Good news about Good People this week, which is transferring to the West End after a sold out run at Hampstead theatre. The 2011 play by David Lindsay-Abaire stars Imelda Staunton as a single mother from the working class South of Boston who is sacked from her job as a cashier at a dollar store after turning up late once too often. As she struggles to scrape together her rent and care for a grown-up disabled daughter, she comes into contact with an ex-boyfriend who has made good and moved to a suburban suburb, leaving his 'Southie' past behind him. Staunton is terrific as the scrappy, witty Margie (played in the US original by Frances McDormand) who exposes the lies and hypocrisy behind Mike's new life - as are the rest of the cast. But perhaps the best thing about the play is how something that appears so schematic - even stolid - on the surface grows into something much more interesting as it progresses, touching in shades of grey as it goes along. Its modern morality play felt faintly old-fashioned to me, calling to mind Arthur Miller in its exploration of class and economics. Coincidentally, Miller's A View From the Bridge opens at the Young Vic this week, starring Mark Strong as the Brooklyn longshoreman in love with his teenage niece. Directed by visionary theatre maker Ivo Van Hove, (I am still kicking myself for missing his legendary Scenes from a Marriage last year) it's sure to inject new blood into Miller's 1950s tragedy. Get a ticket now if you can!
It's had quite mixed reviews but I enjoyed I Can't Sing, Harry Hill's send-up of the X-factor. Michael Billington wondered at the purpose of a 'satire' that had been rubber-stamped by its target' (Simon Cowell has been a supporter from the start, and indeed got on the stage to tell the cast how fabulous they were on the opening night). For me, however, Harry Hill has always been more about silly fun than piercing satire, and this seemed to be his usual recipe - daft jokes, sight gags, even a talking animal puppet - albeit on a massive million-pound scale.
Which gentle spoof brings me to new indie darlings Future Islands, whose fortunes have rocketed since they appeared on the Letterman show - and more importantly since front man Samuel T. Herring introduced his explosive performance style to a worldwide audience. As soon as it aired, there were sniggering references to his chest-thumping and admittedly unique dance technique (starting with bent knees and then sort of swivelling into the floor). As Tim Jonze wrote wonderingly: 'the eye-contact...the limbo-dancing... the guttural roar'. But those who might have come to bury this most uncool of bands, now praise them, with our own Alexis Petridis writing why they were the one band to listen to this week. It just shows that sometimes straight-up chest-thumping, soulful sincerity turns out to be the coolest thing of all.
