Craig Schwartz Photography
,You don’t have to know the ins and outs of LeBron James’ glittering and much-storied career, or indeed know much about basketball, to get the most from Ravi Joseph’s play, King James (City Center, booking to June 18)—but it certainly helps. The laughs, groans and sighs of recognition at certain moments of this Steppenwolf/Center Theatre Group/Manhattan Theatre Club production are audibly those of fans and the knowledgeable.
The structure of this low-key play—titled using James’ nickname, set in Cleveland Heights, Ohio, and directed by Kenny Leon—sketches a series of key moments, temporally divided into quarters, in the friendship of two male Cleveland Cavaliers fans, which echo key moments in James’ career in 2004, 2010, 2014, and 2016.
Shawn (Glenn Davis, actor, producer and artistic director of Steppenwolf) and Matt (Abbott Elementary’s Chris Perfetti, another Steppenwolf alum) first meet in the basement wine bar Matt works in in 2004, Shawn interrupting Matt’s game of one-on-one—against an imaginary opponent—with a piece of crumpled newspaper and a trash can.