“King” shoots, scores at TheatreWorks Silicon Valley
Shawn (Kenny Scott, left) and Matt (Jordan Lane Shappell) bond over their love of basketball in TheatreWorks Silicon Valley's King James, a TheatreWorks Silicon Valley production at the Mountain View Center for the Performing Arts. Photo by Kevin Berne
On the surface, a sports play holds less interest for me than, say, a rock musical about horny German teenagers. One of the reasons I fell in love with theater was precisely because it was not sports. The world of muscle, sweat and aggression was a constant threat to me because I had no muscle, barely ever broke a sweat and didn’t begin to know what aggression was until I learned to drive.
But like theater, sports provides a place for like-minded individuals to come together with a sense of fun and purpose, history and endless trivial details. If we’re lucky, we all find our place to be a fanatic, or, to be less fanatical, a fan.
I can’t think of many sports-themed theatrical endeavors that I’ve liked – Damn Yankees on the musical front, Take Me Out and The Elaborate Entrance of Chad Deity on the play front – but what tends to be interesting about sports on stage is that it’s ultimately not about the sport itself but about the passion, rigor, connection and culture of the world surrounding the sport.
Scott (left) and Shappell navigate fandom and life in King James. Photo by Kevin Berne
That is definitely true of King James by Rajiv Joseph, which happens to be third-most-produced play of the 2024-25 season according to American Theatre magazine. The two-man drama about 12 years in the lives of two Cleveland Cavaliers and LeBron James fans finally gets its local premiere in a top-notch production from TheatreWorks Silicon Valley.
I reviewed the play (directed by TheatreWorks Artistic Director Giovanna Sardelli, who has helmed a dozen Joseph productions) for Bay Area News Group (San Jose Mercury News, East Bay Times, Marin Independent Journal, etc.). You can read the full review here (you may hit the pay wall).
The most interesting thing about the play is how sharply constructed it is to take us from the surface love of basketball into the complicated lives of two men – one Black, one white – who are struggling to balance survival and the pursuit of their dreams with failure, questionable choices and love lives that seem constantly doomed. Actors Jordan Lane Shappell and Kenny Scott are fantastic and highly believable as avid sports fans with complex inner lives under those jerseys and constant complaints (true fans know that to complain is to love).
FOR MORE INFORMATION
Rajiv Joseph’s King James continues through Nov. 3 in a TheatreWorks Silicon Valley production at the Mountain View Center for the Performing Arts, 500 Castro St., Mountain View. Running time is four quarters and one intermission (aka 2 hours, including a 15-minute intermissino). Tickets are $34-$115. Call 877-662-8978 or visit theatreworks.org.
