An age-old vendetta between two powerful families erupts into bloodshed. A group of masked Montagues risk further conflict by gatecrashing a Capulet party. A young lovesick Romeo Montague falls instantly in love with Juliet Capulet, who is due to marry her father’s choice, the County Paris. With the help of Juliet’s nurse, the women arrange for the couple to marry the next day, but Romeo’s attempt to halt a street fight leads to the death of Juliet’s own cousin, Tybalt, for which Romeo is banished. In a desperate attempt to be reunited with Romeo, Juliet follows the Friar’s plot and fakes her own death. The message fails to reach Romeo, and believing Juliet dead, he takes his life in her tomb. Juliet wakes to find Romeo’s corpse beside her and kills herself. The grieving family agree to end their feud.
Directed by Allison Nicole Acuff
A feisty parolee follows her dreams, based on a page from an old travel book, to a small town in Wisconsin and finds a place for herself working at Hannah’s Spitfire Grill. The Grill is for sale, but there are no takers for the only eatery in the depressed town, so newcomer Percy convinces Hannah to raffle it off. Entry fees are one hundred dollars and the best essay on why you want the Grill wins. Soon, mail arrives by the wheelbarrow and things really start cookin’ at the Spitfire Grill.
Victor Gluck of the Associated Press described it as “a lovely new musical in the Rodgers and Hammerstein tradition.” In Show Business Weekly, David Hurst wrote, “The score by James Valcq is a mixture of country, bluegrass, and Broadway-styled pop ballads that is always stirring and pure Americana in sound with heartfelt lyrics by the late Fred Alley.” Jonathan Frank wrote in Sound Advice, “The Spitfire Grill has a simplicity and emotional resonance that has become all too rare in musical theater. This is a show that succeeds by not trying: it simply is.” He described the score as “simply astonishing, due no small part to Valcq’s stunning arrangements, which consist of folk instruments and instrumentations, acting as a character unto themselves.” Variety‘s Joel Hirschhorn wrote that “Valcq’s numbers are consistently exciting, aided by carefully devised orchestrations. More than most musicals, the underscoring feels like an extra character, brimming with creative cello, violin, mandolin, guitar, and keyboard solos. Fred Alley wrote lyrics that contain the ring of plain-spoken, believable truth.”