Get out of the way, Hugh Jackman.
You’re about to be upstaged by an actor — a great actor — who’s decided to bless Broadway with his own one-man show.
This is a show so good it’s going to make yours look like Suzanne Somers’ short-lived fiasco, “The Blonde in the Thunderbird” (Brooks Atkinson, 2005, nine performances).
Sure, Hugh, you can sing and dance and shake your maracas without splitting that gold lamé jumpsuit. You can bring down the house with a rendition of “Over the Rainbow” orchestrated for the didgeridoo. And you can rack up advance ticket sales of more than $10 million.
But when was the last time you looked out of a plane window, saw a man in a furry suit fiddling with the engine and found yourself in “The Twilight Zone”?
And when, Hugh, was the last time you booked a hotel room on Priceline.com?
The answer: Never!
Because only one man has done all these things. And only one man has gone where no man has gone before.
And now he’s coming to Broadway.
So beam him up, Scotty, because he’s going to play the Great White Way!
Yes, William Shatner, the man who changed the way we look at the universe — and reserve rooms at a Marriott — is bringing his one-man show to New York. It’s called, modestly enough, “Shatner’s World: We Just Live in It,” and it’s going to run for two, possibly three (if we’re lucky) weeks at the Music Box in February.
Shatner’s filling a void at the Music Box that will be created by the premature demise of “Private Lives” on Dec. 31.
His show is based on years of Q&As he’s done to hawk his books — “Star Trek Memories,” “Up Till Now: The Autobiography,” “Get a Life!” and, his masterpiece, “Shatner Rules: Your Guide To Understanding the Shatnerverse and the World at Large.”
The limited Broadway engagement will kick off a 15-week national tour, though I have a feeling that “Shatner’s World: We Just Live in It” is going to be such a sensation that it’ll run through June, and Shatner will be asked to host the Tony telecast.
(We love you, Hugh, but it’s over. Captain Kirk rules!)
Shatner was in town last week looking for a director to help shape his act before he faces the New York critics. Asked what he was most looking for in a director, he replied: “Price.”
And so I went on Priceline.com to see who’s available — and at what price.
* Jerry Zaks: $15,000. (He did a good job with “Sister Act.”)
* Walter Bobbie: $12,000. (He’s got nice reviews for “Venus in Fur.”)
* Doug Hughes: $10,000. (He’s good, but hasn’t worked since the short-lived revival of “Born Yesterday.” He’s been picking up work as an extra on the NBC TV series “Smash.”)
* Michael Mayer: $5,000, but negotiable. (His stock has fallen since the opening this week of “On a Clear Day You Can See the Closing Notice.”)
Any one of the above would fit nicely into “Shatner’s World.”
As for writers — Shatner’s looking for one to shape his words — I’d suggest Times reporter Alex Witchel.
Years ago, she wrote up a great interview with him over lunch at Orso. She got things out of him he’d never said before:
“As an actor, I had to look at the threshold and beyond and see how scary that is. We all wear the rose-colored glasses of life. All of us, every human being, rejects death as the indisputable future which may be an instant away.”
Wow. What a man.
All Hugh Jackman does is sing and dance.