(AGENPARL) – mar 17 dicembre 2024 FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: December 17, 2024
BEST THEATER OF 2024! CRITIC’S PICK.
“So sharply directed and so vividly performed,
The Hills of California drops you deep into the devastations of time and lifts you gently into the consolations of song.”
Jesse Green, The New York Times
“The essential ticket for New York theatregoers this fall.
It unfolds with novelistic scope in a production made theatrically propulsive by a dream ensemble.”
Charles McNulty, Los Angeles Times
“Jez Butterworth is one of the greatest playwrights working today.”
Ben Brantley
“Captivating and richly rewarding,
Jez Butterworth and Sam Mendes deliver a dream of a Broadway drama.”
Frank Rizzo, Variety
“I never wanted this magnificent show to end.
Or even to pause. I feel like I am still recovering from the level of emotion this thing churned around in me.”
Chris Jones, Chicago Tribune
The Hills of California’s
Critically Acclaimed, Extended Broadway Run
Must End As Scheduled
This Sunday, December 22 at the Broadhurst Theatre
A group of people on a roller coaster
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A New Play by Jez Butterworth
Directed by Sam Mendes
Produced by Sonia Friedman Productions, No Guarantees Productions, Neal Street, Brian Spector, and Sand & Snow Entertainment, with Stephanie P. McClelland, The Hills of California began preview performances on Wednesday, September 11 and opened Sunday, September 29 to rave reviews. As of December 22, the production will have played 18 previews and 97 regular performances on Broadway.
The Hills of California marks Tony and Olivier Award winner Butterworth’s newest play since the multi-award winning The Ferryman, also directed by Oscar, Tony, and Olivier Award winner Mendes. This past June the production concluded its world premiere engagement at the Harold Pinter Theatre on the West End, where it received 2024 Best New Play and Best Leading Actress in a Play (Laura Donnelly) Olivier Award nominations.
The Hills of California’s Broadway cast features the play’s acclaimed leading London cast members – Olivier Award winner and Tony nominee Laura Donnelly as Veronica/Joan; Leanne Best as Gloria; Ophelia Lovibond as Ruby; Helena Wilson as Jill; Nancy Allsop as Young Gloria; Sophia Ally as Young Ruby; Lara McDonnell as Young Joan; and Nicola Turner as Young Jill. The full company also includes David Wilson Barnes, Ta’Rea Campbell, Bryan Dick, Richard Lumsden, Richard Short, Liam Bixby, Ellyn Heald, Max Roll, and Cameron Scoggins. The company understudies are Jessica Baglow, Sawyer Barth, Erin Rose Doyle, Liz Pearce, Q. Smith, and Sadie Veach.
Critics praised the show:
“A modern classic.” (Robert Hofler, The Wrap)
“A riveting showcase for an exceptionally talented cast, with fireworks that give each an opportunity to explode.” (Naveen Kumar, The Washington Post)
“A searing new play that crackles with energy.” (Dalton Ross, Entertainment Weekly)
“My favorite Jez Butterworth play yet, and that’s saying something.” (David Gordon, TheaterMania)
????? “A superbly written, emotion-packed new play.” (Melissa Rose Bernardo, New York Stage Review)
????? “Exceptional. Take a must-see trip to The Hills of California, an instant entry into the best-play-of-the-season sweepstakes.” (David Finkle, New York Stage Review)
“What is a song? A song is a dream… a place to be. Somewhere you can live.  And in that place, there are no walls. No boundaries. No locks. No keys. You can go anywhere…” 
Following their triumphant production of The Ferryman, Tony®-winning Playwright Jez Butterworth and Oscar and Tony-winning Director Sam Mendes reunite for The Hills of California. 
In the sweltering heat of a 1970s summer, the Webb sisters return to their childhood home in Blackpool, an English seaside town, where their mother Veronica lies dying upstairs. Gloria and Ruby now have families of their own. Jill never left. And Joan? No one’s heard from her in twenty years… but Jill insists that their mother’s favorite won’t let them down this time.
The run-down Sea View Guest House is haunted by bittersweet memories of amusement park rides and overdue bills. Back in the 1950s, each night the four young sisters rehearse their singing act, managed by their fiercely loving single mom. But when a record producer offers a shot at fame and a chance to escape, it will cost them all dearly. With stunning design and glorious music, The Hills of California is “a rich, funny, brilliantly layered drama.” (Financial Times).
The full creative team for The Hills of California includes Rob Howell (designer), Natasha Chivers (lighting design), Nick Powell (composer, sound design and arrangements), Ellen Kane (choreography), Campbell Young Associates (wigs, hair & makeup design), Candida Caldicot (musical supervision and arrangements), Kate Wilson (dialect coach), Amy Ball (UK casting director, Verity Naughton (UK young persons’ casting director), Jim Carnahan CSA, JV Mercanti (US casting director), Zoé Ford Burnett (associate director), Joan Sergay (US associate director), Gemma Fuller (associate choreographer), Sara Brians (US associate choreographer), and Charles M. Turner III (production stage manager).
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