From: http://indyweek.com/durham/2005-08-17/woods.html

A Tech Toyland -- RLT takes Spitfire Grill out for a spin.

New tech toys walked hand in hand with theatrical difficulties of longer duration through The Spitfire Grill, Raleigh Little Theatre's season opener last weekend. A new stage turntable proved a limited blessing when rudiments of characterization and music still weren't entirely squared away last Saturday night, in a production whose ticket prices probe the highest levels of non-union theater in this region.

But after James Valcq and Fred Alley's sketchy exposition dumped heroine Percy in little Gideon, Wis., we were off to the races--literally--as Rick Young's run-down diner of a set twisted to the side, disclosing the dining room, before turning more to usher us through the kitchen, and then spinning us outside again. And then some, repeatedly. Think of some lucky child who's found a Lionel train set under the Christmas tree and you've got the idea--particularly since the on-stage locomotions weren't all strictly necessary.

Staci Sabarski had the right edge for an ex-con trying to go straight, though her singing high notes proved treacherous. Still, when non-cook Percy had to take over kitchen duties, the result was the hilarious song "Out of the Frying Pan."

But Brett Wilson as Sheriff Joe was inappropriately directed to wipe out a lifetime of reservations in a single line of "This Wide Woods," and Sabarski's chemistry remained speculative with him and a stiff Elanah Sykes as Shelby. While we bought Sykes' relationship with Don Smith's blowhard husband Caleb, their Act 2 moment of domestic violence rang false.

Throughout, Rose Martin remained rock solid as the irascible Hannah, and Anne Butman delighted as small-town gossip Effy.

But could the money invested in this theatrical Lazy Susan have enhanced instead the thin sound and wobbly upper strings of Lori McLelland and Diane Petteway's orchestra, a septet that only sounded half its size?

We also have to note that RLT designers still seem in learning mode. How else to explain unsightly wires snaking from overhead to an incongruous metal pipe jutting from center stage to electrify the set's light fixtures? Or the creaks, groans and whirs of the moving stage, which obscured sung and spoken lines?

A padded score made this sentimental script, taken from the movie of the same name, seem overlong.

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