REVIEW: ‘The Hills of California’ is a stirring family drama
Photo: Laura Donnelly portrays two characters, including Joan, in The Hills of California. Photo courtesy of Joan Marcus / Provided by BBB with permission.
NEW YORK — A new Jez Butterworth play is always a cause for celebration. His previous theatrical efforts, including Jerusalem and The Ferryman, were the stuff of Broadway and West End legend. Those two shows will go down in history as some of the best theatergoing experiences of this generation. The playwright’s latest is called The Hills of California, and the excitement for the show caused this reviewer to head to London earlier this year to catch its world premiere.
The play was magical in the West End, and it continues to be a stirring marvel on Broadway, where it continues its extended engagement through Sunday, Dec. 22.
The epic play, which runs nearly three hours, follows a mother and her four daughters as they attempt to navigate a singing career while running a guest house in the seaside town of Blackpool, England. The first part of the show depicts life when the daughters are young, under the tutelage of their commanding mother, Veronica (a simply perfect Laura Donnelly). She runs a tight ship, not unlike Mama Rose in Gypsy, ensuring that the so-called “Webb Sisters” are hitting their notes, eating their dinner and ready for their careers to ascend to great heights. On the side, she also manages the guest house and runs an equally tight ship with the fellows who rent the rooms up above.
The sisters — Gloria (Nancy Allsop), Ruby (Sophia Ally), Joan (Lara McDonnell) and Jill (Nicola Turner) — are dedicated to their singing group, but they’re also young and frequently looking for chances to break Mom’s rules behind her back. For the most part, these early scenes depict a functioning family with a dedicated goal of breaking out of the working class by using the strong, harmonic voices of the young children.
Butterworth then transposes the plot of the play to when the sisters have grown up and Veronica is facing her final days. During these later scenes, the mother is never seen on stage, but Donnelly pulls double duty as the adult Joan. Joining her are Leanne Best as Gloria, Ophelia Lovibond as Ruby and Helena Wilson as Jill. The sisters are not as close as they once were, and there are secrets and revelations that simmer to the surface of their fraught relationship.
Watching this family devolve from a tight-knit group to an assemblage of strangers is sad and depressing, but so real and effective. Butterworth seems interested in understanding the disintegration of a family over time, but also examining — almost like a theatrical microscope — where the crossroads lie and why people take certain paths. He is superbly aided in his quest thanks to a talented, hard-working cast, including Donnelly, who is stern and stoic as Veronica, and nonchalant and lost as the adult Joan. This is the Broadway performance of the year, and Donnelly’s work seems to have only grown stronger since the West End premiere.
Amongst the other cast members, Best stands out as the adult Gloria, a natural foil to everyone she encounters. She wastes little time with niceties and gets right to the point of any conversation she’s having, and she takes particular umbrage with the adult Joan, wondering why she left England (and her family) in the rearview mirror. Lovibond is expert as Ruby, the sister who bounces between everyone else on stage, forming allegiances and breaking apart as the minutes tick by. Wilson’s Jill is the sister who tries to hold everything together. She was tasked — somewhat unwillingly — with staying home and pausing part of her life while taking care of Mother as she grew older. There’s resentment for her fellow sisters, but also a simultaneous yearning for the joys of their youth.
Much credit also to Ta’Rea Campbell, Bryan Dick and the other cast members who move in and out of the lives of this family. It should be noted that McDonnell is heartfelt and heartbreaking as the younger Joan.
Sam Mendes, perhaps the foremost theatrical interpreter of these times, is more than up to the challenge as the director of this gargantuan piece. He’s able to skillfully blend the scenes as if one were turning the pages in a book. He is assisted by Rob Howell’s beautifully rendered set design, which is able to bring to life the multiple levels of this seaside home. The drama may be long, but the minutes fly by thanks to all of these individual components working so well together.
The Hills of California may not reach the same heights as Butterworth’s other works, but that’s an unfair comparison. As a play, as a piece of drama, as a portrait of a family coming undone, this show is near perfect, and it’s a great joy to have much of the original cast performing these exquisite words and this moving story in Midtown Manhattan.
By John Soltes / Publisher / John@HollywoodSoapbox.com
The Hills of California. Written by Jez Butterworth. Directed by Sam Mendes. Starring Laura Donnelly, Leanne Best, Ophelia Lovibond and Helena Wilson. Running time: 2 hours, 45 minutes with one intermission and one pause. Currently running through Sunday, Dec. 22. Click here for more information and tickets.
