"The Hills of California" - by Jez Butterworth - Huntington Theatre Company (Boston, MA.) - REVIEW
(Cover Photo: Kate Fitzgerald as “Young Joan” with Allison Jean White as “Veronica” in a scene from "THE HILLS OF CALIFORNIA" by Jez Butterworth, presented by Huntington Theatre Company, 264 Huntington Avenue, Boston, MA. through October 12, 2025. Photo Credit: Liza Voll)
By Kevin T. Baldwin
METRMAG Reviewer
# 774-242-6724
"They clap their hands and stamp their feet because they know how he plays when someone gives him a beat."
- ("Boogie Woogie Bugle Boy") / Don Ray and Hughie Prince, sung by the Andrews Sisters
Huntington Theatre Company
Presents Jez Butterworth's
"THE HILLS OF CALIFORNIA"
Written by Jez Butterworth
Directed by Loretta Greco
Music Director Daniel Rodriguez
Choreographer Misha Shields
Cast Includes: Cast Includes: Allison Jean White as “Veronica,” Amanda Kristin Nichols as “Gloria,” Aimee Doherty as “Ruby/Mrs. Smith,” Karen Killeen as “Jillian,” Kate Fitzgerald as “Young Joan,” Meghan Carey as “Young Gloria,” Chloé Kolbenheyer as “Young Ruby,” Nicole Mulready as “Young Jillian,” Kyle Cameron as “Dennis/Jack Larkin,” Jack Greenberg as “Tony/Mr. Halliwell/Mr. Smith,” Patrice Jean-Baptiste as “Penny/Biddy,” Mike Masters as “Bill/Joe Fogg,” Lewis D. Wheeler as “Mr. Potts/Luther St. John.” Understudies: Annika Bolton, Lila Grace English, Bridgette Hayes, Zachary Kautter, and Yewande Odetoyinbo.
Additional Creative Team:
Scenic Design - Andrew Boyce, Se Hyun Oh; Costume Design - Jennifer von Mayrhauser; Lighting Design - Russell H. Champa; Sound Design and Original Music - David Van Tieghem; Wig, Hair, and Makeup Design - J. Jared Janas; Music Director Daniel Rodriguez Choreographer Misha Shields Fight and Intimacy Coordinator - Jesse Hinson; Voice and Dialect Coach - Ashleigh Reide; Dramaturg - Kyle Frisina; Production Stage Manager - Kevin Schlagle; Stage Manager - Ashley Pitchford; NY Casting - Janet Foster.
Performances:
September 11, 2025 through October 12, 2025
(Contact Box Office for Exact Times)
The Huntington Theatre, 264 Huntington Avenue, Boston, MA. 02115
TICKETS:
Available online at huntingtontheatre.org, by phone at 617-266-0800 or in person at THE HUNTINGTON THEATRE, 264 Huntington Avenue, Boston.
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COVID 19 PROTOCOLS
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(Warning: The following review may contain spoilers)
Huntington Theatre Company presents a lavish staging of the highly acclaimed "THE HILLS OF CALIFORNIA" which will have you astounded as the show's curtain rises and equally stunned by the story at its conclusion, but for very different reasons.
Written by British playwright Jez Butterworth, the Huntington production of "THE HILLS OF CALIFORNIA" is directed by Loretta Greco and is given the ultimate epic storytelling treatment.
After some success in London’s West End, "THE HILLS OF CALIFORNIA" transferred to Broadway in 2024 resulting in actress Laura Donnelly receiving a Tony Award nomination, a Drama Desk Award and Critics Circle Award for her portrayal of “Veronica & Joan” in the Broadway production.
With all its accolades, and while it is now impeccably staged by Greco at the Huntington in epic fashion, it is just a shame that the Butterworth saga itself isn’t as “epic” a story as the set upon which it is told.
First, let’s talk about this set.
As the show opens, you will literally be stunned…STUNNED…by the sight of the magnificent Huntington Theatre Company set of a lobby of an old rooming house in Blackpool, a seaside town in the county of Lancashire, England.
If you are seated in the Orchestra section, your neck will literally arch further and further back as you watch the Huntington curtain lift and seemingly never stops.
There seems to be no end to the set as the curtain keeps going and going – it continues further and further upward toward the ceiling, revealing the set as it fills the entire stage space.
Later, as the story is told in flashbacks, the set turns and you cannot believe it when it begins to move.
While you have complete faith in its success, you still fully find yourself expecting the set to catastrophically crash at the top as it turns.
Of course, it doesn’t, but it is thrilling each time this magnificent structure turns, with multiple clever “openings” that are not just there for show but help tell the story.
One of the most wondrously ingenious of sets – which makes it ultimately disappointing that the Butterworth story being told on this set does not "rise" to the same level of wonder.
(Photo: Amanda Kristin Nichols as “Gloria,” Karen Killeen as “Jillian” and Aimee Doherty as “Ruby” in a scene from "THE HILLS OF CALIFORNIA" by Jez Butterworth, presented by Huntington Theatre Company, 264 Huntington Avenue, Boston, MA. through October 12, 2025. Photo Credit: Liza Voll)
"THE HILLS OF CALIFORNIA" has little to do with California but rather takes place in this hot sticky English suburb.
We learn the saga of the four “Webb Sisters” - and we begin by meeting three of them as adults, one by one: Jillian (Karen Killeen), Ruby (Aimee Doherty), and Gloria (Amanda Kristin Nichols), have all reunited at their mother’s home as the mother lay close to death.
Kileen impresses as the anxious and nervous Jillian, while Doherty as Ruby effectively serves as a counterpoint by being more upbeat and trying to maintain what little light exists in such a bleak and darkened home.
Nichols provides the most riveting performance as the most embittered sister Gloria, simply brutal from the moment she appears, lashing out at everyone including her own spouse and children.
There are reasons for her behavior and reasons for the behavior of the others, evidenced by what little empathy there seems to be for their failing matriarch - issues both explored and revealed later in the story.
The last sister is noticeably (but not surprisingly) absent and much of the story that follows explains why.
(Photo: Mike Masters as “Joe Fogg" plays piano for the trio of Nicole Mulready as “Young Jillian,” Meghan Carey as “Young Gloria” and Chloé Kolbenheyer as “Young Ruby” in a scene from "THE HILLS OF CALIFORNIA" by Jez Butterworth, presented by Huntington Theatre Company, 264 Huntington Avenue, Boston, MA. through October 12, 2025. Photo Credit: Liza Voll)
Through a series of flashbacks, the set turns and (after some stunned looks and noticeable gasps from the audience) we have traveled back in time to when the girls were young, just coming up to a pivotal moment in their collective lives.
Playing the sisters at an earlier age: Young Gloria (Meghan Carey), Young Ruby (Chloé Kolbenheyer) and Young Jillian (Nicole Mulready) and, the missing adult sister, Young Joan (Kate Fitzgerald).
All of the above give exemplary performances but it is Fitzgerald as the more rambunctious, boundary-testing and flirtatious Young Joan that has been most of the “meat” to the Butterworth story as it unfolds.
The girls' mother, Veronica (Allison Jean White), runs the rooming house with a firm hand and strict rules and a harsh tongue.
She runs her daughters much the same, trying to hone their noticeable singing talents into an act, a la the Andrews Sisters, of which she is obsessed.
The quartet of young singers are delightful to listen to but, unfortunately, those moments are quite minimal and only further the ultimate issue within the story.
(Photo: Allison Jean White as “Veronica” with Meghan Carey as “Young Gloria” in a defining moment from "THE HILLS OF CALIFORNIA" by Jez Butterworth, presented by Huntington Theatre Company, 264 Huntington Avenue, Boston, MA. through October 12, 2025. Photo Credit: Liza Voll)
Being a product of her era, Veronica does not see that the world is changing far more rapidly away from the time and the music she admires.
Undaunted, she nevertheless runs the girls ragged with rehearsals in effort to make them famous and she is about to land a huge opportunity for them.
Of course, Veronica does this not only to make them stars but to make herself famous, hoping to live vicariously through their “ultimate success” in the process.
She will also make monstrous statements, choices and sacrifices all done in their name but moreso to ensure her own upwardly mobile success.
If you just now felt as if a light bulb just appeared above your head, there you have it - meaning if the above reads a tad “familiar” – that’s the problem.
Yes, dear theatre travelers, we have been here before and "HILLS" is much the same story as “Gypsy” only told not as a musical, with more horrific consequences and ultimately, not as entertaining.
With the storytelling actually rising above the story itself, it is difficult to praise what there is here.
However, if you are coming to this pity party with “fresh eyes” you might very well enjoy the saga of these four sisters.
Also, the marvelously diverse performance of White as Veronica and later as the adult Joan is exemplary and what separates this show from…ahem…“others like it.”
(Photo: Kate Fitzgerald as “Young Joan” with Allison Jean White as “Veronica” in a scene from "THE HILLS OF CALIFORNIA" by Jez Butterworth, presented by Huntington Theatre Company, 264 Huntington Avenue, Boston, MA. through October 12, 2025. Photo Credit: Liza Voll)
Ultimately, the depths of despair and darkness that exists within the sisters in their mother's home as adults is so heavy it makes us yearn for more lightness, like the light this reviewer can recall seeing way back when he also lived in "THE HILLS OF CALIFORNIA."
................Okay, it was in Van Nuys of the Valley, but still…
Continuing at the the Huntington Theatre in Boston until October 12th, "THE HILLS OF CALIFORNIA" seem more like a desperate escape from mountainous family turmoil.
As its 2025-2026 season continues, coming up next at the Huntington Theatre's Maso Studio stage (on Huntington Avenue) will be “SARDINES” written and performed by Chris Grace, beginning September 30th and running through November 13th, 2025.
For tickets and more information, contact Huntington Theatre Company online at huntingtontheatre.org, by phone at # 617-266-0800 or in person at THE HUNTINGTON THEATRE, 264 Huntington Avenue, Boston.
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Approximately two hours, 30 minutes with one intermission.
Kevin T. Baldwin is a member of the American Theatre Critics Association (ATCA)
@MetrmagReviews
@Theatre_Critics
ABOUT THE SHOW
Internationally renowned Olivier and Tony Award–winning playwright Jez Butterworth ("The Ferryman" and "Jerusalem") weaves the compelling, tender, and savagely funny tale of the four adult Webb sisters’ homecoming to the seaside guest house where they grew up.
As girls, their fierce and ambitious mother Veronica trained them for a singing career à la The Andrews Sisters.
Now adults, the sisters must reconsider the choices their mother made, the nostalgic call of youthful harmonies, and the unbreakable bonds of family.
Critically acclaimed on Broadway and the West End, "THE HILLS OF CALIFORNIA" will be seen in a new production at THE HUNTINGTON, directed by Loretta Greco ("The Triumph of Love" and "Prayer for the French Republic").
ABOUT THE HUNTINGTON THEATRE COMPANY
THE HUNTINGTON THEATRE COMPANY is Boston’s leading professional theatre and one of the region’s premier cultural assets since its founding in 1982. Recipient of the 2013 Regional Theatre Tony Award, THE HUNTINGTON brings together superb local and national talent and produces a mix of groundbreaking new works and classics made current to create award-winning productions. THE HUNTINGTON runs nationally renowned programs in education and new play development and serves the local theatre community through its operation of the Calderwood Pavilion at the BCA. THE HUNTINGTON has long been an anchor cultural institution of Huntington Avenue, the Avenue of the Arts, and will remain so on a permanent basis with plans to convert the Huntington Avenue Theatre into a first-rate, modern venue with expanded services to audiences, artists, and the community. THE HUNTINGTON cultivates, celebrates, and champions theatre as an art form.
