Donnelly, Laura (1982- )

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    Review: ‘The Hills of California,’ Alive With the Sound of Music

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    In Jez Butterworth’s compelling new play, four girls trained to sing close harmony wind up as acrimonious adults.Two sounds greet you at the start of “The Hills of California,” Jez Butterworth’s relentlessly entertaining new play: the crashing of waves on the beaches of Blackpool and the tinkling of a tinny piano being tuned.Both are plot points: The story concerns a musical family operating a rundown resort on the west coast of England. “Boogie-Woogie Bugle Boy,” “It Never Entered My Mind,” “When I Fall in Love” and “Dream a Little Dream of Me” are among the marvelous oldies you’ll hear sung during the course of the action.But the crashing and tuning are thematic points, too. Though frequently funny and, even at nearly three hours, swift, “The Hills of California,” which opened on Sunday at the Broadhurst Theater, drops you deep into the devastations of time and lifts you gently into the consolations of song.It does so within a familiar stage format — familiar in life, alas, as well: the dying-parent drama. In 1976, the four Webb sisters reunite at the Seaview Luxury Guesthouse (which is neither luxurious nor within sight of the sea) as their mother, Veronica, who ran the place for decades, under several desperate versions of the name, expires upstairs.Jillian, the youngest, has failed to thrive; she’s a 32-year-old virgin who lives at home, chatters nervously and secretly smokes. The others have run as far from Blackpool as they could: Ruby and Gloria into unhappy marriages hours away; Joan, the oldest, toward a dream of fame in California. Whether she has achieved that dream is an open question; she has not been back home since she left at 15, and only Jillian believes she will return even now.All this is efficiently established in the play’s opening scene, which is so sharply and subtly directed by Sam Mendes, and so vividly performed by the cast, you hardly notice all the information you’re being fed: tics, conflicts, personalities, pecking order. Then, just as you’ve finally attached everyone’s names to their faces, Butterworth rewinds to 1955, when the sisters, played by a new set of actors, are teenagers and Veronica is a terror.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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      Laura Donnelly, ‘Hills of California’ Star, Is Not Some Delicate Flower

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      But she did “burst into tears” reading Jez Butterworth’s rewrite of his new Broadway play, which left her with 10 days “to create an entirely new character.”Most plays that transfer to New York from London arrive in close to their original form. There might be small changes to the text, to make particular lines comprehensible to American ears, but usually not much more than that.Laura Donnelly, the star of Jez Butterworth’s new play, “The Hills of California,” knew that the playwright had been planning rewrites since early in the London run, which stretched from January to June this year. The current Broadway engagement at the Broadhurst Theater would give Butterworth the chance.“He was really excited about that,” Donnelly, 42, said over coffee on a recent morning in Manhattan, her dark hair lightened, permed and cut in a ’70s style for the play. “He kept referring to it as like, ‘little bits here and there,’ and I was like, ‘OK, cool. Yep, no problem.’ I think this is also what he told Sam [Mendes], our director, and told our producers. So they scheduled in two weeks of rehearsals.”From left, Leanne Best, Helena Wilson, Donnelly and Ophelia Lovibond as singing sisters in the Broadway production of “The Hills of California.”Sara Krulwich/The New York TimesWhat Butterworth, Donnelly’s partner of nearly a dozen years, had actually ended up doing was a major rewrite of the third act — an overhaul that alters the substance, plot and even meaning of the play.From the start, Donnelly has portrayed two characters in “The Hills of California”: Veronica Webb, a guesthouse owner in Blackpool, England, in 1955, who is rigorously training her four adolescent daughters to become an American-style girl group; and Joan, her estranged and longed-for favorite child, who returns home at last in 1976, in Act III. But the Joan of the West End script was significantly different from the Joan of the Broadway script.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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      A Broadway-Bound ‘Sunset Boulevard’ Leads Olivier Award Nominations

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      The musical, starring Nicole Scherzinger, secured 11 nominations at Britain’s equivalent of the Tony Awards.A revival of Andrew Lloyd Webber’s “Sunset Boulevard,” starring Nicole Scherzinger as a former screen idol descending into madness, received the most nominations on Tuesday for this year’s Olivier Awards, Britain’s equivalent of the Tonys.The show, which ran at the Savoy Theater in London and will transfer to Broadway this year, is in the running for 11 awards — two more than any other play or musical — including best musical revival, best actress in a musical for Scherzinger and best director for Jamie Lloyd.When the production opened last fall, it impressed London’s often demanding theater critics. Matt Wolf, writing in The New York Times, said the production was, like its lead character, “a bit mad: reckless and daring, stretching its source material to the limit and beyond.”“I can’t imagine another London show generating comparable buzz this season,” Wolf added.Lloyd’s maverick production features hand-held cameras that are used to spotlight characters’ emotions at pivotal moments. Although critics appreciated the technique, Lloyd faces stiff competition in the best director category. The other nominees include Sam Mendes for “The Motive and the Cue,” which debuted last spring at the National Theater. The play, by Jack Thorne, dramatizes a fraught backstage relationship between Richard Burton and John Gielgud as they rehearse a Broadway production.Justin Martin, who directed “Stranger Things: The First Shadow,” also received an Olivier nomination.Manuel HarlanRupert Goold is also nominated for best director, for “Dear England,” a play about the English national soccer team that also ran at the National Theater and transferred to the West End. That show secured nine nominations.Despite receiving mixed reviews, “Stranger Things: The First Shadow,” a theatrical prequel to the Netflix show that is running at the Phoenix Theater, secured five nominations, including best new entertainment or comedy play. Houman Barekat, reviewing the production in The New York Times, said it was “exactly what you’d expect from a show co-produced by Netflix: Cheap thrills, expensively made.”This year’s nominations include a hint of TV glamour in many categories. Among the nominees for best actress in a play are Sarah Jessica Parker for “Plaza Suite,” which runs through April 13 at the Savoy Theater, and Sarah Snook (of “Succession”) for a one-woman “The Picture of Dorian Gray” at the Theater Royal Haymarket, through May 11.They will compete for that title against Laura Donnelly for “The Hills of California” at the Harold Pinter Theater, Sheridan Smith for “Shirley Valentine” at the Duke of York’s Theater, and Sophie Okonedo for “Medea” at @sohoplace.The best actor nominees include Andrew Scott for a one-man “Vanya” at the Duke of York’s Theater, and James Norton for his performance in “A Little Life” at the Harold Pinter Theater. The other nominees are Joseph Fiennes for “Dear England,” Mark Gatiss for “The Motive and the Cue,” and David Tennant for “Macbeth” at the Donmar Warehouse.The winners of this year’s awards are scheduled to be announced April 14 in a ceremony at the Royal Albert Hall in London. More

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      in Television

      Laura Donnelly’s Week: ‘Dora the Explorer’ and a Poetry Prescription

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      When she’s not promoting HBO’s ‘The Nevers,’ the actress listens to Judi Dench’s desert island playlist and watches ‘Harry Potter’ with her kids.The Northern Irish actress Laura Donnelly doesn’t love the “strong female character” label. “I always exchange the word ‘strong’ for ‘complex’ because that’s what we’re looking for,” she said on a video call in late March. “We’re after complexity. We’re after fully rounded, well-drawn characters to get our teeth into.”This may explain why Donnelly recently made an overdue visit to the dentist. An actress of ferocity, precision and jet-black wit, Donnelly played a stern Highland lady on “Outlander” and earned a Tony nomination as a volatile widow in “The Ferryman,” a role written for her by her partner, the playwright Jez Butterworth. In “The Nevers,” which debuts on HBO on April 11, she plays a Amalia True, the leader of a band of Victorian women who manifest unusual abilities. “I wouldn’t quite say superpowers,” Donnelly said. “They’re not all useful.”Amalia, gifted with foresight, has a shadowy past, a legendary right hook and a habit of ditching her walking dresses mid-brawl, because a long skirt can really spoil a roundhouse kick. “You throw yourself at danger like you think it’s going to propose,” a colleague tells her.Donnelly lives more quietly, though she did quit drinking early in the pandemic, which must qualify as an unusual ability. Production on “The Nevers” won’t resume for a few months, so she is currently locked down in London — in the home that she and Butterworth share with their two daughters, 3 and 4 — mothering, batch cooking, trying to get a decent night’s sleep with the help of some meditation apps.Just before she left to receive her first Covid-19 vaccine dose, she detailed a cultural regimen that includes cartoons, poetry and Prince. These are edited excerpts from the conversation.WednesdayIn the morning, I worked out with my stunt trainer. We have “Beyoncé Wednesdays.” It’s the middle-of-the-week slump, and I definitely need energy. We usually put on “Homecoming: The Live Album.” Before I started my training, I watched that documentary and I was like, OK, if Beyoncé can be Beyoncé at Coachella then I can definitely do six weeks stunt training.In the afternoon, I cooked a shepherd’s pie. I figured lamb was almost seasonal. I listened to Judi Dench’s “Desert Island Discs,” the greatest radio show ever. Someone comes on, and they have to choose a certain number of songs that if they would listen to if they were stuck on a desert island. They’re also allowed to choose one book and a luxury item. The most fascinating episodes are always the politicians, because they try to pretend that they are real people with souls and things.Judi Dench, hers is hilarious, she has such trouble trying to bring it down to eight songs, and I feel her pain completely. I always thought that if I was on it, I’d be very tempted to go for a very literal take on being on a desert island — Caribbean stuff. My luxury item would have to be hand cream. I can’t tolerate being anywhere with dry hands.I had a bath, and then I listened to a meditation app for sleep. Meditation was one of those things I’ve kind of done in bits over the years. I’m still not very good at doing it regularly. I should be practicing it more than I do. But most nights I will do a sleep one, usually on Buddhify or Insight Timer. Normally once I closed my eyes, it would take about an hour for my brain to wind down. But with those I am always without fail asleep before the end of the meditation and. I genuinely do find that my quality of sleep is totally different, it’s much deeper and much more peaceful.ThursdayBefore a day of press, my hair and makeup team came. We listened to Neil Young, Joni Mitchell and Van Morrison, mostly for calmness and comfort. I use music for everything. I use it to energize, I use it to relax, I use that to enhance a feeling or change up a bad feeling. It’s the single most important art form in my life.Just before the junket began, I listened to Prince’s “When Doves Cry” and then “I Want You” by Marvin Gaye to put me slightly more in a socializing mood. For a junket like that, it’s six minutes with any journalist and, most of the time, similar questions over and over again. I want to be genuine, I want to engage as best I can. But I’m not a hugely sociable person. I wouldn’t naturally drift towards parties and events. I was pretty comfortable with the level of social interaction I was getting in lockdown.Afterward, I listened to an audiobook, “Conflict Is Not Abuse,” by Sarah Schulman. It has to do with mutual accountability in a culture of underreaction to abuse and overreaction to conflict. Our current tendency to scapegoat people really results in a lack of accountability and a lack of self-examination. I find it particularly fascinating, just in regards to our cancel culture, because I’m trying to get my head around it.Kalpesh Lathigra for The New York TimesFridayI was up at 7 a.m. with my kids. They didn’t have to go to school, and we had a nice lazy start to the day. We watched “Dora the Explorer.” I know a lot of “Dora the Explorer.” And all of her many songs. The vast majority of my cultural consumption at the moment is aimed at my children. Lots of Disney films, lots of Pixar, all that stuff.I had another press junket day and got in very late. My mind was racing at the same time as I was physically exhausted. So I did a sleep meditation and went off to sleep.SaturdayI had a rare lie in, and I read a quick chapter of Charlie Chaplin’s autobiography. That man’s life was something else. I put less pressure on myself to fully consume something. Biographies I find good for that. I tend to have several books on the bedside, and I go in and out of whatever I feel like that day. Joan Didion always works. I don’t tend to read a lot of modern fiction. The only exception recently was “Shuggie Bain” by Douglas Stuart. It’s just the most beautiful, beautiful piece of fiction and so tenderly written.With the girls, we listened to a playlist of The Faces and Bert Jansch. Ninety-eight percent of the music that I listen to is from the last century, mostly from before I was born. We made a pact that as much as we could, we’d introduce the girls to our music from the start. We just didn’t want to be listening to the Little Mermaid on a loop for four hours. So we decided really early that they weren’t going to know what kids’ music was.At lunchtime, we watched “Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone.” They’re still too young to really move on to the next one. I had never watched them [the “Harry Potter” movies]. It’s genuinely a world I know so little about, so it we’ll be discovering it together.In the evening, we watched “The Innocent Man” on Netflix. I will watch anything about either a true crime or a cult. I’ve watched “The Jinx” about six times. I’m just constantly looking for somebody else to watch “The Jinx” with. I love a documentary, my favorite one of late was Fran Lebowitz’s “Pretend It’s a City.” I don’t think I’m alone in wishing she and I were best friends. And “In and of Itself” on Hulu. Oh my goodness, I was thinking about it for weeks afterwards.SundayI had a long car ride by myself, precious time, despite going to get my mouth prised open by the dentist. I have been long avoiding the dentist. I listened to a friend of mine’s podcast. It’s called “Persistent and Nasty.” The women presenting it are actresses, and so they have very intelligent and bold and powerful conversations with other women in the arts.The dentist was really amazing. He has cured me of my aversion. On the way home I listened to Catherine Gray’s “The Unexpected Joy of Being Sober.” Toward the start of lockdown, I decided to stop drinking alcohol. And that was just based around a desire to feel more present in my life. I like listening to books like this, and hers is particularly lovely, because it’s not a deep and dark dive into someone’s terrible addiction. It’s a celebration of everything that she has gained from not drinking.In the afternoon, I dipped into “The Poetry Pharmacy” by William Sieghart. God, it’s a lovely book. It has a list of what do you want from a poem and then it gives you a poem. The condition I read on was failure to live in the moment. So I read “Golden Retrievals” by Mark Doty: “A Zen master’s bronzy gong, calls you here,/ entirely, now: bow-wow, bow-wow, bow-wow.” More