William Shatner is appearing for a limited time in Broadway’s Music Box Theatre, after which he’ll take the show—Shatner’s World: We Just Live In It—on the road for a few more weeks. He’s playing his most famous character—not Captain Kirk, nor T.J. Hooker, nor Denny Crane. He’s playing William Shatner.
Shatner owns the evening, from start to finish. Indeed, even before the performance starts, William Shatner is the one telling the audience to turn off their cell phones (“unless you want to call someone to come buy a ticket for one of the empty seats we still have”). And that sense of humor, drawing you into the joke, suffuses the entire ninety minutes Shatner is talking on the stage. A stage, by the way, with only a minimalist set (a small desk and chair at one side, a small table and chair on the other). Backgrounding it is a huge disk with shifting, glowing patterns, reminiscent of a Borg regeneration alcove.
He comes out, and is joined by his “co-chair for the evening”: an expensive office chair upon which he sits, which serves as a bed for several stories, a horse once or twice, and even a motorcycle. Shatner isn’t performing any character: he’s up there telling a bunch of friends (the audience, feeling remarkably intimate) his life story. Oh, he jumps around from past to present, focuses on certain parts while eliding others, and brings in verbal guest stars who enhance the tale (his parents, wives, daughters, fellow actors, horses, and more). But it’s not a plain old autobiography: it’s William Shatner embracing the character he himself has become, and relating how he got that way and what he’s done with it. More than any other actor, William Shatner has become the character he plays, whether it’s starring in the Priceline commercials (of which he makes mention) or in his short-lived sitcom Shit My Father Says (which he doesn’t). Indeed, it’s remarkable to see how he’s turned such public derision into a beloved character trait, and then into a brilliant career move.
Shatner frequently references his roles on stage and screen, and often shows clips on the disk behind/above him. He tells wonderful stories of growing up in Canada, learning that acting was his calling, and becoming a professional actor. He talks of his acting, and he talks of his other interests: his fascination with and love of horses, his non-acting family, and more. And while the entire performance is upbeat, almost comic, he does leaven it with brief moments of heaviness, sadness, other humanizing emotions. But he knows it’s best to keep his audience laughing, and does so with ease.
William Shatner has been an actor for more than half a century. He’s played Shakespeare on stage, had dramatic roles in films, starred in television sitcoms and dramas, and hosted his own talk show, but the one role, the iconic role, for which he’ll always been known is as Star Trek‘s Captain James Kirk. There was a long time when he rebelled against that label, but he has come to embrace it. He shows us that change in an interview he conducted with Patrick Stewart (his successor as the Star Trek captain) for his 2011 documentary The Captains. And we see Shatner’s epiphany at the time. Of course, we the audience are quite satisfied to know him as Kirk, but it is gratifying to recognize his own acceptance. And then he goes on to discuss his award-winning role as Boston Legal‘s Denny Crane. And his award-winning as a horse breeder. And on and on.
And he also discusses his less-lauded role as a “singer”, talking about his first album, The Transformed Man, and segueing into his relationship with Ben Folds and the genesis of Has Been, and then to his current album, Seeking Major Tom.
It helps, going into this personal evening, if you know something about Shatner and his career. But I have to admit, he illuminated pieces of his life about which I knew nothing, and they certainly did add to the joy, the laughter, the humanization of William Shatner.
Recommended.
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Shatner’s World: We Just Live In It is running at Broadway’s Music Box Theatre (239 West 45th Street, New York City) until March 4. Tickets are available from www.telecharge.com or the theatre’s box office, priced from $37.50 to $125.
Following the New York performances, the show goes on tour around the country, with scheduled stops:
March 10: Los Angeles, CA at the Pantages Theatre
March 11: San Francisco, CA at the Orpheum Theatre
March 13: Philadelphia, PA at the Merriam Theater
March 15: Minneapolis, MN at the Orpheum Theatre
March 16: Chicago, IL at the Auditorium Theatre
March 18: Milwaukee, WI at the Riverside Theatre
March 20: Denver, CO at the Temple Hoyne Buell Theatre
March 22: Dallas, TX at the Majestic Theatre
March 23: Houston, TX at Jones Hall
April 12: St. Louis, MO at the Peabody Opera House
April 13: Cincinnati, OH at Proctor and Gamble Hall
April 14: Cleveland, OH at the State Theatre
April 15: Columbus, OH at the Ohio Theatre
April 17: Charlotte, NC at the Blumenthal Center
April 19: Detroit, MI at the Opera House
For tour updates follow @WilliamShatner or on Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/ShatnersWorld