Photo by Rich Soublet II
Rajiv Joseph’s “King James” is a play that will amuse, delight, perhaps even confuse and confound you.
It stars two guys in Cleveland. Shawn (Joshua Echebiri*) is black and a huge fan of basketball icon LeBron James. He runs the family antique store.
Matt (Caleb Foote*) is white and a young bartender, trying to make it financially, but you know how hard that is, given how dependent it is on visitors who drop in for a drink. He has tickets to the Cavaliers games, which he is hoping to sell for inflated prices to take care of a bad investment that has left him needing cash.
Their friendship starts in 2004, when Shawn drops into Matt’s bar for a drink. Matt mentions the tickets, even showing them to his customer, and they spend some time getting acquainted and talking about LeBron.
Shawn, a big Cavs fan, won tickets once, but his dad had to work a shift that night and they didn’t get to see either the game or LeBron. Shawn likes to write.
Matt and Shawn have both little and a lot in common. And over the course of this play (which takes place in four different years: 2004, 2010, 2014 and 2016) they will realize that they both need and have become friends.
It’s a little unusual to call a play in which guys toss many crumpled-up pieces of paper toward an upright trash can theater, but somehow it seems just right here, as a step toward becoming buddies.
Director Justin Emeka, who’s lived in Ohio for several years and grew up playing basketball with his brothers, is an excellent choice here. He has said he remembers when LeBron came into the league as a teenage phenomenon, and when spectators remarked that they were going to become the LeBron of whatever their world was.
Playwright Joseph has made Matt the “angry young man” here, the one who always thinks he has the answer and doesn’t hesitate to mention it (despite things like the hilariously ancient dinosaur of a cell phone he uses).
But some years later, Matt will say “Social media will be the end of us all” and advise his friend Shawn to “be genuine, man.”
Shawn will move to New York to study writing. He plans to move to Los Angeles after he gets his degree.
“King James” is a show like no other I’ve seen. It’s a delightful, funny, sometimes even charming portrait of male friendships and the male viewpoint.
Don’t miss it.
The details
“King James” plays through March 31, 2024 at The Old Globe’s Sheryl and Harvey White Theatre, 1363 Old Globe Way.
Performances Tuesday at 7 p.m.; Wednesday at 2 and 7 p.m.; Thursday at 7 p.m.; Friday at 8 p.m.; Saturday at 2 and 8 p.m. and Sunday at 2 and 7 p.m.
Prices start at $33.
Box office hours: 12:00 noon to final curtain, Tuesday through Sunday.
(619) 234-5623
Post-show forum events will be held on Tuesday, March 19; Wednesday, March 20 and Tuesday, March 26.
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