First night of previews last night for It's Shatner's World, below is my review:
The Music Box Theater was full, teeming with a wide variety of theater-goers; some there because tickets were available at TKTS and many, like me, eager to see their Captain back on a Broadway stage since the 60's. Many husbands and wives spending Valentine's Day with Mr. Shatner.
Opening with the clasisic TOS theme, but no narration, the show knew its audience and wanted to appease the Trek fan immediately. The lack of narration by Shatner over the music, either live or from the classic show, epitomized how I feel about the show in general. Great memories, engaging personality but not enough performance, not enough meat on the bones.
Hindered by an audio issue at the start, Shatner had to go off-script to have his mic replaced, and chose to do it on stage. This was the most genuine he seemed all performance.
Perhaps I have been spoiled by the tour de force of Carrie Fisher's Wishful Drinking, or possibly I knew the Shatner stories too well. I, like many fans, have followed Shatner's career, not just performances. He has told many of these stories hundreds of times and there is little new added for this show.
In a misguided opening bit, Shatner pokes fun at George Takei by starting with 'Some people in life are funny, and some people aren't' and he uses the clip of George from his Comedy Central roast to highlight the mean-spirited sneer on Takei's face when he delivers the 'FU and the horse you rode in on' line. The bit gets a laugh, but I don't know if Shanter is well served opening his show with this pointed attack against someone else.
He proceeds to run through his early life, growing up outside Montreal. Highlights his crossing paths with Christopher Plummer (showing a clip from The Captains and ST VI) but doesn't add much new to the story. He spends an inordinate amount of time on a story centering on driving a Rabbi from Vancouver to Chicago in record time, which culminates in what feels more like a Borscht-Belt joke, than an amusing anecdote.
Touching upon his brief stint on Broadway in the 60's I glean the only little Trek fact I either never knew or forgot, That Shatner had acted with France Nuyen prior to Elaan, in Suzie Wong. From his anecdote, I'm surprised he didn't try to veto her casting in Trek if he could.
To cover his Star Trek career, Shatner relies on his recent 'acceptance of the legitmacy' of Trek offered by Patrick Stewart, by featuring another clip from The Captains. While I hope this acceptance is genuine, it is hard to tell if Shatner is ever sincere and herein lies the problem.
While this repeated use of clips from his life and projects serves well as his 'drum solos' allowing the man to sit, wipe the sweat (which was very heavy) from his brow, it also highlights the most disappointing aspect of the production for me. Instead of seeing the video clip of Kirk giving his famous 'Risk is our business' speech, I wanted to see Shatner perform that live, take ownership of those lines one more time. Instead of hearing the story of how great he was that one night as understudy for Plummer, I wanted to see him perform at least an abbreviated soliloquy, reminding us of his acting prowess, not just telling us about it.
Every time I thought I would have the chance to see Shatner perform something, it was a throw to another clip. A casual fan may like this, but I had seen most if not all the clips before. Shanter riding a horse in Alexander, Shatner riding a horse for charity, Shatner riding a horse in Generations.
His stories of his love of horses is actually the most heart-felt chapter in this show. He does well articulating his appreciation for the animal in general and a specific horse he cherished. He spends far more time on this than articulating other points in his life, such as the low points after Trek was over and he was living out of a camper, watching the moon landing on a tiny b/w tv. Even the loss of his dear wife is simply mentioned in passing and not explored. It was stories such as this which i feel reveal more about his inner-workings, stories that he urges other people to dwell on while being interviewed on Raw Nerve, but he does not do it himself.
Perhaps the closest he gets is when he performs the song 'Real' by Brad Paisley off his acclaimed Has Been album. For once it feels as if Shatner is talking directly to his fans, but yet is through a song written by another. It was his best choice in the show and did feel genuinely vulnerable.
In the end, he returns to his familiar refrain that life is all about saying YES to things, and loving one another. A fine message but not as personal or poignant a message as I might have liked or expected from an autobiographical Broadway production.
Part of me felt like it was Shatner's attempt to get the 'T' in EGOT (Emmy, Grammy, Oscar, Tony) and fell short. There is a great show hidden in here somewhere, but Shatner seems to gloss over it and all we are left is the EGO. I think with some modification this could be a very good show, but it isn't quite ready yet.
The Music Box Theater was full, teeming with a wide variety of theater-goers; some there because tickets were available at TKTS and many, like me, eager to see their Captain back on a Broadway stage since the 60's. Many husbands and wives spending Valentine's Day with Mr. Shatner.
Opening with the clasisic TOS theme, but no narration, the show knew its audience and wanted to appease the Trek fan immediately. The lack of narration by Shatner over the music, either live or from the classic show, epitomized how I feel about the show in general. Great memories, engaging personality but not enough performance, not enough meat on the bones.
Hindered by an audio issue at the start, Shatner had to go off-script to have his mic replaced, and chose to do it on stage. This was the most genuine he seemed all performance.
Perhaps I have been spoiled by the tour de force of Carrie Fisher's Wishful Drinking, or possibly I knew the Shatner stories too well. I, like many fans, have followed Shatner's career, not just performances. He has told many of these stories hundreds of times and there is little new added for this show.
In a misguided opening bit, Shatner pokes fun at George Takei by starting with 'Some people in life are funny, and some people aren't' and he uses the clip of George from his Comedy Central roast to highlight the mean-spirited sneer on Takei's face when he delivers the 'FU and the horse you rode in on' line. The bit gets a laugh, but I don't know if Shanter is well served opening his show with this pointed attack against someone else.
He proceeds to run through his early life, growing up outside Montreal. Highlights his crossing paths with Christopher Plummer (showing a clip from The Captains and ST VI) but doesn't add much new to the story. He spends an inordinate amount of time on a story centering on driving a Rabbi from Vancouver to Chicago in record time, which culminates in what feels more like a Borscht-Belt joke, than an amusing anecdote.
Touching upon his brief stint on Broadway in the 60's I glean the only little Trek fact I either never knew or forgot, That Shatner had acted with France Nuyen prior to Elaan, in Suzie Wong. From his anecdote, I'm surprised he didn't try to veto her casting in Trek if he could.
To cover his Star Trek career, Shatner relies on his recent 'acceptance of the legitmacy' of Trek offered by Patrick Stewart, by featuring another clip from The Captains. While I hope this acceptance is genuine, it is hard to tell if Shatner is ever sincere and herein lies the problem.
While this repeated use of clips from his life and projects serves well as his 'drum solos' allowing the man to sit, wipe the sweat (which was very heavy) from his brow, it also highlights the most disappointing aspect of the production for me. Instead of seeing the video clip of Kirk giving his famous 'Risk is our business' speech, I wanted to see Shatner perform that live, take ownership of those lines one more time. Instead of hearing the story of how great he was that one night as understudy for Plummer, I wanted to see him perform at least an abbreviated soliloquy, reminding us of his acting prowess, not just telling us about it.
Every time I thought I would have the chance to see Shatner perform something, it was a throw to another clip. A casual fan may like this, but I had seen most if not all the clips before. Shanter riding a horse in Alexander, Shatner riding a horse for charity, Shatner riding a horse in Generations.
His stories of his love of horses is actually the most heart-felt chapter in this show. He does well articulating his appreciation for the animal in general and a specific horse he cherished. He spends far more time on this than articulating other points in his life, such as the low points after Trek was over and he was living out of a camper, watching the moon landing on a tiny b/w tv. Even the loss of his dear wife is simply mentioned in passing and not explored. It was stories such as this which i feel reveal more about his inner-workings, stories that he urges other people to dwell on while being interviewed on Raw Nerve, but he does not do it himself.
Perhaps the closest he gets is when he performs the song 'Real' by Brad Paisley off his acclaimed Has Been album. For once it feels as if Shatner is talking directly to his fans, but yet is through a song written by another. It was his best choice in the show and did feel genuinely vulnerable.
In the end, he returns to his familiar refrain that life is all about saying YES to things, and loving one another. A fine message but not as personal or poignant a message as I might have liked or expected from an autobiographical Broadway production.
Part of me felt like it was Shatner's attempt to get the 'T' in EGOT (Emmy, Grammy, Oscar, Tony) and fell short. There is a great show hidden in here somewhere, but Shatner seems to gloss over it and all we are left is the EGO. I think with some modification this could be a very good show, but it isn't quite ready yet.
