Film Review: William Shatner’s Gonzo Ballet

Title:              William Shatner’s Gonzo Ballet
Director:             Patrick Buckley, Kevin Layne
Producer:           William Shatner, Bill Shaffer, John Paul De Joria, Kimberly Kates,
                                Scott Woolley (Exec), David Zappone, Michael Manasseri
Music:                  Ben Folds
Year:                     2009 (60 minutes)

Synopsis: High art meets pop culture as the music of William Shatner (Star Trek, Boston Legal) and Ben Folds (Ben Folds Five), from their critically-acclaimed album “Has Been,” is transformed into ‘Common People,’ a ballet from award winning choreographer Margo Sappington (Oh! Calcutta!) and the Milwaukee Ballet. William Shatner’s Gonzo Ballet explores this unique collaboration, as well as the musical journey that has taken Mr. Shatner from the trippy covers of “Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds” and “Mr. Tambourine Man” in the 1960’s to his original work with Ben Folds, and finally, to the ballet. The willingness of audiences to accept new work, especially based on pop music, is explored, as is the shape of ballet in our culture. Gonzo Ballet takes us from Shatner’s musical beginnings, and the critical misfires, to his finally ‘getting it right’ with Ben Folds, and to the unlikely collaboration with Margo Sappington. What shines through is each artists dedication to their work, and to each other.

Review: Bad idea #1: William Shatner records an album of songs where he speaks, rather than sings, the words.

Bad idea #2: Margo Sappington decides to turn William Shatner’s spoken word album into a ballet.

Bad idea #3: Patrick Buckley and Kevin Layne film the William Shatner inspired ballet to make it into a documentary. But wait, something happened during the filming that turned two bad ideas (see Bad ideas #1 & #2 above) into an interesting and well done documentary. Bad idea #3 isn’t so bad after all.

William Shatner’s Gonzo Ballet provides excellent “behind-the-scenes” access to the thought process behind Shatner’s album and the ballet it inspired. Shatner is both accessible and self-effacing in his interviews. The weirdness of him making a spoken word album and the album then becoming a ballet is not lost on Shatner. He takes the creative process seriously without taking himself too seriously.

I can’t recommend Shatner’s album nor would I encourage you to rush out to see the ballet that it inspired, but the film is worth the price of admission.

(3.0 out of 5.0)