William Shatner didn’t beam in, but gave fans the next best thing at the start of his one-man Broadway show.
Love is the difference between the cold light of the universe and the warmth of the human spirit
Appearing to the familiar orchestral strains of the Star Trek theme, then soaking up the applause, he said: “Thank you. You need an entrance because you put on a few years and a few pounds, nobody recognises you”.
That will not be a problem at the Music Box Theatre, where Mr Shatner’s World: We Just Live In It has opened for a limited run ahead of a month-long, 15-city US tour.
During his 100-minute set that flirts between self and self-parody, Mr Shatner traces his life – from growing up in Canada to acting alongside Christopher Plummer to Star Trek and Boston Legal to his musical career.
He does it all dressed in a pair of jeans, a suit coat and an open-collar shirt, and uses that comforting-yet-strange, overly theatrical, halting delivery.
Approaching his 81st birthday, Mr Shatner seems to be dwelling a lot on mortality these days. “Death is the final frontier,” he says at one point, a twist on the opening monologue of Star Trek.
And there is actually a lot of death in the show. Mr Shatner discusses how he approached killing off James T. Kirk – using the same “awe and wonder” Mr Kirk had for life – and also his father’s passing (we learn Mr Shatner escorted the body home to Montreal and picked out a cheap pine coffin, thinking his father would appreciate the thriftiness.)
There is a story about the death of a beloved horse and a mention of his third wife Nerine, who drowned.
Yet the show somehow avoids becoming overly maudlin. “Love is the difference between the cold light of the universe and the warmth of the human spirit,” Mr Shatner says. “And life doesn’t have to end when love is present”.
Still, Mr Shatner is bothered by what comes next. He lingers on the supposed final words of Timothy Leary (“Of course”) and Apple chief Steve Jobs (“Oh, wow”), wondering what it all means. “What happens at the other end? I don’t know!” he demands, almost screaming. The crowd on one preview night seemed game to just let Mr Shatner be Mr Shatner. None wore Star Trek tunics or spoke Vulcan. They were happy simply to watch him boldly go.
Mr Shatner takes the audience through his years at McGill University, to playing the lead in Henry V at the Stratford Shakespeare Festival, to the unhappy Broadway show The World of Suzie Wong.
The audience learns about his love of horses, his TV shows, his strange encounter with the famous sign language-speaking gorilla Koko, and his collaboration with Ben Folds. The audience also learns that he hates rats and a kidney stone he passed earned $25,000 for Habitat for Humanity?
Mr Shatner illustrates his stories with film and video clips or photographs projected on to a huge globe, set against a black backdrop shimmering with stars. His is a selective history – no Leonard Nimoy (Star Trek’s Spock), but a dig or two at George Takei (Sulu).
For Trekkies, Mr Shatner recalls first seeing the initial pilot of Star Trek – filmed without him – and liking what he saw. “It’s filled with aliens and heroes and girls with green paint and tiny bikinis – everything I’m interested in,” he says.