T. CHARLES ERICKSON
Doug Harris, left, and Blake Morris co-star in George Street Playhouse’s production of “King James.”
There is a reason they call it March Madness. If you are a hardcore sports fan, a certain game, under certain circumstances, can make your heart beat like virtually nothing else.
Rajiv Joseph, in his 2022 two-character play “King James” — currently being presented by George Street Playhouse at The New Brunswick Performing Arts Center — had a stroke of genius in using the first 13 years of LeBron James’ pro basketball career as a kind of backdrop, in telling the story of the first 13 years in the friendship of two of James’ fans. The ups and downs of James’ career don’t mirror the ups and downs of the relationship, exactly. But the friends’ shared awe of James’ talents — and their mutual love of The Cleveland Cavaliers, the team he plays for, for nine of those 13 years — is an essential part of their bond.
“That team saved my life,” says Shawn (played by Blake Morris), soon after he meets Matt (Doug Harris).
“I never thought about it the way you said it, but the Cavs got me through my childhood, too,” Matt tells Shawn, a little later on. “Going to the games was, like, the best thing in my life, when I was a kid.”
“King James” is directed by Ryan George, who has acted before in several George Street Playhouse shows but is directing for the company, for the first time. And it has a wonderful set design by Frank J. Oliva, who creates a intricately detailed, impressively realistic wine bar for the first act; it then vanishes and is replaced by an oddities-filled antiques store in the second act.
T. CHARLES ERICKSON
Blake Morris in “King James.”
The action starts in 2004, towards the end of James’ first season with The Cavaliers. Shawn, an aspiring fiction writer, enters the wine bar where Matt bartends; he has heard that Matt wants to sell some Cavaliers tickets, and he may be interested, if he can get them at the right price. Matt wants more than Shawn can pay, and knows he has something precious. “You’re never gonna get to see LeBron’s rookie year again,” he says. “No matter what happens, this is the first time.”
After much negotiation, they agree to a price, and the seed for their friendship is planted. They both recognize the other as a true Cavaliers fan, not the kind of casual, “bandwagon” fan they have disdain for.
The second scene jumps to 2010, when Matt and Shawn have become close friends, and James, after becoming a perennial All-Star with the Cavaliers but failing to bring a championship to the city, signs with another team, The Miami Heat. The third and fourth scenes take place in 2014 and 2016, when James returns to Cleveland after winning two championships in Miami.
The reason why Joseph’s decision to structure the play around James’ career was a stroke of genius, as I wrote above, is because James’ story has a compelling dramatic arc of its own. The Akron native, a No. 1 pick in the draft, arrived in Cleveland as a kind of savior to a franchise that had never won a championship in its history, then “betrayed” the city by joining another team, and then was greeted like a prodigal son upon his return. (Short video clips are shown before and after scenes, helping to fill us in about the nuts and bolts of James’ career.)
T. CHARLES ERICKSON
Doug Harris in “King James.”
Matt and Shawn, who are around the same age as James, may not be rich or famous, but are also struggling to fulfill their own potential, and have their own work decisions to make. Their fandom is intense, and that seems to carry over to the way they go about their daily lives, as well.
Matt takes a risk opening bar of his own, and fails. “It was either going to be the hottest thing in Cleveland, or it was gonna get crushed, and it got crushed,” he says. Shawn goes to graduate school in New York, then achieves some success but not much fulfillment after moving to Los Angeles to become a writer for a TV show.
As the two talk, over the course of the play’s 53-minute first act and 46-minute second act, we learn about their families, their childhoods, their hang-ups and so on. Despite many attempts, neither shows much of an ability to sustain a fulfilling long-term relationship with a woman; this helps to explain why they become so important in each other’s lives.
Shawn is Black and Matt is white. This is touched on, subtly, near the start of the play; and more seriously, in regard to the deep-rooted prejudices Matt may have about Shawn — not hateful, but still hurtful — later on.
In short, these are two messy lives, and the friendship is a messy one, too. Nothing here approaches the grandeur of King James, growing up in poverty but becoming, possibly, the greatest basketball player ever. (Yes, possibly better than even Michael Jordan, and yes, that is an argument that Shawn and Matt have in the course of the play). But this tale of two very ordinary Cleveland Cavaliers fans still is deeply moving, and Joseph comes up with an ingenious way to wrap it all up — with a fanciful flourish — after James has played his last brilliant game of the 2015-2016 season.
The George Street Playhouse will present “King James” at The New Brunswick Performing Arts Center through April 6. Visit georgestreetplayhouse.org.
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