The “King James” of the title refers to basketball great (or GOAT, please discuss) LeBron James. But you don’t have to be a basketball fan, or even know the difference between a slam dunk and a brick, to enjoy the new play by Rajiv Joseph. This new effort from the writer of the Pulitzer Prize finalist Tiger at the Baghdad Zoo and Obie winner Guards at the Taj is about friendship and the way that relationships ebb and flow depending on, among many other things, the different directions that lives take and the fortunes of one’s favorite sports teams. While this play — a co-production of Chicago’s Steppenwolf Theatre Company and Los Angeles’ Center Theatre Group, being presented here by Manhattan Theatre Club — is less exotic in its setting than the playwright’s previous works, it proves a funny and moving two-hander benefiting greatly from Kenny Leon’s incisive direction and the entertaining performances of Glenn Davis and Chris Perfetti.
The play, cutely divided into “quarters” in the script, spans twelve years in Cleveland Heights, Ohio, beginning in 2004 when James was the most celebrated player of the Cleveland Cavaliers in his rookie season. The opening scene takes place in an underground wine bar where rabid Cavs fan Shawn (Glenn Davis, a Steppenwolf artistic director recently seen here in off-Broadway’s Downstate) shows up in the hopes of purchasing season tickets for the team’s 19 remaining home games. The potential seller is 21-year-old Matt (Chris Perfetti, ABC’s Abbott Elementary), the empty establishment’s bartender, who has had the tickets in his family since he was a child and is only willing to part with them because he needs some quick cash.
The two young men, one white and one Black, have little in common except for their shared love of the team and disdain towards those “bandwagon fans” who are only on board when they’re winning. Which isn’t often, since the Cavs haven’t won a championship in half a century.
Much haggling ensues, with Shawn desperately attempting to get Matt to come down on the price of the valuable ducats, which he regards with wonder when Matt allows him to examine them.
“These tickets are so nice!” Shawn exclaims. “They’re glossy!”
[Read Melissa Rose Bernardo’s ★★★★☆ review here.]
The deal gets made, but that’s only the beginning of the story which depicts the ups and downs of the two men’s friendship over the next twelve years. Each embarks on different trajectories, with Matt successfully taking over his mother’s curio shop filled with such exotica as a stuffed armadillo and Shawn eventually achieving his dream of being a television writer in Los Angeles. There are many ups and downs along the way, and the relationship is usually not on even ground, with Matt at one point subsidizing Shawn’s first trip to the West Coast to “take meetings.”
The Cavaliers and James’ basketball career serve as a perennial touchstone for the pair, whose lives are rocked by such developments as the basketball star leaving his hometown to play for the Los Angeles Lakers and his eventual return, to which they respond in very different ways. Matt feels that its hypocritical to welcome James back to Cleveland after he abandoned the city, while Shawn is so gleeful he literally can’t stop himself from doing a joyously spasmodic dance.
The playwright beautifully captures the vagaries of friendship, including the power imbalance dependencies that can affect them and the careless misunderstandings that can rupture them. The latter is vividly illustrated in a powerful scene in which the two men nearly come to blows when Matt thoughtlessly comments that James “should have known his place,” which Shawn interprets as a racial slur.
The dialogue is fast and funny, enlivened by the actors’ different styles. Perfetti here specializes in low-key, sardonic deadpan, while David imbues his performance with such emotional energy that he resembles a force of nature. Under Leon’s pitch-perfect direction, you fully believe in their characters’ friendship that periodically threatens to crack under strain. Scenic designer Todd Rosenthal also makes a terrific contribution with his two sets, one depicting a would-be trendy wine bar and the other an overstuffed antique shop filled with quirky knickknacks.
The production’s sole misstep, and an example of an annoying new theatrical trend, is the presence of a “DJ” (Khloe Janel) who spins loud music both before the show and at intermission, as well as providing an overly enthusiastic pre-curtain speech. What this has to do with the proceedings is anyone’s guess, except to damage the ears of the MTC’s not exactly spring chicken subscriber base.
King James opened May 16, 2023, at City Center Stage I and runs through June 18. Tickets and information: manhattantheatreclub.com
