Read our review of Weather Girl off Broadway, a solo drama written by Brian Watkins and performed by Julia McDermott in the title role at St. Ann’s Warehouse.
Reporting live from the field, a weather girl speaks to the TV news viewers of Fresno, California, clutching a Stanley cup, wearing a hot pink and red outfit, and putting on a smile that might just be brighter than the fire consuming a house directly behind her. We don’t see the deadly blaze, but we hear Stacey Gross, the titular Weather Girl in Brian Watkins’s play, tell us how it’s melting her makeup and causing sweat to pool in her Spanx. The world may be burning around her, but she’s still got to carry on with mascara maintenance as usual.
Though Fresno is a large city, Stacey is the familiar local face people see around town and greet like she were an old friend. She’s their daily reminder that the world is bright, or else only temporarily stormy, and mostly predictable. Right? When Stacey herself begins to question whether that role makes her complicit in her beloved state’s destruction amid drought, wildfire, and other consequences of climate change, both her onscreen persona and offscreen life begin to unravel.
As written by Watkins, this everywoman could be swapped out for any other local reporter: Instead of a weather girl — whose breakdown begins when she learns the aforementioned burning building had a now-dead family inside — Stacey could just as easily be, say, a local education reporter covering a school shooting in a state with more relaxed gun laws for much of the play’s first half. The second half homes in more specifically on climate change as Stacey learns she’s supposedly inherited her estranged, homeless mother’s ability to conjure water from nothing.
But by that time, this fantastical through line — an apparent allegory for uniting cross-generationally to care about the survival of the world and the other people in it — comes across as sudden and underbaked, especially when the script, and McDermott’s live-wire performance, is already heightened a few inches above naturalism. Any potential for a richer exploration of the relationship between Stacey and her mom, and how it informs Stacey’s journey toward finding her own power, gets buried beneath the ever-thick current of manic energy on which Weather Girl zips along.
As such, the show ends up succeeding best as a mirror for anyone who feels like they’re constantly on red-alert mode, reminding them they aren’t alone in that. There is, indeed, a stormy future in the forecast. Better pack your umbrella.
Weather Girl summary
Stacey Gross, a weather girl in Fresno, California, is a sunny, ever-positive presence on screen as required by her bosses, who are reluctant to acknowledge the true long-term toll of the drought and wildfires plaguing the area. But off screen, she’s an anxious, self-destructive alcoholic overwhelmed by a troubled past — her mom, now homeless, abandoned her when she was little and turned to drugs — and a future that looks increasingly bleak thanks to climate change. As she spirals ever further into despair, she also reconnects with her mom, who reveals Stacey has inherited a gift that just might be the environmental miracle she’s looking for.
What to expect at Weather Girl
A chill California surfer beat greets audiences as they enter the theatre, but from there, Weather Girl is anything but chill. Under Tyne Rafaeli’s direction, it’s a breakneck 70 minutes delivered largely in stream-of-consciousness style by McDermott. Her anxiety about her job, her mother, and her future never takes its foot off the gas, and therefore neither does Stacey. Even slower-paced moments — like when Stacey drunkenly, hesitantly sings “Escape (The Piña Colada Song)” at a karaoke bar — thrum with an undercurrent of tension.
Working seamlessly in tandem with McDermott, Isabella Byrd’s lighting evocatively signals changes in mood or setting on the minimal scenery (also by Byrd) containing only a green screen and some camera equipment. There are some moments of flashing lights, as well as haze that, together with an ominous orange glow, conjures a smoldering, smoking, and all-engulfing wildfire on the St. Ann’s Warehouse stage.
What audiences are saying about Weather Girl
Weather Girl has a 73% audience approval rating on Show-Score, aggregated from four reviews from theatregoers, who largely praised Julia McDermott’s hurricane-strength performance.
“Tony worthy one-woman performance. The first 20 minutes are hilarious. The show is completely bonkers. Highly entertaining if you appreciate quirky and non traditional plays.” – Show-Score user michael 7025
“This play is an interminable SNL skit, with lazy plotting and thin characterizations, delivered via a performance that confuses volume for depth.” – Show-Score user freeticketsplease
A hallucinatory, apocalyptic and timely journey, told by a transcendent Julia McDermott, delivering one of the most exhilarating 70 minutes of theater you’re likely to see anywhere this season. It’s a fast-pace no holds barred downward spiral into where we’re going as a society, as individuals, as humans on this planet, part comedy, part poetry, part surreal fantasy, and did I mention there’s also karaoke? Come for the prosecco-laced weather report, stay for the water miracle.” – Show-Score user GreatAvi
Read more audience reviews of Weather Girl on Show-Score.
Who should see Weather Girl
Fans of Fleabag and Baby Reindeer should check out Weather Girl, as both those shows, like Weather Girl, began as buzzy stage productions before getting the onscreen treatment. All three share a producer, Francesca Moody, who has stated plans to adapt Weather Girl for Netflix as well.
Those interested by the environmental themes of Redwood, the Idina Menzel-led musical seen on Broadway earlier this year, will likewise be interested by Weather Girl. Both are set in California and address topics like wildfires and conservation there.
Even as it deals with heavy topics, Weather Girl may appeal to fans of stand-up comedy, as McDermott speaks directly to the audience and performs bits of both physical and verbal humor throughout.
Weather Girl doesn’t necessarily provide an escape from the barrage of negative news that permeates our phones, computers, and TVs 24/7, but it might offer some solace to anyone feeling despair over it all, reminding them it’s normal to be worried about the future even as the world continues to go on turning — and that change is always possible.
Learn more about Weather Girl off Broadway
Weather Girl’s plot may be spotty, but it aptly captures the frantic, tense feeling often conjured by today’s unrelenting news cycle.
Photo credit: Julia McDermott in Weather Girl off Broadway. (Photos by Emilio Madrid)