‘No Change in the Weather’ a quirky mix of family secrets, kitchen party madness

No Change in the Weather

2.5 stars (out of 4)

Written by Berni Stapleton. Directed by Brad Hodder. Until Saturday at CAA Theatre, 651 Yonge St., 416-872-1212

How do you settle a family feud so bitter it could give Eugene O’Neill’s all-American Tyrone family a run for their money? For recently deceased matriarch Peggy O’Brien (Kelly-Ann Evans), you haunt your squabbling sons at your own wake until they settle their scores.

That’s the premise of “No Change in the Weather,” the zany, yet muddled, Newfoundland musical that has blown west and taken up residence at the CAA Theatre until Saturday following a short run in St. John’s.

The primary dispute in this story of decades-old secrets and simmering family enmities concerns brothers Bill (Steve Ross) and James “Sunny Boy” O’Brien (Duff MacDonald). The latter, a civil servant in St. John’s, is a punching bag for his seething brother Bill, whose livelihood was upended with the cod moratorium of 1992.

Then there’s Jade (Seana-Lee Wood), Peggy’s almost daughter-in-law, who confronts James for the first time since he stood her up at the altar over two decades ago. Her daughter Liza has a bone to pick as well: the sharp-witted teenager accuses James of orchestrating the disastrous Churchill Falls hydroelectric that ended up plunging the province into financial ruin for decades to come.

The stage is set for a scorching family drama.

But “No Change in the Weather” never really kicks up a storm. Despite some gorgeous arrangements of classic Newfoundland songs, the musical feels overstuffed.

What has the potential to be a taut chamber musical is instead pulled in too many different directions. There are moments of the supernatural when the focus is on the trio of “funeral ghouls” (Julia Dunne, Erin Mackey and Liam Eric Dawson) — a Greek chorus of sorts that accompany Peggy in her purgatorial realm, where she observes the battle royale.

At other times, the musical is a dense history lesson and difficult to follow (no one should have to read seven pages of historical information in the program to understand the plot).

The key issue, however, is that there are too many characters — each with a story to tell and a score to settle. In addition to the O’Briens, there’s psychic medium Sally Brown (Vicki Harnett), widower Richard O’Byrne (Philip Goodridge) and Johnny (Steve Maloney), a former fisher-turned-mailman who is estranged from his young son.

The story’s aimlessness is particularly pronounced towards the end, where the show’s creators have written themselves into a narrative corner. When all the blood is drawn and the secrets are laid bare, they use what can only be described as a “Peggy ex machina” to tie up the loose ends at the eleventh hour of this 160-minute musical (which ran more than three hours on opening night due to a technical hiccup that stopped the show in the middle of the first act).

Perhaps it can all be chalked up to too many hands in the cookie jar. Three different creators worked on this musical during its various stages of development (Walter Schroeder is credited with the concept, Berni Stapleton wrote the script and Steve Cochrane adapted it for this production) and it certainly feels that there are three competing visions.

Director Brad Hodder’s production feels muddled as well. The proceedings are statically fixed on Gillian Gallow’s austere wooden set, except for some moments of foot-stomping, kitchen-party brilliance courtesy of choreographer Victoria Wells-Smith.

Brilliant too is the ensemble cast led by Evans, whose stirring rendition of Ron Hynes’s “Sonny’s Dream” should be the definitive version of the Newfoundland standard.

Transcendent moments like these prove that behind the excess, there’s a gem-of-a-show within “No Change in the Weather.”