Courtesy of Mill Mountain Theatre

Mill Mountain Theatre said advance sales for tickets to its production of "The Spitfire Grill" were going along as usual until Wall Street went into a tailspin.

Stock market got you down? Can't afford to have fun anymore?

Mill Mountain Theatre would like to help you find a way. That's why it just lowered the ticket price for its new musical, "The Spitfire Grill," from $25-$30 to $20 across the board. The discounted price is what the theater usually charges for its "rush" tickets, or tickets sold within an hour of show time.

"Every ticket from now for the rest of 'The Spitfire Grill' is going to be $20, in order to give people a more affordable way of getting out," said John Bryant, public and artist relations coordinator.

Bryant said advance sales were going about as they expected for "Spitfire," which opens Wednesday -- until last week.

"They definitely slowed down. It wasn't until I talked to a friend whose wife lost $63,000 in her IRA in one day that I realized that people aren't thinking about the theater or entertainment right now at all. But art, movies, theater, ballet are all great escapes in times like these."

Mill Mountain Theatre Artistic Director Patrick Benton said, "These are looking like economic dark times. People are going to need theater more than ever."

"The Spitfire Grill," starring Natalie Newman, is about a young female prison parolee who seeks a new life in a small town in Wisconsin. Billed on the theater's Web site as a "musical chick flick," it is based on the 1996 movie of the same name. (The cast also includes a shaggy-looking Roanoke Times senior editor, Dwayne Yancey, as a homeless man.)

"If you don't cry at least once when you see this show, you're the heartless Tin Man. Bring Kleenexes," Newman said last week.

For tickets, call 342-5740 or visit www.millmountain.org.