William Shatner welcomes audiences into his world in Broadway one-man show
Music Box Theatre
239 West 45th St. between Broadway & Eighth Aves.
Through March 4, $61.50 – $126.50 (VIP $251.50 with meet & greet)
www.shatnersworld.com
Canadian actor and pitchman extraordinaire William Shatner, who has been entertaining audiences for more than sixty years in his own rather unique style, discusses his life and nearly inexplicable career in the fun one-man show Shatner’s World: We Just Live in It . . . The stout octogenarian, who turns eighty-one on March 22, ambles about the stage at the Music Box Theatre for nearly two hours showing vintage clips and photographs and telling anecdotes from his glorious past, from understudying for Christopher Plummer in Tyrone Guthrie’s production of Henry V at the Stratford Shakespeare Festival in Canada to doing live television with Lon Chaney Jr. in the 1950s to starring on Broadway in 1959 in The World of Suzie Wong with France Nuyen. He also talks about this sci-fi thing called Star Trek, playing Denny Crane on Boston Legal, and his unexpected golden-throated recording career. (The night we went, he was joined onstage for a special encore with Brad Paisley, who wrote the song “Real” for Shatner’s 2007 album, Has Been.) He shares tales of his mother and father, drops in mentions of his wives and daughter, and tears up when discussing his beloved stallion. Just as Shatner roams around the stage, his tales roam as well, going back and forth through time, often with only the thinnest of threads linking them together. While there are many touching and revealing moments, especially if you haven’t read any of his books, there are also plenty that fall flat and feel forced. Curiously, the Playbill includes no credit for the writing of the show, which is not surprising. Shatner also can’t seem to make up his mind whether he wants to sit down on the rolling chair at the center of the stage, continually sitting and standing in a sometimes awkward manner. But hey, those are just minor tribbles, er, quibbles, for indeed, this is Shatner’s world, and we just live in it. There has never been a performer quite like William Shatner, and likely never will be another; throughout his robust career, his signature pauses, intoxicating smile, sheer confidence, and innate ability to laugh at himself have made us forget about his shortcomings. A must-see for Shatner fans, Shatner’s World continues at the Music Box through March 4 before heading out on a U.S. tour.
After the breakout success of Born to Run in 1975, Bruce Springsteen became embroiled in a lawsuit over control of his music that prevented him from going into the studio to make the highly anticipated follow-up. Springsteen found himself at a crossroads; “You didn’t know if this would be the last record you’d ever make,” he says in the revealing behind-the-scenes documentary The Promise: The Making of Darkness on the Edge of Town. Combining archival footage of the Darkness sessions shot by Barry Rebo with new interviews with all the members of the E Street Band in addition to producers Jimmy Iovine, Jon Landau, and others, editor and director Thom Zimny melds Bruce’s past with the present, delving deep into Springsteen’s complex, infuriating, and fiercely dedicated creative process. “I had to disregard my own mutation,” Springsteen says at one point, regarding his battle to avoid getting caught up in the hype that came with Born to Run, so he decided that his next album would be “a meditation on where are you going to stand.” Rebo captures Springsteen and the E Street Band — from a bare-chested Bruce to a bandanna-less Steve Van Zandt — rehearsing and recording alternate takes of familiar songs as well as tunes that would later wind up on such albums as The River and Tracks, opening up Bruce’s famous notebooks and examining his intense creative process, which included throwing away dozens and dozens of songs that he believed just didn’t fit within his vision of what Darkness should be. Two of the most fascinating parts of the The Promise involve Patti Smith discussing “Because the Night,” explaining that the lyrics she added are about her waiting for her boyfriend at the time (and later husband), Fred “Sonic” Smith, to call her, and Toby Scott talking about mixing the Darkness record to get the sound pictures in Bruce’s head onto vinyl. The Promise: The Making of Darkness on the Edge of Town is screening as part of the IFC Center’s Stranger Than Fiction series and will be followed by a Q&A with Zimny, Springsteen’s longtime director who just made the music video for Bruce’s latest single, “We Take Care of Our Own.”
