Chicago Reader - Highly Recommended
"...The second act is a rush of undercooked plot points, but the production is saved by the bond between Percy (Lauren Paris) and Shelby (Emily Goldberg), whose tender friendship gives them the strength to self-actualize. Their emotional highs counteract the shortcomings of the material, filling the cafe with warmth and compassion."
Windy City Times - Highly Recommended
"...The Refuge Theatre Project continues its practice of employing environmentally appropriate performance spaces—in this case, an actual West Town cafe equipped with booths, napkin dispensers, a kitchen housing industrial dishwashers and an entrance door off the sidewalk (albeit not opening on stately groves of oaks and maples). This places actors at a proximity to the audience facilitating a warmth and empathy so unswerving that by the time their crystalline voices are raised on the score's rousing anthems (accompanied by a three-instrument one-man band and some astonishingly sophisticated sunrise effects), we are ready to book our vacations for the Badger State's Platteville-Lancaster district."
Chicago Theatre Addict - Highly Recommended
"...And the cast – one of the best ensembles I’ve seen. Most are new faces to me, and all are vocally adept while truthful to this tender material. Lauren Paris carries the bulk of the work as Percy, a former prisoner who’s hoping for a new beginning. Her work here is stunning, with many of her most emotional moments played just a few feet from a rapt audience."
Around The Town Chicago - Highly Recommended
"...They are now doing "The Spitfire Grill" with a book by James Valcq and Fred Alley and music by Valcq with lyrics by Alley, on Chicago Avenue, in a real-life diner, the Windy City Cafe ( one of those breakfast/ lunch diners that close at 3 p.m.) which is very fitting as the play is about a small diner, named the Spitfire Grill."
Chicago Theatre Review - Highly Recommended
"...Christopher Pazdernik's wonderful production is pitch perfect in every way. He presents a gorgeous story, with characters and music as welcome as any comfort food, in this heartwarming prelude to the arrival of Spring in Chicagoland. This is a must-see production, by gifted theatre company, that absolutely "Shines.""
Chicago Theater Beat - Highly Recommended
"...Spitfire’s cast is stellar, navigating a complex, challenging score with grace and pride. Jeff nominee Nicole Michelle Haskins shines as town gossip and postmistress Effy, always entertaining and never shrill. Recent Northwestern graduate Christ shows enormous potential: his Joe is tough but caring, gentle with Percy and Hannah as they face the demons in their respective pasts."
Chicagoland Musical Theatre - Highly Recommended
"...The Spitfire Grill comes to life in Refuge's trademark ingenious detail, by utilizing every element of the Windy City Cafe to its advantage: for instance, the programs are menus, the actual kitchen serves as the offstage kitchen and characters really enter from the cold via the cafe's exit."
Third Coast Review - Not Recommended
"...The saving grace of this misguided production, ironically, is the musical talent of the relatively young cast, each clearly intensely committed to their craft to take on roles here. One imagines in a few years time, as they've moved on to larger stages and better scripts, they'll look back and laugh at that one time they did a musical in a diner. Because the reality is, even though they can each carry a tune, the acting is off the mark by at least a few degrees. Was it the director's choice to give these residents of the vanilla midwest southern accents? The result of some soul-searching character work during rehearsals? Whatever the case, it doesn't work."
Our Urban Times - Highly Recommended
"...Refuge Theatre Project does it again. They found an unusual but perfect location to deliver an energetic, spirited musical that blends poignance, secrets, hope, fear, laughter and fun in a fast paced production of The Spitfire Grill in the Windy City Cafe"
Chicago On Stage - Highly Recommended
"...It may not be a show full of surprises, but it is one full of sincere emotion. From Paris's plaintive opening number, "A Ring Around the Moon," to Condit's "Forgotten Lullaby," we get to know all of these people through the songs they sing, and combined they help us to understand the town. Haskins provides the comic relief for the most part, but there are moments when even Effy is moved by what is going on here. And Caleb is not simply a villain; he is afforded an opportunity to explore his own lost life in "Digging Stone," a tribute to the quarry that has shut down and the men who worked there. By the end, the town has "come alive again" in every possible way, and those who felt most adrift find acceptance, peace and love. And we who are watching are reminded that there is always a summer after the winter, that hope is possible even in the darkest of times."
Picture This Post - Recommended
"...The show is definitely a one of a kind experience, as are all productions by one of Chicago’s most ambitious theatre companies. You will never see a production of this show in this manner anywhere else."
NewCity Chicago - Somewhat Recommended
"...Some of my questions were answered when I found out that the movie this musical is based on was produced as part of missionary work through The Sacred Heart League, Inc. There are only so many people who will name their characters “Perchance,” set their story in a town called Gilead, and write morality tales that still uphold outdated binary gender expectations. And those people are Evangelists."