He's a very successful, renowned Northeast Ohio native whose life is sports. That description could technically apply to playwright Rajiv Joseph or basketball great LeBron James. Joseph’s play, "King James," follows the title character’s career and how it’s affected Cleveland fans.
“It's unique for a superstar to be from the region and then to have the ups and downs that he had with Cleveland: Leaving for Miami, coming back, winning a championship,” Joseph said from his home in New York. The Cleveland Heights native has been very successful too with his screenplay for “Draft Day” and two Obie Award-winning plays.
"King James” is his second work performed by Cleveland Play House.
“I grew up going to the Cleveland Play House,” he said. “It's the right place for it, right down the street from the arena.”
All of the actors come from Northeast Ohio or from CPH’s partner for this production, Pittsburgh’s City Theatre Company. The piece was originally a commission for the Steppenwolf Theater in Chicago and the Center Theater Group in Los Angeles.
“It was really interesting that we started in Chicago, which is Jordan territory,” Joseph said. “Then we went to L.A., where LeBron was. And then we came to New York, which is another great basketball town. It was just interesting, with each of these places, to see how different jokes landed.”
The play is about two friends in a Cleveland Heights bar whose friendship ebbs and flows based on their competing views of the NBA superstar. Joseph structured the script as four quarters, just like an NBA game.
“The first scene is his rookie season,” he said. “The second scene is ‘The Decision’ when LeBron publicly decided to go to Miami and the fallout that came from that. The third scene is when LeBron decides to come back to Cleveland. And the fourth scene is the day of the parade Downtown, after the Cavs won the championship.”
That was a sweet moment for Joseph, topping what he calls his previous happiest NBA Finals moment.
“I remember I really rooted against him when he went to Miami the first couple seasons,” he said. “When the Dallas Mavericks beat the Heat that year, that’s probably the happiest I'd ever been before the Cavs won.”
The anger gave way to awe for the playwright, and all was forgiven by the time James returned to Cleveland in 2014. That’s reflected in “King James,” directed by Monteze Freeland and running at the Outcalt Theatre in Playhouse Square through March 23.
