Sir Samuel Alexander Mendes CBE (born 1 August 1965) is an English film and stage director, producer and screenwriter. In theatre, he is known for his dark re-inventions of the stage musicals Cabaret (1994), Oliver! (1994), Company (1995), and Gypsy (2003). He directed an original West End stage musical for the first time with Charlie and the Chocolate Factory (2013).
For directing the play The Ferryman, Mendes was awarded the Tony Award for Best Direction of a Play in 2019.
‘The Hills of California’ Review: Sam Mendes and Jez Butterworth Deliver a Dream of a Broadway Drama
variety.comFrank Rizzo Jez Butterworth’s ambitious, captivating and richly rewarding domestic drama “The Hills of California” straddles dual worlds of dreams and reality as it shuttles between two pivotal time periods in the lives of the Webb women.
Though this densely-packed, 17-actor play is more family-focused in its themes than Butterworth’s previous, stunning epics “Jerusalem” and “The Ferryman,” “The Hills of California” — also directed by Sam Mendes, who staged the Tony-winning “Ferryman” — strikes societal notes, too, as it details women with limited choices and plenty of obstacles in an ever-changing world.
In the mid-1950s, Veronica Webb (Laura Donnelly), a disciplined but caring mother, drills her young teen and tween daughters to become a song-and-dance quartet, evoking the style and songlist of the ‘40s girl group The Andrew Sisters.
But 20 years later, the four-part harmonies have long turned flat as the emotionally damaged sisters gather at their childhood home to stand vigil for their dying mother.
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