"Shatner's World," One-Man Show at the Music Box Theater If you're going to have the chutzpah to call your show "Shatner's World: We Just Live In It ...," it is probably wise to enter joking. William Shatner, who does not need an introduction to anyone who has made it to the second sentence of this review, does precisely that in the chatty, digressive and often amusing tour of his unusual acting career, which opened Thursday night at the Music Box Theater for a brief Broadway run. Despite the absurdly (joshingly?) self-aggrandizing title, Mr. Shatner shows a welcome tendency to poke fun at himself that anyone who has seen his commercials for the travel Web site Priceline.com will probably recognize. Near the top of the show he recalls being asked to open a televised tribute to George Lucas. A dubious Mr. Shatner wondered, would Mr. Lucas, the creator of "Star Wars," get the joke? On the giant circular screen that dominates the set we are shown marked evidence that he did not, at least at first. When Mr. Shatner is introduced as M.C., Mr. Lucas and others are shown looking dumbfounded or disgusted. Obsessive fans of "Star Trek," the television series that ran for a mere three seasons in the 1960s but spawned a veritable galaxy of movie and television series spinoffs in the following decades, should be cautioned that Mr. Shatner does not get around to that period in his career until just about an hour into his 1-hour-40-minute performance. This is not a show designed for a Trekkie convention, although it's safe to say that Mr. Shatner's audiences are probably largely composed of fans he acquired while portraying the upstanding Captain Kirk, of the perma-tan and snazzy uniforms. I don't imagine his appearances in "T. J. Hooker," "The Practice" or "Boston Legal" were similarly epoch making. Still, one comes away from "Shatner's World," directed by Scott Faris, with a thorough grounding in virtually all phases of Mr. Shatner's career, which began onstage in Canada and has also come to include forays into recording with musicians like Brad Paisley and Ben Folds. Admirers of these ventures as a recording artist - tongue in cheek or otherwise - will want to know that the show does conclude with a performance of the song "Real," with lovely music by Mr. Paisley, and a funny, rather touching lyric that muses on the distance between Mr. Shatner's image and his life. Although he spends a fair amount of time getting in and out of a comfy-looking desk chair, and regales us with the story of a riding accident that injured his leg, Mr. Shatner appears hale and full of energy as he reminiscences about his professional and personal lives. Born in Montreal to a father in the clothing business, Mr. Shatner was bitten by the acting bug at 6 and apparently never looked back, though he graduated from college with a business degree he had no interest in using. The accompanying slide show attests to the leading-man looks he possessed in his youth, and Mr. Shatner made a splash at the Stratford Shakespeare Festival in Canada when, while understudying Christopher Plummer in "Henry V," he went on at the last minute, despite having no chance to rehearse the role. Mr. Shatner's love of horses, which constitutes a major sideline in the show, was born when he played Alexander the Great in an execrable-looking movie from which excerpts are shown. The show is not exclusively composed of jokey anecdotes. Do you ever think about death? Mr. Shatner asks at one rather jarring point. "All the time, Bill," came a shout from the back of the theater. Showing crack timing, Mr. Shatner shot back in his smooth voice, "Not tonight, please, we don't have the insurance." There followed some odd musings on mortality, as well as the story of Mr. Shatner's father's death. Knowing his father's wishes, Mr. Shatner chose a simple pine coffin and bragged to his sister about how inexpensive it was. "Was it used?" she asked. Mr. Shatner's appearance in "Star Trek" has of course assured him a kind of immortality, as he acknowledges in a borderline maudlin segment from an interview he conducted with Patrick Stewart, the classically trained actor who played another sterling spaceship captain in the first of the "Star Trek" spinoffs. Mr. Stewart confesses he'll be perfectly happy if he's remembered essentially for just that role, and this admission seems to inspire in Mr. Shatner an emotional epiphany. He too will be at peace if he leaves the galaxy behind known primarily for pleasing millions by manfully grappling with rubbery extraterrestrials. Certainly there are worse legacies. Shatner's World: We Just Live in It... Written and performed by William Shatner; directed by Scott Faris; sets by Edward Pierce; lighting by Ken Billington; sound by Peter Fitzgerald; technical supervisor, Aurora Productions; general manager, Bespoke Theatricals; production stage manager, Paul J. Smith. Presented by Innovation Arts & Entertainment, Larry A. Thompson Organization, Adam Troy Epstein, Seth Keyes, Josh Sherman and Larry A. Thompson. At the Music Box Theater, 239 West 45th Street, Manhattan; (800) 432-7250; telecharge.com.