THE CALIFORNIA HILLS

Review by Celia Ipiotis

English playwright, Jez Butterowrth’s drama plus music, The Hills of California, mixes familial aspirations with societal contracts.

Determined her four girls will be the next Andrew Sisters, Veronica (the spot-on Laura Donnelly) primps, cajoles and pushes her daughters to be very the best.  A single mother, Veronica scrambles to run a somewhat dilapidated guesthouse in Blackpool, England. 

The daughters range in age from the eldest, wild one, Joan (Lara McDonnell) to the youngest, most innocent Jillian (Nicola Turner) who idolizes Joan along with Ruby (Sophia Ally) and Gloria (Nancy Allsop). Protected in the “private” section of the house, they congregate around the piano and spend hours practicing four part harmony prevalent in the 1940’s. Experts on every aspect of the Andrews Sisters, the girls dress up according to their mothers’ decidedly last decade tastes. Hard on the guests partaking of the musty rooms in the inadvisably advertised Seaview Luxury Guesthouse (nowhere near the sea), Veronica knows how to survive and twist every bit of hope out of meager options.

When an American music executive materializes, the girls gussy-up and sing “Boogie-Woogie Bugle Boy.” It’s 1955 and music has changed due, in part, to the “Elvis” effect. However, Veronica refuses to accept the changing times–but Joan wants in. She offers to sing for the agent in one of the upstairs bedrooms–where the acoustics are so much better. Veronica holds her breath, but does not stop 15 year-old Joan from disappearing up the staircase and out of Veronica’s life.

After intermission, the family reconvenes. It’s 1977 and they slump around the even more dilapidated guest house. All but Joan appear. It’s a time of protests, communes, and women’s lib among many other trends. Ruby (Ophelia Lovibond) and Gloria (Leanne Best) are married while Jill (Helena Wilson) remains single. No one seems very happy with their situations. Primed for a career on stage surrounded by adoring fans and baskets of flowers, the realization that life is far more mundane than what your mother imagined hurts.

Single and willing to be a peacemaker, Jill is happy to have her sisters reunited, but the big question hanging in the air is whether or not Joan will return to her dying mother’s bedside. Fortunately for us all, she does return. Adopting a Janis Joplin demeanor, Joan (now slyly played by Laura Donnelly) draws her sisters together. Hardly any time passes before they start singing that ole four-part harmony.

Arriving from San Francisco, the heart of hippiedom in the 70’s, Joan has pursued a singing career. How far she’s really gotten is questionable– all we do know is that she exited Blackpool and her mother’s expectations. Despite the sisters’ earlier predictions, Joan insists she does not blame her mother for what happened lo those many years.

The evocative, flexible rotating set by Rob Howell (that includes a staircase that nearly stretches to heaven) and Natasha Shivers’ lighting effectively signal the bright hopes impaled against dank truths.

EYE ON THE ARTS, NY — Celia Ipiotis