Where life is served sunny side up

Three hard-luck women heal their broken spirits after they’re thrown together running a small-town diner. It’s a simple premise for an upbeat script.

But “The Spitfire Grill” was developed in two disparate directions -- into a rather hysterical melodrama in the 1996 film by Lee David Zlotoff, and into a more sentimental and sunnier 2000 musical by composer James Valcq and lyricist Fred Alley, who collaborated on the book.

The musical is making its first West Coast appearance, at Laguna Playhouse, in a superb staging by Nick DeGruccio. Despite the artifice inherent in the musical format -- contrasted with the grittier surface reality of the movie -- it’s the stage version that emerges as the more coherent and convincing of the two “Spitfire Grills.”

The musical is set in Wisconsin, where lyricist Alley was based, instead of the movie’s Maine. Perhaps Alley didn’t want to grapple with a severe New England accent in the lyrics.

The first part of the musical is very similar to the movie. Still a young woman, Percy Talbott (Misty Cotton) is released from prison after serving five years for manslaughter and chooses to live in the tiny hamlet of Gilead. The only available job and lodging is at the town’s only restaurant, the Spitfire Grill, operated by crusty old Hannah Ferguson (Jomarie Ward). After an accident temporarily incapacitates Hannah, Percy is assisted at the diner by Shelby Thorpe (Kim Huber), the wife of Hannah’s bossy nephew (Michael Piontek).

The musical combines two of the movie’s characters into Joe Sutter (Kevin Earley), the town sheriff, who eventually becomes Percy’s suitor.

The postmaster and chief gossip (Linda Kerns) is still on hand, as is a mysterious hermit (Mark Aaron) who makes nightly stops in back of the diner for the food that Hannah leaves there for him.

Hannah has tried to sell the diner for a decade, but there are no takers.

Percy suggests Hannah hold a raffle, in which potential owners send $100 and an essay explaining why they want the Spitfire; the best essayist will win the diner at no additional cost, and Hannah will keep the hundreds of dollars that arrive from throughout America.

We learn more about the characters’ pasts in the second act, and these details remain largely the same as in the movie. But the resolution of the story could hardly be more different.

The music also makes a big difference. It’s a folk- and country-influenced score that alternates most of the time between rousing ensembles and pensive solos -- as well as one especially rousing solo, “Out of the Frying Pan,” which the novice short-order cook Percy sings while trying to prepare breakfast for the diner’s customers by herself.

The cast couldn’t be better. DeGruccio brought along two of his confederates, Cotton and Earley, from his staging of “Side Show” at Burbank’s Colony Theatre, and they are again stellar, with Cotton unveiling a young Sissy Spacek look as well as her wide-ranging pipes. Ward is as rumpled and persuasive as Ellen Burstyn was in the movie, and Huber enlivens the familiar character of the suppressed wife who begins to stand up for herself. Tom Griffin’s musical direction makes every note sound clear and true.

The musical makes much of seasonal change, and the visual design team -- Raymond Kent on the sets, Paulie Jenkins on lights and Dwight Richard Odle on costumes -- responds well to the challenge.

Born at the George Street Playhouse in New Jersey in 2000, the musical opened in New York last fall in the wake of Sept. 11 -- only five months after the unexpected death of co-creator Alley. Its sense of uplift must have seemed perfect for that moment, but even now there is something irresistible about this show.

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‘The Spitfire Grill’

Where: Laguna Playhouse, 606 Laguna Canyon Road, Laguna Beach

When: Tuesdays-Saturdays, 8 p.m.; Saturdays-Sundays, 2 p.m.; Sundays, 7 p.m.

Ends: Dec. 1 matinee

Price: $42 to $49.

Contact: (949) 497-2787

Running Time: 2 hours, 35 minutes

Misty Cotton...Percy Talbott

Jomarie Ward...Hannah Ferguson

Kim Huber...Shelby Thorpe

Kevin Earley...Sheriff Sutter

Michael Piontek...Caleb Thorpe

Linda Kerns...Effy Krayneck

Mark Aaron...The Visitor

Book by James Valcq and Fred Alley, based on the film by Lee David Zlotoff. Music by Valcq. Lyrics by Alley. Directed and choreographed by Nick DeGruccio. Musical direction by Tom Griffin. Sets by Raymond Kent. Lighting by Paulie Jenkins. Costumes by Dwight Richard Odle. Sound by David Edwards. Production stage manager Nancy Staiger.