Jez Butterworth’s latest play, “Hills of California” moves so smoothly that you are never aware of its 2 hours and 45 minutes running time. Arriving on Broadway after a successful London run, the drama is expertly directed by Sam Mendes.

The play begins with Jill Webb (Helena Wilson) the one sister who remained at home.to be the caretaker for Veronica, her difficult alcoholic dying mother. The youngest of four, Jill is waiting for the other sisters to arrive. When the nurse suggests that her mother can be put out of her pain, Jill insists they wait. She’s promised her mother that the oldest Joan would come to say goodbye.

However, Joan left home 20 years earlier and has had little contact with her family. Her life in California seems glamorous to her sisters who’ve remained in England. Sisters Ruby (Ophelia Lovibond), and Gloria (Leanne Best) arrive and all have different attitudes about Joan. Jill is excited, Ruby is in awe of Joan’s exploits, but Gloria still harbors childhood resentments after overhearing her mother. Grooming her children to be the new Andrews Sisters, her mother notes that that group was a trio. So the Webb sisters have a spare, with Gloria, the least talented, as an extra.

“The Hills of California” is set in 1976 at the Seaview Hotel which Veronica runs to support her family. The Seaview has no view of the sea at all. It is rundown with a jukebox that doesn’t work and an out- of- tune piano. Then the set revolves (wonderful design by Rob Howell) and we travel back in time to 1955 to the family parlor. There’s an intimacy here where the family gathers and the girls rehearse their act. When a male boarder tries to walk through the parlor to get to his room since it’s closer, Veronica kicks him out; this is family space.

Veronica (the luminous Laura Donnelly) plays the strong-willed single mother. She’s a stage mother, reminiscent of Mama Rose in “Gypsy,” She sees singing as a way for her daughters to have a better life. She’s tough but loving towards her children. Donnelly manages to be determined and forceful yet never shrewish. She’s also extremely attractive and is not above using her femininity to get what she wants. The sexual inferences are subtle but when she takes a man upstairs to the “Mississippi” room, it is understood.

Her goal is to have her girls become a successful singing act like the Andrew Sisters. However, the war is over and the Andrew Sisters are no longer in fashion. In fact, in a pivotal moment in the show, when Nat King Cole’s former agent (David Wilson Barnes) comes to audition the girls, he tells her the music is old-fashioned. He asks if she knows Elvis Presley. Veronica responds, “I’m sorry. I don’t know what that is.” The world has moved on but she hasn’t kept up.

The three younger girls are compliant while the oldest,15 year old Joan, is a rebel. Ironically, she is the most like her mother, so it is no surprise (spoiler alert) when the adult Joan finally does appear, she’s played by Donnelly in a dual role. The characters’ Blackpool accents might take a while to get used to, but if you listen intently, it works. When Donnelly returns as Joan, she adopts an American accent.

So the fact the group never took off doesn’t seem to affect the three sisters who remained in England. Jill is the spinster and somewhat dowdy; her most defiant act is sneaking a couple of cigarettes. Ruby (Ophelia Lovibond), has a lovely voice but suffers panic attacks and Gloria (Leanne Best), whose unhappiness pervades every part of her life. It is evidenced in the way she treats her husband and children who’ve come with her.

The young girls love their mother and they enjoy performing numbers by Doris Day or Johnny Mercer, one of whose songs (arranged here by Nick Powell and Candida Caldicot) provide the title for the play. The adults, Jill and Ruby, share a song as they wait for Joan. The show could have been trimmed by shortening some of the musical numbers.

The crucial moment comes when the agent appears and the girls perform for him. He is only interested in 15 year old Joan (Lara McDonnell.) The performance is a tour de force by Donnelly and perhaps her most striking emotional moment is when young Joan leads the agent upstairs. The agent rebuffs Veronica who offers herself first. But the girl is like her mother and has been groomed to crave success at all costs.

The actors who play the sisters all originated their roles in London earlier this year, as did the four girls (Nancy Allsop, Sophia Ally, Lara McDonnell and Nicola Turner) who play the younger Webbs. Perhaps that’s why the production feels so flawless and well-practiced.The main characters are mostly women and the few men (some play double roles) are largely ineffectual or predatory. The men serve very little function, except as foils.

“”The Hills of California” is about family and relationships. Like some of the old music the girls sing, sometimes people remain stuck in the past. For some, music may be the way out. “What is a song? A song is a dream... a place to be. Somewhere you can live. And in that place, there are no walls. No boundaries. No locks. No keys. You can go anywhere...”