Jez Butterworth (‘The Hills of California’) on track to join an elite club of Tony-nominated playwrights
Last month playwright Jez Butterworth brought his latest work, “The Hills of California,” to Broadway. The haunting family drama explores the relationships between four sisters and their dying mother in their creaky seaside home, seamlessly moving back and forth in time between 1976 and 1955. The play previously bowed in London earlier this year, and before coming stateside it earned two Olivier Award nominations for Best New Play and Best Actress for Laura Donnelly, who reprises her performance in New York.
Since his Broadway debut only 13 years ago, Butterworth has quickly established himself as one of the theater’s most accomplished contemporary playwrights. He has two Tony nominations to his name, for New York debut “Jerusalem” in 2011 and for his Tony-winning epic “The Ferryman” in 2019. Those nominations alone already tie him with theater royalty including Ayad Akhtar, Tony Kushner, Tracy Letts, David Mamet, Lynn Nottage, Eugene O’Neill, and Wendy Wasserstein — all of whom are Pulitzer Prize winners — plus 28 other writers.
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Should Tony nominators remember “Hills of California” next year, Butterworth will join a starry lineup of three-time nominated playwrights. Those dramatists include Brian Friel, John Guare, David Hare, Terrence McNally, Nobel Prize recipient Harold Pinter, and only three others, which would make him one of the most celebrated writers in Broadway history.
How likely is it that “Hills of California” will land that coveted Best Play nomination? At this early point in the Broadway season, it looks likely that the critically-acclaimed work will stay top of mind for Tony nominators next spring. New York Times critic Jesse Green called it “relentlessly entertaining” as well as “sharply and subtly directed” and “vividly performed.” Time Out New York’s Adam Feldman described its “wide-scope and complicated storytelling,” adding that it’s “often very funny, but it has a core of deep regret that gets revealed as layers of family secrets are peeled away.” Most critics concurred with these positive sentiments.
Indeed, while “Hills of California” may not boast the same pulse-pounding twists of Butterworth’s Tony-winning “The Ferryman,” it creates a dark, often suffocating atmosphere as it peeks into how the indefatigable Veronica (Donnelly) pushed her four girls to try to become a cutesy musical foursome, and how the success of the eldest daughter Joan later affected her three sisters.
It will certainly help that the small pool of Tony nominators see every show that opens on Broadway and always seem to have sharp memories of productions that have shuttered before the spring (“Hills of California” will close at the end of December). Last season two of the five Best Play nominees — “Jaja’s African Hair Braiding” and “Prayer for the French Republic” — had already closed by the time nominations were announced. The year before, the majority of the nominees were closed shows, including “Ain’t No Mo’,” “Between Riverside and Crazy,” and “Cost of Living.”
If “Hills of California” earns the nomination and then pulls off a feat by upsetting the new spring shows to win Best Play, Butterworth would join even starrier company as one of only seven writers to win in the category twice. Those legends include Neil Simon for “Biloxi Blues” and “Lost in Yonkers,” Edward Albee for “Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?” and “The Goat, or Who Is Sylvia?,” Arthur Miller for “Death of a Salesman” and “The Crucible,” Peter Shaffer for “Equus” and “Amadeus,” Terrence McNally for “Love! Valour! Compassion!” and “Master Class,” Tony Kushner for “Angels in America: Millennium Approaches” and “Angels in America: Perestroika,” and Yasmina Reza for “’Art’” and “God of Carnage.” Only one playwright in the history of the awards has won in this category more than twice: living legend Tom Stoppard, who has an unparalleled five trophies.
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