2022 play by Rajiv Joseph
King James is a play written by Rajiv Joseph, which premiered in March 2022 at the Steppenwolf Theatre in Chicago, under the direction of Kenny Leon. The play's action is launched when two characters meet: Matt (Chris Perfetti), a Cleveland bartender with Cavaliers tickets he needs to sell, and Shawn (Glenn Davis), a writer who has recently published a short story and wants to buy tickets for the Cleveland Cavaliers 2003–2004 season – the first season with LeBron James playing.
Development.
Rajiv Joseph began to write the play in 2017, motivated to "preserve some of the experience of following and cheering" for LeBron James. "Rajiv's first draft had a lot of basketball in it," according to Glenn Davis, who is a long-term friend of Joseph, but "as each new draft came in, the specifics about basketball began to disappear because Rajiv wanted to make sure this play was about friendship."
The play, a co-production of the Steppenwolf and the Center Theatre Group in Los Angeles was originally scheduled for production during their 2019–2020 seasons. The premiere was delayed for two years due to the COVID-19 pandemic, until March 13, 2022 in Chicago and June 1, 2022 in Los Angeles. Rajiv Joseph, Glenn Davis, and Kenny Leon, who was directing at Steppenwolf for the first time, were all longtime basketball fans, unlike Chris Perfetti. Joseph said to Sarah Bahr of "The New York Times": "Sometimes a love of the game is the only way people who have difficulty expressing their feelings are able to articulate them."
Synopsis.
The play's drama derives from the ups and downs of Matt and Shawn's friendship, their careers, LeBron James's career. The play's four scenes take place at the time of Matt's and Shawn's initial meeting during the 2003–2004 Cavaliers season; six and a half years later at the time of "The Decision", when James announced he was leaving Cleveland for the Miami Heat; in 2014, when James returned to Cleveland; and in 2016, the .
Critical reception.
A number of reviewers comment on the balance between the play's deep dive into basketball and its portrayal of friendship between sports fans. In his "Chicago Sun-Times" review, Steven Oxman wrote that the play has "brisk and witty dialogue" but that some attendees might expect more "thematic darkness or sociopolitical-aesthetic-spiritual contemplation," given Joseph's earlier plays. Joey Morona suggested that the assumed level of basketball know-how may be overly esoteric for those who are not Cleveland sports fans. Chris Jones of the "Chicago Tribune" emphasized that the play is essentially about friendship, saying that it "tells a very moving, accessible and openhearted story of two friends." He also suggested that the audience's hunger for more basketball content might be met "in future drafts by amping up the LeBron and other NBA content."
Barbara Vitello of the "Daily Herald" stressed the primacy that communication and friendship have in the dramatic arc of the piece. Nancy Bishop described it in "Third Coast Review" as "a buddy play in the best sense of that term" and suggests that people unfamiliar with the arcana of basketball might want to "get educated with a lot of basketball" before going. Bishop, Vitello, and Oxman all praised the enhancement of the music between scenes by DJ Khloe Janel. Sheri Flanders of the "Chicago Reader" noted the costume design by Samantha C. Jones as well as Todd Rosenthal's highly detailed scenic design.
References.
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