Writing for confirmed theater-goers, I could just say, if you liked The Ferryman and Jerusalem, go. Jez Butterworth is a realistic playwright in the manner of O’Neill, Williams, Miller. Themes are deeply explored. Casts are big, usually including superfluous characters. Layered stories take (a bit too much) time to spool. There are always those with which to empathize and a great deal on which to chew. I myself am a fan.
Nicola Turner (“Young Jill”), Nancy Allsop (“Young Gloria”), Sophia Ally (“Young Ruby”) and
Lara McDonnell (“Young Joan”)
A clammy summer, 1976. Cancer-ridden matriarch Veronica is dying upstairs, tended to by sympathetic visiting nurse, Penny (Ta’Rea Campbell – nifty Haitian accent). Four daughters in their thirties will gather. Mousy Jill (Helena Wilson) never left home and has cared for mum as best she can. She’s broken up; going through old boxes. There’s a ukulele and some sheet music. Wilson’s Jill is restrained without being taut. She clutches at hope.
Ruby (Ophelia Lovibond) and her husband Dennis (Bryan Dick) settle in. She aimlessly reads from a guest book which gives us an impression of the hotel’s drab clientele. This sister is pretty and comfortable with herself. Dennis disappears “to walk” at night. She shrugs. Lovibond makes her character appealing and easily relatable.
Laura Donnelly (Veronica)
Third daughter, Gloria (Leanne Best) arrives like a vociferous Eeyore. Nothing and no one is right. Everyone else is irritating. She reminds her siblings their mother became a raging alcoholic. Nice, milquetoast husband Bill (Richard Short- the only one with a bad British accent), whom she commands, and totally extraneous children, Patty (Nancy Allsop) and Tony (Liam Bixby), scatter. Best makes sarcasm sound authentically rooted. Clearly Gloria festers about the past.
The only one missing is Joan who left home for America as a teenager 20 years ago and hasn’t been heard from since. Based on a single recording release, the women imagine her carefree and rich. Only
Jill believes she’ll show up. In fact, she’s unwilling to help her mum along with morphine, holding out
until the adored black sheep appears. The sisters share sometimes varying memories. Each approaches
an upstairs visit differently.
David Wilson Barnes (Luther St. John), Lara McDonnell (“Young Joan”) and Laura Donnelly (Veronica)
It’s 1955. Four siblings in school uniforms gather in the kitchen for tea: Young Jill (Nicola Turner), Young Ruby (Sophia Ally), Young Gloria (Nancy Allsop), and Young Joan (Lara McDonnell). Mom Veronica, a war widow, is testing and leading them in a group channeling The Andrews Sisters all of whom they can quote. The singing group, she points out, also had no advantages and look what happened with them! All the young actresses are unselfconscious, top notch.
A somewhat more genteel, British Mama Rose, Veronica (Butterworth’s wife, Laura Donnelly), drills her daughters hoping to create a way out. Guest Jack Larkin (excellent Bryan Dick), a vaudevillian on-and-off-stage (jokes rat-a-tat in breathless succession), brags he’ll introduce Veronica to an agent or manager. Eventually he does just that, bringing Perry Como’s American agent, Luther St. John (David Wilson Barnes). Donnelly manifests pushy confidence while remaining a lady. Wrenching emotion that follows is believable.
Leanne Best (Gloria), Ophelia Lovibond (Ruby), Helena Wilson (Jill), and Laura Donnelly (Joan)
The girls don marvelous costumes and audition, singing and tapping. They have talent and charm. “Boogie Woogie Bugle Boy” is performed with kazoos. “Have you heard of Elvis Presley?” St. John asks. Veronica has not. He isn’t interested in the dated material, but thinks 15 year-old Joan has talent. Everything turns on this encounter, later explained two different ways. It’s indisputable that the teenager left shortly after.
Joan (Laura Donnelly) arrives in the middle of the night. She’s exhausted; smoking, drinking, likely high, and dressed in hippie gear. (The very different voice is effective.) Jill finds her first, wins a bet with her siblings, and gushes. Joan is her hero. The others pad down in their pajamas and robes. Truths are unpeeled, voices raised, tears fall (none over dramatic), judgments adjust. Things are not as they seemed. Donnelly is a marvelous actress.
Joan (Laura Donnelly)
Sam Mendes who directed Butterworth’s Tony-winning The Ferryman, has as skilled a sense of space (the vast set never swallows action) as he does timing. Acting, singing, and dancing arrive credible and accomplished. Characters are consistent in their divergence. We are drawn in and stay there.
An expansive, wonderfully detailed set (Rob Howell) revolves to show Seaview Luxury Guesthouse, Blackpool, England (ramshackle, no sea view) in 1955 (kitchen) and 1976 (parlor, replete with Tiki bar,
slot machine and jukebox). Distinctively lit stairs (Natasha Chivers) expose an additional two story climb.
Musical Supervisor/Arranger Candida Caldicot creates a pleasing meld of harmonized voices. (Vocal Coach- Kate Wilson.) Choreography by Ellen Kane is aptly demonstrative and fun.
The hills of California are something to see/The sun will kind of warm ya, then drop in the sea/Though with all the work terrific/The blue Pacific is all bouboa claimed that it would be…Johnny Mercer
The song signifies sunny, youthful dreams – which the play sends awry.
Photos by Joan Marcus
Opening: Nancy Allsop (“Young Gloria”) Nicola Turner (“Young Jill”) Sophia Ally (“Young Ruby”)
Lara McDonnell (“Young Joan”)
The Hills of California by Jez Butterworth
Directed by Sam Mendes
Broadhurst Theatre
235 West 44th Street
