Theater Review -THE HILLS OF CALIFORNIA at the Broadhurst Theatre

By Charles E. Gerber

THE HILLS OF CALIFORNIA by JEZ BUTTERWORTH, directed by SAM MENDES, opened on Broadway at the Broadhurst Theatre, 235 W. 44^th St. on Sunday, Sept 29^th, 2024.  

Tony and Olivier Award winning playwright, Jez Butterworth, the similarly award winning and repeating collaborator, Sam Mendes as director, and chief producer, SONIA FRIEDMAN, have imported their most recent theatrical triumph from across the pond. 

“The Hills of California”, the title inspired in myriad ways from the American swinging standard by one of our nation’s greatest tunesmiths, Johnny Mercer, is a play of generous length (2 hours, 45 minutes) and an even more generous display of a family’s struggle to achieve success in the international popular musical scene. 

Two disparate time settings are on hand. Initially, at a dilapidated Victorian guest house now called the Seaview, where the sea is NOT seen, in August of 1976 located on the edge of Blackpool, on the west coast of England.  

The setting of the play is constant, but the times interchange from’76, back to 1955, when something of considerable significance occurs to the main characters. Those characters consist of a single widowed mother, Veronica Webb, (the brilliant Laura Donnelly who also plays her eldest daughter, Joan 20 years later in her mid-thirties) the second girl, Gloria (the arresting, dynamic LeAnne Best), the third, Ruby (the alluring Ophelia Lovibond), and the youngest, Jill, (Helena Wilson), whom we encounter at the commencement of the proceedings, enchanting the audience with a vulnerability that both breaks our hearts while we cannot help but chuckle at her somewhat timorous behavior.  

There are several more characters portrayed by a cast of 17, some playing multiple roles as Ms. Donnelly does, pivotally, by Nancy Allsop (Young Gloria), Sophia Ally (Young Ruby), Nicola Turner (Young Jill), and as the eldest, Joan at 15 in ‘55, the charismatic and musically most gifted in this tale, Lara McDonnell, whose character we’ll meet 20 years hence in the remarkable conjuring of Ms. Donnelly as stated earlier. As Jill relates to Penny, the visiting hospice nurse (Ta’Rea Campbell}, “Mum always used to say.’ Gloria’s Gran…You your dad, Ruby’s Ruby. But Joan is me.’”  

Penny is present at the play’s start because the then unseen mum, Veronica, is in a top floor bedroom dying a torturous death from stomach cancer and is not expected to live through the day. Jill has summoned her sisters and their families to the Seaview to bid their matriarch farewell, but the anxiety is augmented by the absence of Joan, who indeed has been absent from their lives for twenty years. She’s supposed to be enroute from California where she has ostensibly dwelled pursuing her singing career with somewhat spotty success of varying descriptions and surmises.  

The production is not merely confined to the myriad qualities of estrogen. There are several gentlemen on hand, and all are handsome portrayals. We first encounter Richard Lumsden as the piano tuner, Mr. Potts who empathically declares the challenges of bringing the household instrument back to life when the combination of the Blackpool climate along with the keyboard’s disuse is to make” the best of a bad job.” The piano plays as a metaphor for the story. It still can play though barely in tune.  

Mr. Lumsden will also be seen as Joe Bogg in the second act as the accompanist for the Webb Sisters Musical act that’s been cultivated with herculean drive by the mother of her harmonically talented brood. In addition to Mr. Lumsden, there’s Bryan Dick as Jack Larkin and Dennis, Richard Short as Bill and Mr. Halliwell, Liam Bixby as Tony, Max Roll as Mr. Smith and Ellyn Heald as Mrs. Smith (if that really WERE their names!).and Cameron Scoggins as Dr. Rose. 

And now comes a special mention for Mr. David Wilson Barnes who in the second act arrives as the catalyst of the plot and contributes to this 1955 world of Andrew Sisters tight and lovely harmony. Mr. Barnes hides his hooves, tail and horns most effectively.  It is among the subtlest displays of corruption I’ve observed in a theater of stage, film, television, or indeed in life. Mr. Butterworth’s construction of how and what occurs is superbly met by the esteemed director, Mendes, Mr. Barnes, and Ms. Donnelly so that although you cannot initially see it coming, its inevitability is nothing less than Greek. 

I cannot stress too vehemently how excellent every one of these  players are in complete command of their characters in the gradual unfolding of this family drama that is rife with humor as were Mr. Butterworth’s previous 7 plays.  

Yet, with one caveat: In the first act particularly, no doubt in the quest for a pristine verisimilitude, the Blackpool dialect spoken by this remarkable ensemble eludes many of our Broadway auditors. I know because I was sitting FIFTH ROW CENTER, with my companion, and was thankful to the management for such kindness to the Press. I asked a number of audience members, and they were unanimous in their combined appreciation and consternation. I’ve had my hearing checked recently and have had no discernable diminishment of sense there. Yet I could make out perhaps every third word. 

 I’ve been reading the play, as it was sent to me for perusal. It’s a brilliant play of considerable wit and heart. Would that I’d experienced it more fully as I’m certain Mr. Butterworth has intended.” We’ll hear a play today.” , as Hamlet requests in Act 2, Scene 2 of his own. When the great Walter Huston, father of John, grandfather of Angelica and Danny, and Spencer Tracy’s favorite actor was playing Othello on Broadway in the mid-thirties and was asked in an interview what was his vocal technique, his terse yet accurate reply was, “I will be HEARD!”  I don’t know how else to address this proverbial elephant in the house. This is beautiful play of human quest. I know of no director of stage and/or of film more accomplished than Sir Sam Mendes. I frankly consider him a genius, and suspect Mr. Butterworth being similarly gifted and dedicated. Please, folks, do what you can and may the run extend even further than the recent augmentation to December. 

 I predict that there shall be several Tony nominations and probable wins. The set alone of Rob Howell deserves multiple nods for construction. Natasha Chivers lighting design warrants kudos as well. And if I could, I’d award Kate Wilson a Tony for her American dialect vocal coaching perfectly manifested with Ms. Donnelly in the third act and Mr. Barnes in the second. For that matter, the entire second and third acts were measurably easier on this pair of ears and all the others of which I inquired.   

Well, ‘nuff said. This is a brilliant piece of theater that should be experienced by any and all lovers of the craft and art. Let’s HEAR it! 

All Photos Credit Joan Marcus(2024)

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