'The Hills of California' and 'Gypsy' are sister shows in more ways than one
For one month, the new play and the Audra McDonald-led musical, both about a mother who dreams of stardom for her daughters, are playing in adjacent Broadway theatres.
With most of Broadway's 41 theatres packed into one square mile of Midtown Manhattan, you can leave one and be mere steps away from a dozen more containing entirely different stories. But sometimes, shows are close both in proximity and in themes, which makes for a unique kind of magic — and a great double-feature option.
Such is the case for Tony Award winner Jez Butterworth's new play The Hills of California, at the Broadhurst Theatre by way of London, and the latest revival of the celebrated 1957 musical Gypsy starring six-time Tony winner Audra McDonald, reopening the next-door Majestic Theatre after more than a year of renovations.
"We're good bedfellows, us and Gypsy," Hills actress Leanne Best told New York Theatre Guide. She, Laura Donnelly, Ophelia Lovibond, and Helena Louise Wilson play sisters whose single mother, Veronica, trained them in childhood to be an Andrews Sisters-style song-and-dance act — a quest that ultimately fractured the family.
Gypsy's Mama Rose, meanwhile, has daughters June and Louise, whom she obsessively propels into the vaudeville circuit, chasing stardom for them at any cost.
"There are little similarities there — a mother who wants the best for her children and makes some difficult decisions on their behalf," Hills director Sam Mendes said. Added Butterworth, "You could go see one and see the other and enjoy them as discrete events."
Just because both shows share common themes doesn't mean they're carbon copies — far from it. Hills is a play that incorporates classic boogie-woogie songs, while Gypsy's score of original songs by Jule Styne and Stephen Sondheim — like "Let Me Entertain You" and "Everything's Coming Up Roses" — has become classic in its own right. The Hills characters dream of the 20th-century American showbiz industry from England, while Gypsy is set in the thick of it.
And most significantly, while the adult daughters largely unravel the twists and turns of Hills, even as Veronica (also played by Donnelly) looms large, Gypsy is firmly centered on Rose and how she projects her own hunger for fame onto her children.
"It calls audiences time and time again, this notion of chasing a dream [...] and what it might cost the people that try and do it," Best said.
It certainly calls the actors, many of whom were excited to learn they'd be neighbors with Gypsy, if only for a month — Hills ends its limited run on December 22, while Gypsy played its first performance on November 21.
"My agent, Alfred, actually rang me [...] and was like, 'Do you know that Audra McDonald is going to be playing Mama Rose and you're going to be sharing a wall?'" Wilson recalled. "The Broadway gods knew what they were doing with that one."
"If anything, it's going to help our show," she added, to share that energy and know the other one is there, telling stories of stardom and sacrifice hand in hand. Or rather, wall-to-wall.
"I want to go see it!" Lovibond enthused. "Are their matinees the same day as mine?"
Get The Hills of California tickets now.
Check back for information on Gypsy tickets on New York Theatre Guide.
Photo credit: The Hills of California and Gypsy on Broadway. (Hills photos by Joan Marcus; Gypsy photos by Julieta Cervantes)
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