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InThe Hills of California, Butterworths calculations are exposed.
Hes cooking with the same stock, but the soup has gotten unappetizingly thin.
He pulled this exact same lack-of-trick inThe Ferryman, and he got an Olivier and a Tony for it.
Build a transition, for Dionysuss sake.
Joans mums favorite, Wilsons Jill tells a visiting nurse named Penny (TaRea Campbell).
Not favorite… Mum always used to say.
Glorias Gran, youre your dad, Rubys Ruby.
But Joan is me.
Shes the carer, the one whos stuck around, and upstairs her dynamo of a mother is dying.
Shes in America, the sunny dreamland, where her sisters imagine shes pursuing a real music career.
But shell be here, Jill insists.
What stopped the Webb Sisters from pursuing musical glory?
And why does Veronica seem as riddled with guilt as with cancer?
She is disillusionment embodied, a fatuous cartoon of American worldliness.
It leaves us with only two possible interpretations, neither good.
(The donkey takes a dump.
Roses grow, she declaims more than once again, itsshapedlike a meaningful thought.)
Poor Penny the dependable Black woman in a house of white ladies rehashing their childhood wounds.
Shes the kind of character who appears to have nothing but enthusiasm for working for the ladies of Seaview.
Ill guard that door with my life.
But you cant live in a facade.
One strong push and the wall comes down.
The Hills of Californiais at the Broadhurst Theatre through December 22.
