Think Mama Rose from “Gypsy” was the quintessential stage mother? You haven’t met Veronica Webb (Laura Donnelly) the tough-as-nails proprietor of Seaview, a small hotel in Blackpool, England circa 1955. (FWIW: Seaview doesn’t have a view of the sea.)
In “The Hills of California,” the new Jez Butterworth play, Veronica is training her four daughters to become a song-and-dance quartet not unlike the Andrews Sisters. She hopes and dreams that they will be the family’s ticket to fame and (mostly) fortune.
Divine providence arrives in the form of Jack Larkin (Brian Dick), a resident of the hotel. Jack happens to know Luther St. John (David Eildon Barnes), Perry Como’s agent who is visiting from America. Luther pays the Webbs a call and as a courtesy listens to the girls singing “Boogie Woogie Bugle Boy” and similar tunes. Midway through one of the songs, he politely asks them to stop—and bluntly informs them that their 1940s sound is passé. “Have you ever heard of Elvis Presley?” Luther asks Veronica. “I don’t know what that is,” replies Veronica innocently.
Under the pretext that the acoustics in the hotel’s kitchen are bad, Luther does express an interest in hearing Joan, the pretty 15-year-old daughter (Lara McDonnell) “privately.” Luther lays it on thick with Veronica, implying Joan is a talent like Nat King Cole.
Flash forward to 1976, when three of the four sisters have gathered at the hotel to be with Veronica in her last moments (she is dying from cancer.) The details of the women’s lives unfold and they are fairly humdrum. But they are anticipating, with various degrees of enthusiasm, the arrival of Joan from America. We learn that she did leave with Luther 20 years earlier and she has had some success as a recording artist.
This funny but dark dramedy touches on a number of subjects, particularly sibling rivalry and family dysfunction. Families seem to be a natural subject for Butterworth, whose 2018 play “The Ferryman” was about the Carneys living in 1980 Ireland during the uprising of the provisional Irish Republican Army party.
The brightest light in the cast is surely Laura Donnelly, Jez’s life-partner in IRL. She doubles as mother Veronica and the grown-up version of Joan, who reappears in 1976 in hippie-ish rock-star attire, her Blackpool accent gone and replaced by a flat California twang. As her provincial younger sisters gush over her celebrity, she sets them straight. “Never meet your heroes,” she advises them cynically. Leanne Best is terrific as Gloria, the second oldest daughter who has long resented Joan’s absence and her indifference to the family’s lives.
The mostly UK cast speaks with what seems to be an authentic Blackpool accent, which is worlds away from the plummy tones spoken by the characters in “Downton Abbey.” In fact, the accent is so authentic that it is at times difficult to understand what they are saying at times.
That is a minor nit in a drama directed by the great Sam Mendes, with set design by Ron Howell. It is a reminder that you can’t choose your family. But the Webbs are so quirky you just might opt for them anyway.
Like this review? Follow me at “What Does Aug Think?” at acsntn.substack.com. Thank you!
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Theater: “The Hills of California” by Jez Butterworth
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Think Mama Rose from “Gypsy” was the quintessential stage mother? You haven’t met Veronica Webb (Laura Donnelly) the tough-as-nails proprietor of Seaview, a small hotel in Blackpool, England circa 1955. (FWIW: Seaview doesn’t have a view of the sea.)
In “The Hills of California,” the new Jez Butterworth play, Veronica is training her four daughters to become a song-and-dance quartet not unlike the Andrews Sisters. She hopes and dreams that they will be the family’s ticket to fame and (mostly) fortune.
Divine providence arrives in the form of Jack Larkin (Brian Dick), a resident of the hotel. Jack happens to know Luther St. John (David Eildon Barnes), Perry Como’s agent who is visiting from America. Luther pays the Webbs a call and as a courtesy listens to the girls singing “Boogie Woogie Bugle Boy” and similar tunes. Midway through one of the songs, he politely asks them to stop—and bluntly informs them that their 1940s sound is passé. “Have you ever heard of Elvis Presley?” Luther asks Veronica. “I don’t know what that is,” replies Veronica innocently.
Under the pretext that the acoustics in the hotel’s kitchen are bad, Luther does express an interest in hearing Joan, the pretty 15-year-old daughter (Lara McDonnell) “privately.” Luther lays it on thick with Veronica, implying Joan is a talent like Nat King Cole.
Flash forward to 1976, when three of the four sisters have gathered at the hotel to be with Veronica in her last moments (she is dying from cancer.) The details of the women’s lives unfold and they are fairly humdrum. But they are anticipating, with various degrees of enthusiasm, the arrival of Joan from America. We learn that she did leave with Luther 20 years earlier and she has had some success as a recording artist.
This funny but dark dramedy touches on a number of subjects, particularly sibling rivalry and family dysfunction. Families seem to be a natural subject for Butterworth, whose 2018 play “The Ferryman” was about the Carneys living in 1980 Ireland during the uprising of the provisional Irish Republican Army party.
The brightest light in the cast is surely Laura Donnelly, Jez’s life-partner in IRL. She doubles as mother Veronica and the grown-up version of Joan, who reappears in 1976 in hippie-ish rock-star attire, her Blackpool accent gone and replaced by a flat California twang. As her provincial younger sisters gush over her celebrity, she sets them straight. “Never meet your heroes,” she advises them cynically. Leanne Best is terrific as Gloria, the second oldest daughter who has long resented Joan’s absence and her indifference to the family’s lives.
The mostly UK cast speaks with what seems to be an authentic Blackpool accent, which is worlds away from the plummy tones spoken by the characters in “Downton Abbey.” In fact, the accent is so authentic that it is at times difficult to understand what they are saying at times.
That is a minor nit in a drama directed by the great Sam Mendes, with set design by Ron Howell. It is a reminder that you can’t choose your family. But the Webbs are so quirky you just might opt for them anyway.
Like this review? Follow me at “What Does Aug Think?” at acsntn.substack.com. Thank you!