Together, playwright David Lindsay-Abaire and MTC have brought four outstanding new plays to the New York stage. Their most recent collaboration, RABBIT HOLE, earned Lindsay-Abaire the Pulitzer Prize for Drama. Now, he returns to MTC, along with RABBIT HOLE director and Tony Award® winner Daniel Sullivan, to premiere his newest work, the timely and powerful GOOD PEOPLE.
Welcome to Southie, a Boston neighborhood where a night on the town means a few rounds of bingo… where this month’s paycheck covers last month’s bills… and where Margie Walsh has just been let go from yet another job. Facing eviction and scrambling to catch a break, Margie thinks an old fling who has made it out of Southie might be her ticket to a fresh new start. But is this apparently self-made man secure enough to face his humble beginnings? Margie is about to risk what little she has left to find out.
With his signature humorous glow, Lindsay-Abaire explores the struggles, shifting loyalties and unshakeable hopes that come with having next to nothing in America.
Tate Donovan proves a fine foil as Mike, highlighting the character's conflicting feelings of relief at escaping a dead-end life and guilt at no longer being a true Southie. As Kate, Renée Elise Goldsberry is best when scrambling to avoid the inadvertent cultural condescension this highly educated daughter of an African-American doctor keeps stumbling into with Margaret. Goldsberry then scores when Kate suddenly shows spine and maturity as she nails Margaret for putting her pride ahead of her daughter's well-being. Estelle Parsons makes Dottie into an engagingly colorful sideshow of eccentricities, Becky Ann Baker is a convincingly curdled Jean, and Patrick Carroll smartly stresses Stevie's decency, though the character is largely a plot device.
Herein lies part of the phoniness of 'Good People.' Of course people like Margie and Mikey exist, but I doubt it's a coincidence that they are exactly the kinds of people who fit into the familiar sociological narrative that permeates every page of this play. In Mr. Lindsay-Abaire's America, success is purely a matter of luck, and virtue inheres solely in those who are luckless. So what if Mikey worked hard? Why should anybody deserve any credit for working hard? Hence the crude deck-stacking built into the script of 'Good People,' in which Mikey is the callous villain who forgot where he came from and Margie the plucky Southie gal who may be the least little bit racist (though she never says anything nasty to Mikey's wife—that would be going too far!) but is otherwise a perfect heroine-victim.
2011 | Broadway |
Manhattan Theatre Club Production Broadway |
2014 | West End |
West End Transfer West End |
Year | Ceremony | Category | Nominee |
---|---|---|---|
2011 | Drama Desk Awards | Outstanding Actress in a Play | Frances McDormand |
2011 | Drama Desk Awards | Outstanding Play | David Lindsay-Abaire |
2011 | New York Drama Critics Circle Awards | Best Play | 0 |
2011 | Outer Critics Circle Awards | Outstanding Actress in a Play | Frances McDormand |
2011 | Outer Critics Circle Awards | Outstanding Director of a Play | Daniel Sullivan |
2011 | Outer Critics Circle Awards | Outstanding Featured Actress in a Play | Estelle Parsons |
2011 | Outer Critics Circle Awards | Outstanding Featured Actress in a Play | Renee Elise |
2011 | Outer Critics Circle Awards | Outstanding New Broadway Play | 0 |
2011 | Tony Awards | Best Performance by an Actress in a Leading Role in a Play | Frances McDormand |
2011 | Tony Awards | Best Play | David Lindsay-Abaire |
2011 | Tony Awards | Best Play | Manhattan Theatre Club |
2011 | Tony Awards | Best Play | Lynne Meadow |
2011 | Tony Awards | Best Play | Barry Grove |
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