Broadway superstar Audra McDonald begins her turn as the famed stage mother in Gypsy this week. Jez Butterworth has given us another version of this archetype in his deeply emotional and satisfying play The Hills of California. Mothers and daughters and dreams, the stuff of drama and growth.
Widowed at a young age, Veronica is raising her four daughters to have a life far better and more empowered than her own. Perhaps she, like Gypsy’s Mama Rose, wants the life for them that she wished for herself. It is a familiar story for sure. The tension within this dramedy, however, mines new depths of sadness despite the effervescent joy of young girls blossoming under mom’s tutelage.
Veronica is training the sisters to be an act by mimicking the Andrew’s Sisters. That gives us a few terrific old tunes to savor in performance scenes including “Boogie-Woogie Bugle Boy”. In 1955 this choice seems already a tad dated underscoring mother’s missed opportunity for herself.
The play also takes place in 1976 when Veronica is nearing the end of her life. The Webb sisters are back in their former home, a now run down guesthouse somewhere near the sea. Will the one sister who attained some level of fame return?
The play will shift in time over the course of a very swift three hours. Every scene is naturally realistic. The major plot advancement includes a visitor (David Wilson Barnes) invited by Veronica to witness her assembled talents. As the play turns we are faced with a stage mother far steelier than anything a musical could conjure. The scene is devastating and superbly rendered under the excellent direction by Sam Mendes.
In a play with time periods separated by two decades memories will be challenged. The shaping of perspectives is a nice layer which enriches the vagaries in the mother daughter dynamic. What does it take to successfully climb the hills of California? Is that the dream? Should it be?
The acting is top notch. Laura Donnelly is vividly cold as Veronica and equally memorable in a second role. All of the sisters in the various age groups are excellent especially Helena Wilson as the one daughter who never left the nest. These people (and their bitterness) are recognizable making the angst palpable.
I am a huge fan of Mr. Butterworth as a playwright. I have seen all of his Broadway productions including the jaw dropping Jerusalem, The River and The Ferryman. Not knowing what this play was about I went simply because his plays are so very good. The Hills of California is no different. This is everything an exquisitely staged and intimately written drama should be. I cannot wait until the next one.
The Hills of California is running at the Broadhurst Theatre until December 22, 2024.