The Big Picture
- The new play The Shark is Broken tells the true story of how Steven Spielberg’s Jaws was made.
- Co-written by Ian Shaw, who portrays his father in the play, it offers a funny and touching look at the troubled times on set and the three distinctive personalities of the main actors.
- The play pays homage to the people who made Jaws and explores the challenges of creating meaningful stories, while also highlighting the temperamental animatronic shark, Bruce, which became an iconic part of the film.
When we talk about the best horror blockbusters, there’s no film more beloved than Steven Spielberg’s 1975 film Jaws. The classic monster bloodbath changed the Summer movie season forever. However, like every film, the path to making Jaws was no easy swim and was full of rough waters. Now a new play titled The Shark is Broken, depicting the amazing true story of how Jaws was made, is opening on Broadway this August.
The play, which already had a critically acclaimed run on London’s West End, is co-written by Joseph Nixon and Ian Shaw. The latter of which is the son of Robert Shaw who famously portrayed Quint in Jaws. Shaw is also portraying his father in the play alongside Colin Donnell (Arrow) and Alex Brightman (Beetlejuice: The Musical) who star as Roy Schneider and Richard Dreyfuss respectively. Entertainment Weekly shared a first look at the man-eating play with the trio all in costume. Jaws fans get an up close and personal look at each actor as well as a group shot depicting the famous cabin bonding scene that kicks off the final act of the Spielberg classic.
Like Father Like Son
When talking to EW, Shaw would express his love for Jaws saying, “I had always loved the film, particularly the scene where the three main characters show their scars and bond, leading into my father’s delivery of the famous Indianapolis speech, and the subsequent shark attack.” He would go on to say, “Robert was a writer and had rewritten the speech into the one that has become an iconic moment in cinema, not forgetting that he had originally been too drunk to complete it the day before, and had to beg Spielberg to try again the next day.”
However, Shaw’s goal wasn’t always to make a play about the craziness surrounding the film. That wasn’t until he realized how much he looked like his dad. “One day, when I had a mustache for a part I was playing, I looked in the mirror and Quint was staring back at me”, Shaw reminisced. If you looked at Shaw in the new promo images and didn’t know it was for the new play, you might just assume it was a picture of his dad from the original film. When talking about his idea for the play Shaw would say:
“I had read about the troubled times they had on the set, and was fascinated by the three distinctive personalities at different stages in their careers. I wasn’t working and I thought I should sketch out an idea for a play, set on Quint’s boat, the Orca. Then I felt that it was a crazy idea, and the dangers of attempting to portray my father, warts and all, was too risky to contemplate. It took my friends and family to give the courage to pursue the idea, and when Joseph Nixon and I wrote it, we realized that we had a funny and touching story that was more universal than I had feared.”
Bruce, The Uncooperative Shark
As Shaw alluded to, there are so many stories to mine that make the prospect of this making-of play very exciting. The main reason is “Bruce” the animatronic shark used for Jaws was as temperamental as they come. Seeing very little of the actual killer shark in the film wasn’t an artistic choice on Speilberg’s part, it was a necessity because Bruce was constantly malfunctioning or not working properly. It was something that actually worked to the film’s benefit and what helped make Jaws so iconic. Those kinds of happy accidents are what make moviegoers appreciate a classic like Jaws even more than they already do. Movie-making is all about problem-solving on the fly and expecting the unexpected, something Speilberg is an expert at and Bruce the shark is the prime example of why. In that same sentiment, Shaw would call the play a “homage to all those who made Jaws such a stunning movie, and to the fans who have kept its flame alive. It is also a poem about the three men who hunted the shark, and to anyone who struggles to create stories that have meaning.”
When Does The Shark Is Broken Debut?
The Shark Is Broken terrorizes Broadway starting on Thursday, August 10. Until then, you can stream Jaws on Peacock.
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