The Spitfire Grill
Act I Place: A small town. Time: Not long ago. February. A young woman, Percy Talbott, gazes out the window of her prison cell, from which she is about to be released. In her pocket is a photograph clipped from a travel book with a caption that states "Autumn colors along Copper Creek near Gilead, Wisconsin" ("A Ring Around the Moon"). Arriving in Gilead, Percy reports to the local sheriff, Joe Sutter. He leads her through the deserted streets to a ramshackle diner called the Spitfire Grill, run by a crusty old widow, Hannah Ferguson, who has a bad hip and a sharp tongue. Joe persuades Hannah to take Percy on board and give her work as a waitress. Percy sets to work in a swirl of small-town suspicions led by Effy, the postmistress and village busybody ("Something's Cooking at the Spitfire Grill"). In the face of all the gossip and Hannah's constant haranguing, Percy begins to wonder whether she made a mistake in coming to Gilead ("Coffee Cups and Gossip"). Her thoughts are interrupted by a cry from Hannah, who has tripped on the stairs and broken her leg. Over the protests of her fiercely protective nephew, Caleb, Hannah has Percy take over the Spitfire. When it comes to cooking, though, Percy is clueless ("Into the Frying Pan"). That night, without explaining why, Hannah reluctantly asks Percy to wrap a towel around a loaf of bread and to leave it near the old stump out back of the grill. Percy is joined at the Spitfire by Caleb's wife Shelby, an excellent cook. In the heat of the kitchen, the two women are drawn together. Shelby tells Percy about Hannah and Gilead's past, the day her childhood hero went off to war and her hometown changed forever ("When Hope Goes"). Wanting to escape painful memories, Hannah has had the Grill on the real estate market for 10 years with no takers. In a moment of inspiration, Percy proposes a way for Hannah to get rid of the Spitfire and make some money at the same time: a raffle. For $100 and an essay about why they might want the Grill, anyone can enter. At first, Hannah resists, but slowly, something about the craziness of the idea convinces her that it just might work. As the rest of the town watches the long Wisconsin winter stubbornly give way to spring ("Ice and Snow"), the women at the Spitfire plan the details of the contest. Percy and Shelby share a vision of life as they wish it were, while writing the advertisement for the raffle ("The Colors of Paradise"). Caleb spots the contest ads as they begin to appear in out-of-town papers. Without a decent job since the local quarry closed, Caleb has been left trying to sell real estate that no one wants. His frustration turns against a world where being a hard-working man is no longer enough ("Digging Stone"). During a parole session with Sheriff Joe Sutter, Percy tells of her bleak past growing up in the West Virginia coal mine region. Joe, in turn, spills out his dissatisfaction with life in Gilead ("This Wide Woods"). As summer approaches, the first raffle entry arrives in the mail, complete with $100 and a rather depressing essay, which stirs up some of Hannah's old wounds ("Forgotten Lullaby"). That night, while placing the usual loaf of bread out back, Percy encounters a silent visitor. She attempts to make conversation, but the mysterious man merely takes the bread and flees. Weeks go by, and essays begin to pour into the grill from far and wide ("Shoot the Moon"). Act II Hannah, Percy, and Shelby sit in the Spitfire Grill after hours, reading essays and drinking from a jug of Hannah's infamous applejack. As they read the letters, some funny, some sad, Hannah expresses her appreciation for what Percy and Shelby have done ("Come Alive Again"). Before long, it seems everyone in town is helping Hannah to sift through the letters, and a magical shift occurs, not only at the Spitfire, but throughout Gilead as well. Late one October night on the back porch, Joe tells Percy that he no longer wants to leave Gilead. He plans to build a house on a plot of land his father has given to him ("Forest for the Trees"). Deeply troubled, Percy abruptly rejects Joe's proposal of marriage and confides to Shelby the harsh details of her life. Impregnated by her stepfather when she was 16, Percy suffered untold abuse resulting in the loss of her unborn child. While on the run, she killed her stepfather with his own straight razor. Shelby comforts Percy and gently sings her to sleep ("Wild Bird"). When Percy awakens, she sees the mysterious visitor and at last realizes he is none other than Eli, Hannah's own son. Eli leads Percy deep into the forest and then to a clearing atop a hill. The leaves have turned to autumn colors and as the sun rises, they burn like flame ("Shine"). Transformed by her hilltop vision, Percy leads Eli back to the Grill to reunite him with Hannah after so many years. In a painful confrontation, Shelby and Caleb recognize Eli and react with such shock at his battered appearance and broken demeanor that Eli flees. Hannah finally admits that Eli had been a deserter in the war. The shame of it killed her husband, and though Hannah has taken care of Eli's basic needs, she has kept his presence in the woods a secret from the entire town. Percy pleads with Hannah to forgive Eli. Day passes into night and Hannah calls out to her son ("Way Back Home"). Out of the shadows, Eli appears in the grill once more. Hannah and Eli tentatively face one another as mother and son. On the last day of the contest, everybody reads their favorite essays. Finally, Hannah reads the words that have touched her the most - the ad describing the grill, written by Percy and Shelby. In gratitude for their role in reuniting mother and son, while admitting she is not offering much in return, Hannah turns over the Grill to Percy and Shelby ("Finale").