King James (play)

Last updated
King James
KingJamesPlay poster.jpeg
King James poster
Written by Rajiv Joseph
Directed by Kenny Leon
CharactersMatt
Shawn
MuteDJ
Date premieredMarch 3, 2022 (2022-03-03)
Place premiered Steppenwolf Theatre
Setting Cleveland

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.

Contents

Development

Rajiv Joseph began to write the play in 2017, motivated to "preserve some of the experience of following and cheering" for LeBron James. [1] "Rajiv's first draft had a lot of basketball in it," according to Glenn Davis, who is a long-term friend of Rajiv 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." [2]

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. [3] [4] Rajiv Joseph, Glenn Davis and Kenny Leon, who is directing at Steppenwolf for the first time, are all longtime basketball aficionados, but not so much for Chris Perfetti. This added depth to the play's development at Steppenwolf as being both about and not about basketball – about how sports helps to bring people together. [2] [1] As Rajiv 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." [2]

Synopsis

The play's drama derives from the ups and downs of Matt's and Shawn's friendship, the ebbs and flows of their two careers, and the comings and goings of LeBron James. The play's four scenes take place at the time of Matt's and Shawn's initial meeting during the 2003–2004 season, six and one half years later at the time of "The Decision", when James announced he was abandoning Cleveland for Miami, in 2014, when James returned to Cleveland, and in 2016, the end of Cleveland's championship drought.

Critical reception

A number of reviewers comment on the balance between two aspects of the play: its deep dive into basketball, and its portrayal of communication between sports fans. In his 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 Rajiv Joseph's earlier plays. [5] Joey Morona suggested that the assumed level of basketball know-how may be overly esoteric for those who are not Cleveland sports fans. [6] 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"! [7]

Barbara Vitello of suburban Chicago's Daily Herald stressed the primacy that communication and friendship play, with all the ups and downs, in the dramatic arc of the piece. [8] 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. [9] Bishop, Vitello and Oxman all praised the enhancement of the "pre-game" and the "half-time" music by DJ Khloe Janel. [10] Sheri Flanders of The Chicago Reader noted the Steppenwolf costume design by Samantha C. Jones as well as Todd Rosenthal's highly detailed scenic design. [11]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">LeBron James</span> American basketball player (born 1984)

LeBron Raymone James Sr. is an American professional basketball player for the Los Angeles Lakers in the National Basketball Association (NBA). Nicknamed "King James", he is considered to be one of the greatest basketball players in history and is often compared to Michael Jordan in debates over the greatest basketball player of all time. James is the all-time leading scorer in NBA history and ranks fourth in career assists. He has won four NBA championships, and has competed in 10 NBA Finals. He has four Most Valuable Player (MVP) Awards, four Finals MVP Awards, and two Olympic gold medals. He has been named an All-Star 19 times, selected to the All-NBA Team 18 times and the All-Defensive Team six times, and was a runner-up for the NBA Defensive Player of the Year Award twice in his career.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Larry Hughes</span> American basketball player (born 1979)

Larry Darnell Hughes Sr. is an American former professional basketball player. Hughes played for eight different teams during his 14-year career in the National Basketball Association (NBA). Hughes attended Saint Louis University before being selected with the eighth overall pick in the 1998 NBA draft. Hughes is the founder of the Larry Hughes Basketball Academy.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Steppenwolf Theatre Company</span> Theater and theater company in Chicago, Illinois, United States

Steppenwolf Theatre Company is a Chicago theatre company founded in 1974 by Terry Kinney, Jeff Perry, and Gary Sinise in the Unitarian church on Half Day Road in Deerfield, Illinois and is now located in Chicago's Lincoln Park neighborhood on Halsted Street. The theatre's name comes from Hermann Hesse's novel Steppenwolf, which original member Rick Argosh was reading during the company's inaugural production of Paul Zindel's play, And Miss Reardon Drinks a Little, in 1974. After occupying several theatres in Chicago, in 1991, it moved into its own purpose-built complex with three performing spaces, the largest seating 550.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Block (basketball)</span> Defensive action preventing a score

In basketball, a block or blocked shot occurs when a defensive player legally deflects a field goal attempt from an offensive player to prevent a score. The defender is not allowed to make contact with the offensive player's hand or a foul is called. In order to be legal, the block must occur while the shot is traveling upward or at its apex. A deflected field goal that is made does not count as a blocked shot and simply counts as a successful field goal attempt for shooter plus the points awarded to the shooting team. For the shooter, a blocked shot is counted as a missed field goal attempt. Also, on a shooting foul, a blocked shot cannot be awarded or counted, even if the player who deflected the field goal attempt is different from the player who committed the foul. If the ball is heading downward when the defender hits it, it is ruled as goaltending and counts as a made basket. Goaltending is also called if the block is made after the ball bounces on the backboard.

<i>Slam</i> (magazine)

Slam is an American basketball magazine in circulation since 1994.

The 2007–08 Cleveland Cavaliers season was the 38th season of NBA basketball in Cleveland, Ohio. The Cavaliers were the defending Eastern Conference champions, and were coming off of an NBA Finals defeat to the San Antonio Spurs, where they were swept in four games.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Bruce Norris (playwright)</span> American dramatist

Bruce Norris is an American character actor and playwright associated with the Steppenwolf Theatre Company of Chicago. His play Clybourne Park won the 2011 Pulitzer Prize for Drama.

The 2005–06 Cleveland Cavaliers season was the 36th season of NBA basketball in Cleveland, Ohio. The Cavaliers finished the season with a 50–32 record, and a second-place finish in the Central Division, returning to the playoffs for the first time since 1998. In the playoffs, the Cavaliers defeated the Washington Wizards in six games in the first round and reached the semi-finals of the Eastern Conference where they lost in seven games to the Detroit Pistons. LeBron James was the team's leading scorer and was named to the All-NBA first team. He was also selected to play in the 2006 NBA All-Star Game where he won his first All-Star MVP.

Brian Windhorst is an American sportswriter for ESPN.com who covers the National Basketball Association (NBA). He was the Cleveland Cavaliers beat writer for the Akron Beacon Journal from 2003 through the summer of 2008, and began to work for Cleveland newspaper The Plain Dealer in October 2008. He moved to ESPN in 2010 after LeBron James left the Cleveland Cavaliers for the Miami Heat.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Rajiv Joseph</span> American playwright

Rajiv Joseph is an American playwright. He was named a finalist for the 2010 Pulitzer Prize for Drama for his play Bengal Tiger at the Baghdad Zoo, and he won an Obie Award for Best New American Play for his play Describe the Night.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Amy Morton</span> American actress

Amy Morton is an American actress and director, best known for her work in theatre. Morton was nominated two times for a Tony Award for Best Actress in a Play for her performances in August: Osage County and Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?. On screen, she is known for her performances in films Rookie of the Year (1993), Up in the Air (2009), The Dilemma (2011) and Bluebird (2013). In 2014, Morton began starring as Sergeant Trudy Platt in the NBC drama series Chicago P.D.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">2010–11 Miami Heat season</span> NBA professional basketball team season

The 2010–11 Miami Heat season was the 23rd season of the Miami Heat in the National Basketball Association (NBA). In the regular season, the Heat finished first in the Southeast Division with 58–24 record, and made the NBA Playoffs for the 3rd consecutive year as the Eastern Conference's No. 2 seed.

<i>The Decision</i> (TV program) 2010 ESPN special presentation

The Decision was a television special on ESPN in which National Basketball Association (NBA) player LeBron James announced that he would be signing with the Miami Heat instead of returning to his hometown team, the Cleveland Cavaliers. It was broadcast live on July 8, 2010. James was an unrestricted free agent after playing seven seasons in Cleveland, where he was a two-time NBA Most Valuable Player and a six-time All-Star. He grew up in nearby Akron, Ohio, where he received national attention as a high school basketball star.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Tristan Thompson</span> Canadian professional basketball player

Tristan Trevor James Thompson is a Canadian-American professional basketball player for the Los Angeles Lakers of the National Basketball Association (NBA). He won the 2016 NBA Finals with the Cleveland Cavaliers and has also played in the NBA for the Boston Celtics, Sacramento Kings, Indiana Pacers, Chicago Bulls, and Los Angeles Lakers.

Glenn Davis is an American actor and producer, and the Artistic Director of Steppenwolf Theatre Company — the first person of color in the company's history to assume this position. Davis is a partner at Cast Iron Entertainment with Sterling K. Brown, Brian Tyree Henry, Jon Michael Hill, Andre Holland, and Tarell Alvin McCraney, and the collective is in residence at Geffen Playhouse in Los Angeles. He is also an artistic associate at the Young Vic Theatre in London and the Vineyard Theatre in New York.

Mark Termini is a Cleveland, Ohio-based sports attorney and agent. His agency Mark Termini Associates Inc represents professional basketball players. He negotiated $1.4 billion in NBA contracts for the clients of the Klutch Sports Group from 2014 to 2019.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">History of the Cleveland Cavaliers</span> Aspect of history

The Cleveland Cavaliers first began play in the NBA in 1970 as an expansion team under the ownership of Nick Mileti. Jerry Tomko, the father of future Major League Baseball pitcher Brett Tomko, submitted the winning entry to name the team the "Cavaliers" through a competition sponsored by The Plain Dealer; supporters preferred it to "Jays", "Foresters" and "Presidents". Playing their home games at Cleveland Arena under the direction of head coach Bill Fitch, they compiled a league-worst 15–67 record in their inaugural season. The team hoped to build around the number one 1971 draft pick Austin Carr, who had set numerous scoring records at Notre Dame, but Carr severely injured his leg shortly into his pro career and never was able to realize his potential.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">2015–16 Cleveland Cavaliers season</span> NBA professional basketball team season (won championship)

The 2015–16 Cleveland Cavaliers season was the 46th season of the Cleveland Cavaliers franchise in the National Basketball Association (NBA). The Cavaliers won the 2016 NBA championship, the first NBA championship in franchise history. During the regular season, the Cavaliers had the third best team offensive rating and were tenth in team defensive rating in the NBA. During the playoffs, the Cavaliers had the best team offensive rating and were eighth in team defensive rating in the NBA.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Bulls–Cavaliers rivalry</span> National Basketball Association rivalry

The Bulls–Cavaliers rivalry is a National Basketball Association (NBA) rivalry between the Cleveland Cavaliers and the Chicago Bulls. The teams have played each other since the Cavaliers joined the NBA as an expansion team in 1970, but the rivalry didn't begin in earnest until the Bulls drafted Michael Jordan with the third overall pick in 1984. After Jordan would go on to the Washington Wizards and eventually retire, the rivalry died down, but when Cleveland picked LeBron James with the first selection in 2003, the rivalry heated up again.

References

  1. 1 2 Morona, Joey (March 4, 2022). "Cleveland native Rajiv Joseph's LeBron James-inspired play 'King James' premieres in Chicago". cleveland.com . Retrieved 2022-03-23.
  2. 1 2 3 Bahr, Sarah (March 10, 2022). "LeBron Fandom, and the Making of a Friendship in 'King James'". New York Times . Retrieved 2022-03-22.
  3. ↑ Fung, Lisa (March 9, 2022). "The LeBron James drama off the court: 'King James,' at long last, has its tipoff time". Los Angeles Times . Retrieved 2022-03-30.
  4. ↑ McNulty, Charles (June 9, 2022). "LeBron mania informs a tale of friendship in Rajiv Joseph's 'King James' at the Taper". Los Angeles Times . Retrieved 2022-12-14.
  5. ↑ Oxman, Steven (March 14, 2022). "Steppenwolf's amusing take on basketball bros, a one-on-one worth watching". Chicago Sun-Times . Retrieved 2022-03-17.
  6. ↑ Morona, Joey (March 16, 2022). "'King James' is an entertaining new play that speaks to the experience of being a Cleveland sports fan". cleveland.com . Retrieved 2022-03-23.
  7. ↑ Jones, Chris (March 14, 2022). "In 'King James' at Steppenwolf Theatre, the love of LeBron James brings Cleveland friends together". Chicago Tribune . Retrieved 2022-03-16.
  8. ↑ Vitello, Barbara (March 18, 2022). "Steppenwolf's 'King James' delivers powerful message on friendship". Daily Herald . Retrieved 2022-03-26.
  9. ↑ Bishop, Nancy S. (March 17, 2022). "At Steppenwolf Theatre, King James Is All About Friendship, Heartbreak and Basketball". thirdcoastreview.com. 3rd Coast Review. Retrieved 2022-03-28.
  10. ↑ "Artist profiles – Khloe Janel". Steppenwolf Theatre. March 2022. Retrieved 2022-03-26.
  11. ↑ Flanders, Sheri (March 16, 2022). "King James explores basketball and male bonding". Chicago Reader . Retrieved 2022-03-23.

King James at Steppenwolf.org

This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.