FILM
Love & Mercy
Rock biopics: so hard to do well, even with a subject as noteworthy as Brian Wilson. But this one avoids the wearisome “rise, fall, comeback” structure by splitting the narrative into two: mid-60s Wilson (Paul Dano) peeling away from the sunny Beach Boys shtick and his own sanity, and post-meltdown 1980s Wilson (John Cusack), virtually captive to his scary therapist. What’s more, it really cares about the music – both in the studio and inside Wilson’s head. It’s a double-disc concept album of a biopic. Steve Rose
LIVE MUSIC
Ezra Furman
(Glasgow, Bedford, Southampton, Blythburgh)
On a bad day, Americana – with its dusty roads, late nights and waitresses working double shifts – is the genre that almost writes itself. Just because you have an acoustic/electric presentation, though, doesn’t mean you have to stay married to beards and cliche. From Chicago, Ezra Furman is one of the few people working in a loosely Dylanesque form with a genuinely Dylanesque originality. When he was younger, Furman’s influences, chiefly the furious indie of Pixies and Violent Femmes, were more easily observed in his often overtly quirky songs. These days, he’s positioning himself as a different kind of US rock voice (he wears a dress and makeup, for starters), but that’s only the most outward manifestation of a songwriting talent which feels classic but also very original. John Robinson
The rest of this week’s live music
Ezra Furman’s essay on gender fluidity
THEATRE
Green Day’s American Idiot
(Arts Theatre, London, Friday to 27 September)
Punk music rarely makes it to the theatre stage, but the US group Green Day’s musical, American Idiot, has its West End debut this week. Based on the band’s 2004 rock opera concept album of the same name, it’s written by frontman Billie Joe Armstrong and the director Michael Mayer, and tells of three boyhood friends seeking to find meaning in the post-9/11 world. Having premiered in Berkeley in the group’s native California, before moving on to Broadway – earning two Tony awards plus a Grammy – it plays here with the one-time X Factor contender Amelia Lily in the cast. Mark Cook
The rest of this week’s theatre
TV
People Just Do Nothing
(BBC3, Wednesday, 10pm)
A second series for the hit west London-based mockumentary following pirate radio proprietors and all-round incompetents MC Grindah and DJ Beats (Allan Mustafa and Hugo Chegwin). Idiocy ensues as Grindah prepares for daughter Angel’s “christianing”, enlisting the assistance of jack of all trades Chabuddy G and the perennially drug-addled Steves. Meanwhile, Beats is on a mission to prove that he would make the ideal godfather ahead of pal Decoy. Fresh, farcical comedy with a soft spot for suburban loserdom. Hannah J Davies
COMEDY
Balham Comedy Festival
(The Bedford, London, to 18 July)
For all the ballyhoo that surrounds big shows at the Hammersmith Apollo and O2, the real heart of London’s comedy scene lies in a relatively small number of clubs that place creativity over commercial gain and give new acts the chance to play alongside circuit greats. Running for more than 30 years upstairs in The Bedford pub, the Banana Cabaret has given early stage time to countless superstars, and it’s fitting that the venue now plays host to an annual comedy festival. In keeping with the club’s traditional ethos, the programme sees a mix of talented up-and-comers and certified A-listers. Examples of the former include Romesh Ranganathan and Sara Pascoe, both establishing themselves as part of a new generation of TV comedy mainstays. The latter are represented by the likes of Ed Byrne and Tim Vine. James Kettle
The rest of this week’s live comedy
TALKS
John Cooper Clarke
(Oxfordshire, Ledbury, Carlisle, Durham, Selby)
He found a home on the punk scene, but John Cooper Clarke’s performance poetry pre-dated punk by several years. So it was perhaps inevitable that he’d outlast it, too. If the concept weren’t so overwhelmed by contemporary baggage, you might even call him a hipster, but in the old-school, Dylan-and-Kerouac sense of the word. Clarke is one of those uncanny figures (see also Mark E Smith) who transcends generation gaps without appearing to change. Accordingly, his modern acolytes include figures as diverse as Plan B and Alex Turner. Expect the epic likes of Evidently Chickentown, plus anecdotes galore – from cohabiting with Nico to feeding his heroin habit by doing Sugar Puffs ads. Phil Harrison
DANCE
Matthew Bourne’s The Car Man
(Sadler’s Wells, London, Tuesday to 9 August)
Matthew Bourne always gives good value when he revisits his past shows. It’s eight years since his version of Bizet’s Carmen was last seen in the UK, and for this revival there has been some tweaking of details as well as some interesting new casting, including the charismatic American Ballet Theatre principal Marcelo Gomes. In a classic Bourne rethink, Bizet’s opera is relocated from 19th-century Spain to a greasy garage-diner in 60s America, and Bizet’s anarchic heroine turned into a handsome stranger, who injects this small-town community with passions of greed, lust, betrayal and revenge. Judith Mackrell
EXHIBITION
Jenny Holzer
(Hauser & Wirth Somerset, Bruton, Sunday to 1 November)
In the late 1970s, Jenny Holzer’s text works assailed readers with streams of doomy poetic snippets such as “the apocalypse will blossom”, and “abuse of power comes as no surprise”. As her portents became daily news, however, she began using real sources, including declassified US government documents. This show of old and new works shows off her range, not just in terms of text but materials, too. She’s best known for her LED columns, but there are paintings on linen, as well as works in stone and bronze, transforming lifted text fragments into something haunting and suggestive. Particularly disturbing is Lustmord, her response to rape in war-torn 1990s Yugoslavia, which chronicles an imagined dialogue between victim, rapist and observer written on skin. Skye Sherwin
The rest of this week’s exhibitions
FILM EVENT
Outdoor cinemas
There’s so much outdoor cinema going on these days, it’s threatening to become a turf war. It’s only a matter of time before we get a full-blown Dirty Dancing v Frozen Sing-Along bust-up in a London park. For the time being, though, you’ve never had it so good. Roving the capital’s parks and public spaces are The Nomad Cinema, Pop-Up Screens, which covers not only prime spots such as Kensington Palace, Kew Gardens and Crystal Palace Park but also venues as far afield as Cardiff, Lincoln and Warwick castles. Outside London there are more options than ever. Picturehouse has outdoor pop-ups at Henley-On-Thames’s Mill Meadows this weekend and next, as well as at Norwich’s Plantation Garden and Brighton’s Preston Manor. Chester has screenings in its Roman Gardens, and Lincolnshire’s Burghley House has a long weekend festival, kicking off with a Lord Of The Rings all-dayer. In a similar vein, Derby QUAD’s Summer Nights Film Festival sets up its screen in heritage locations around the Midlands. SR
More about this summer’s outdoor theatre events
CLUBS
Numbers Is 12: Boat Party
(Departs from Glasgow Science Centre, Friday)
The Numbers story is a hectic one. First, a group of Scottish pals (including DJs Jackmaster, Spencer and Bobby Cleaver) started playing Detroit techno and Chicago house in Glaswegian basements. Then it went on to merge the Stuff, Wireblock and Dress 2 Sweat labels into the Numbers monolith and launch the early careers of some now-beloved UK names: Warp’s Rustie, PC Music’s SOPHIE, dance-pop commander Jamie xx and R&B chart-smasher Jessie Ware. In 2015, Numbers is smashing festival stages and famous clubs with fervour and skill, but its roots are still firmly in the infamous party scene of its home town. For this 12th birthday, residents Jackmaster and Spencer are bringing along Parisian DJ and producer Kool Clap for a riotous birthday boat party. Lauren Martin
