder-to-find musical soundtrack.)