When people talk about the world being on fire, they’re usually speaking metaphorically (and sometimes overdramatically). However, for Stacey Gross, the titular TV reporter in Brian Watkins’ scathingly funny Weather Girl, now at St. Ann’s Warehouse, the world literally is on fire; behind her, a house is going up on flames.
But it’s not her job to tell you about it. On Fresno, California’s KCRON, Stacey—played with humor, heart, and wicked wit by Julia McDermott (Heroes of the Fourth Turning)—is the perfectly put together, well-coiffed, color-coordinated woman who tells you the temps, a figurative ray of sunshine bursting through the screen as you’re mindlessly making your way through your morning routine. “I tell you how it’s all gonna be alright. I’m the happy voice next to the calming coffee ad next to the loud kids cereal commercial. I am your Good Morning. I am your Rise and Shine,” she informs us. (Later, she comes to this cynical realization: “I’m a fluffer, I’m a hype man, I’m a used car salesman selling a world we can’t even have.”)
She peppers her forecasts with breezy banter: “Maybe it’s a kinda one of those Kip what’d you call it blue skies and mai-tais kinda weekend”; “We got B&B weather for Sunday folks and by that I mean brunch and BBQ so Kim hold my beer I’m comin’ in for a hot dog.” As the Coalinga wildfires spread, Stacey’s cutesy on-air comments get darker: “We’re watchin’ a warm front comin’ at us Jeff so break out the baby oil it’s gonna sizzle here starting midweek”; “And boy remember those people that burned alive in their house now here’s Jackie with your traffic.” Eventually, she stops sugarcoating things: “So I hear that a lot of you don’t wanna evacuate or believe in climate change or whatever but all the farms and all your food is gonna shrivel up and soon there won’t be enough ground water to regrow anything and so you’re either gonna like burn really quick or starve really slow.”
A high-functioning alcoholic—that’s not water in her trusty Stanley tumbler—and self-described “excellent drunk driver,” Stacey is a fascinating and extremely flawed character, and someone we want to spend more time with. (Currently, Weather Girl clocks in at 70 minutes, and an appropriately crisp 70 at that, thanks to director Tyne Rafaeli.) It’s no surprise that the show is being developed as a Netflix series. Like previous Francesca Moody productions Fleabag and Baby Reindeer—both of which became multi–award-winning series—Weather Girl is a one-person show that started at the Edinburgh Festival.
Several characters might benefit from the additional screen time afforded by the multi-episode structure. There’s Jerry, the station manager, who thinks he’s giving Stacey a gift by sending her to the larger market of, ahem, Phoenix. (The only place hotter, and drier, than California! No wonder her immediate, and repeat, reaction, is “F**k you, Jerry.”) Then there’s the guy whose name she can’t remember; she calls him Mark: “He’s a tech bro—the kind that has all the looks and money but zero social skills, and it’s made him ignorant to the fact that he’s actually destroying the world.” (Perhaps to teach him a lesson, she wrecks his sportscar, but in her defense, she does ask his permission.) Most important, there’s her homeless mother, who lives behind El Pollo Loco. But appearances by even minor characters—the crew eating burritos in the van, the happy-hour karaoke crowd at the Antelope lounge, “Larry the sports guy” at KCRON—surely will add depth to Stacey’s story.
The extra minutes also should help illuminate the not insignificant subplot about her mom’s paranormal ability to make water appear out of thin air—a gift that Stacey has inherited but can’t summon as easily. Her mom describes the power as “a primal kinda thing, a verdant little creature tucked up near your crotch.” Perhaps we have to see it to believe it.
And let’s hope that McDermott continues playing the prosecco-swilling Stacey. Watkins (Epiphany) wrote the part for her, and it fits like a glove—or, to use an analogy Stacey would appreciate, a pair of sweaty Spanx.
Weather Girl opened Sept. 21, 2025, at St. Ann’s Warehouse and runs through Oct. 12. Tickets and information: stannswarehouse.org
