Maybe it is the near-vertical two flights of stairs. Maybe it is the mother whom none of us would want to call our own. At first viewing of “The Hills of California” in London this year, I thought Jez Butterworth had written the British “August: Osage County,” Tracy Letts’ Pulitzer Prize-winning play from 2008.
Having now seen “The Hills of California” on Broadway, where it opened Sunday at the Broadhurst Theatre, I realize Butterworth has written something much more significant and moving. In crossing the Atlantic Ocean, he also cut a plot detail from the third act — and it’s a prime example of less being not only more but much better.