NEW YORK (AP) — A stage play concerning the making of the blockbuster film “Jaws” will quickly take an enormous chew out of Broadway.
“The Shark is Broken” — co-written and starring the son of one of many movie’s stars, the late Robert Shaw — will land on The Nice White Means this summer season, becoming for a play a few Nice White Shark.
“It’s a comedy principally. We dip into the intense parts, however our intention is to entertain,” mentioned Ian Shaw, who will play his father and whose theater credit embody “Warfare Horse” and “Frequent” on the Nationwide Theatre and “A lot Ado About Nothing” within the West Finish.
The play is a behind-the-scenes have a look at the three predominant actors within the Steven Spielberg film — Robert Shaw as shark hunter Quint, Roy Scheider because the police chief and Richard Dreyfuss as an oceanographer. The three actors had a tense time, with many irritating delays as a result of mechanical shark malfunctioning.
“It was a grueling, troublesome shoot,” mentioned Shaw. “And there was a conflict of personalities, notably between my father and Richard Dreyfuss. However it’s sophisticated as a result of they have been associates as nicely at instances.”
Shaw mentioned the play — which has performed the Edinburgh Fringe Competition and London — has been edited and re-edited forward of its Broadway bow, which can even be his Broadway debut. He has his household’s blessing in exploring a messy time for the three actors.
“Within the play, they’re all dealing with as much as their demons and so they don’t at all times do it brilliantly,” he mentioned. “To some extent, I used to be dealing with as much as the demon of my relationship with my father and, for me, that’s been an excellent course of.”
“Jaws” is credited for creating Hollywood’s blockbuster tradition when it hit cinemas in June 1975 and have become the highest-grossing movie of all time till “Star Wars” got here out two years later. It’s additionally gave us the traditional line “You’re gonna want an even bigger boat!” and frightened lots of people from going swimming.
“One of many issues I like about that movie is the way in which you don’t know the place it’s going to go subsequent,” mentioned Shaw. “It lurches from comedy to horror in a heartbeat. And we tried to do this with the play.”
“The Shark is Damaged” — co-written by Shaw and Joseph Nixon, based mostly on interviews and Shaw household tales — was nominated for greatest comedy on the 2022 Olivier Awards. It begins performances in New York on July 25 on the John Golden Theatre underneath Man Masterson’s course.
It involves America on the heels of a stage musical additionally concerning the making of “Jaws.” “Bruce,” based mostly on “Jaws” screenwriter Carl Gottlieb’s 1975 memoir “The Jaws Log,” made its premiere at Seattle Rep in 2022.
That musical — named after the nickname for the mechanical shark — facilities on a younger Spielberg dealing with poor climate, harmful water, hostile locals, an exploding finances, countless delays and a extremely dysfunctional Bruce to make “Jaws.”
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Mark Kennedy is at http://twitter.com/KennedyTwits
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