Joan Marcus
What a mischievous title The Hills of California is. If it summons up images of West Coast luxe—or, more specifically, Lauren, Heidi, and Spencer—you may be surprised to find Jez Butterworth’s latest flawed and baggy Broadway play (Broadhurst Theatre, booking through Dec. 22) is set in its past and present day in the Gothic-shadowed, run-down gloom of the Sea View Guest House in the north-west England resort of Blackpool.
In the present day (1976) the infamous British heatwave of that year simmers outside, as unseen matriarch Veronica Webb dies in a room somewhere off a gloomy staircase. Her daughters—plain, dutiful Jill (Helena Wilson), free-spirited and sweet Ruby (Ophelia Lovibond), and serrated-sharp, embittered Gloria (Leanne Best)—await the arrival of prodigal daughter Joan (Laura Donnelly), who has long since flown the nest for a life of fame and mystery in America. You sense she will not be welcomed back entirely warmly.
In the past, the 1950’s, guesthouse owner and not to be defied stage-mom Veronica (also Donnelly) is training her daughters for Andrews Sisters-style singing stardom, and we see the early germination of the later bitterness. A visiting Hollywood agent, Luther St. John (David Wilson Barnes) takes a particular, indecent shine to Young Joan (Lara McDonnell). Veronica’s power is no match for his—and, in one of the most arresting scenes of the play, we see her power taken from her in a matter of seconds; her final act is to agree to literally prostitute her daughter.
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