Veronica (Laura Donnelly) is an ambitious mother, and she makes sure to prepare her four girls for stardom.  Or rather, her three girls.  The fourth is just a spare.  Veronica trains them to sing and dance like the Andrew Sisters.  We’re in Blackpool in the 1950s, and Veronica hasn’t heard of Elvis Presley.  Prospects of success are dim.  For money, she runs a hotel called the Seaview—there is no view of the sea—where each room is named after a U.S. state.  Something very bad happens to one of her girls, Joan (Lara McDonnell), in Mississippi.

More than twenty years later, Veronica’s cancer is making her death protracted and painful, and three of her daughters reunite at the Seaview to decide what to do.  Jill (Helena Wilson), who has remained at home, discusses assisted suicide with the nurse (Ta’rea Campbell).  Gloria (Leanne Best), the spare, blames Joan for leaving and never coming back.  Ruby (Ophelia Lovibond), stuck between two stronger personalities, tries to keep the peace.  Jill is single, in fact a virgin, while Gloria and Ruby both married unremarkable but reliable men.  “I’d have left him years ago,” Gloria says, “but I’m afraid of the dark.”

The script for Jez Butterworth’s The Hills of California is not as strong as Jerusalem or The Ferryman, perhaps because its scope is smaller.  Butterworth’s strength is his maximalist approach, his ability to populate the stage with characters and conflict and life.  The Hills of California is more modest; his decision to focus on four or five characters rather than a panorama is something of a disappointment.

The centerpiece of the production is the set, designed by Rob Howell, which fills the Broadhurst stage from top to bottom and rotates to indicate a shift between past and present.  It is elegant work that evokes the rest of the hotel and hints at its cavernous nature.

Ultimately, The Hills of California is a serviceable drama that illustrates how past traumas inform the present lives of its characters.

The Hills of California runs through December 22nd at the Broadhurst Theatre.  235 W. 44th Street  New York, NY. 2 hours 45 minutes. One intermission. Photograph by Joan Marcus.