Powerful family dynamfics fuel ‘Hills of California’ at Berkeley Rep

There is special providence in building a family band.

There have been many — from the Beach Boys to the Pointer Sisters, Lennon Sisters and McGuire Sisters, among others. Yet before all of them existed, three sisters named LaVerne, Maxene and Patty took American by storm during the World War II era, known to the masses as the Andrews Sisters.

In Jez Butterworth’s sweeping epic “The Hills of California,” running at Berkeley Repertory Theatre through Dec. 7, the stern taskmaster Veronica has a vision for her four daughters to reach immortal fame. The Andrews Sisters are her blueprint, the group that ruled the 1940s with hits such as “Beer Barrel Polka” and “Boogie Woogie Bugle Boy,” yet didn’t make it out of the early 1950s.

It was in the mid-1950s when the play’s singi

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