Audio By Carbonatix
William Shatner’s clearly The Transformed Man, as his 1967 record asserts. His meteoric rise began with Star Trek, reassuring everyone that space was “the final frontier” before boldly overacting in every episode of the show’s three-year run. The criticism and laughter he garnered have never stopped him from doing things like reciting poetry and Shakespeare over wildly psychedelic music or transforming into a TV cop with a bad perm. Nope. The power of the barrel-chested Shat is that he has embraced his pop culture image and become a caricature of himself, playing it up for heightened popularity.
Self-parody is now expected. And Shatner’s one-man, 100-minute show, Shatner’s World, openly explores the highs, the lows, and the undulating middle ground of the serious actor no one really took seriously. Get in on the joke at Mesa Arts Center.
Sun., Jan. 20, 7:30 p.m., 2013
