‘The Shark is Broken’ Broadway Review: Shark Weak
A theatrical spin on Steven Spielberg's famous blockbuster film offers strong performances but rarely delves beneath the surface.
Bruce is broken…again. The pneumatic star, comprised of plastic, rubber, and wood, has significantly delayed the filming of a soon-to-be-famous 1975 movie. The film’s three leading men, Roy Scheider (Colin Donnell), Richard Dreyfuss (Alex Brightman) and Robert Shaw (Ian Shaw) are stuck on the Orca, a rickety fishing boat off the coast of Martha’s Vineyard.
With little to do, they drink, talk, brag, complain, and argue until, at last, shooting can resume. While it may create some interesting dialogue, it delivers little in terms of action over the course of the 95-minute Broadway play, The Shark is Broken (★★★☆☆).
Ian Shaw and Joseph Nixon’s work is marketed as a behind-the-scenes look at what happened off-camera while the cast and crew ran way over budget and production on one of Hollywood’s biggest gambles: a screen adaption of Peter Benchley’s bestselling novel Jaws.
Production was slated to begin in May 1974 and finish by the end of the following month. Fifty-five days were allotted, but by the time it had wrapped, it had taken director Steven Spielberg and his team 159 days to complete the film.
Certainly, there was drama behind the drama. Stories from the filming range from truth to exaggeration to fish tales of mythical proportions. Undeniably, it was hellish. Yet for all the sturm und drang, The Shark is Broken flows more like a bubbling brook rather than an unpredictable sea of tumult.
Shaw portrays his late father, Robert, a classically trained actor who begrudgingly signed onto the film project. In Jaws, the elder Shaw played Quint, a grizzled, cynical, hard-drinking, and somewhat unhinged professional shark hunter. With ironclad determination, Quint is out to kill the great white shark terrorizing the serene beach town of Amity.
In reality, Robert Shaw was not that different from his character, and it is well-documented that he was intoxicated throughout much of the shoot, both on and off camera. He was also leery of stardom, placing more emphasis on the art of the craft. “I had this bellboy come up to me the other day who told me he’d love to be famous like me. He’d got it the wrong way round. Fame is the by-product. It is the shit of art!” Robert exclaims in The Shark is Broken.
Later, he voices his skepticism at the Hollywood machine. “Mark my words boys, one day there will only be sequels. Sequels and remakes, and sequels to remakes and remakes of sequels.” Robert died three years after Jaws was released leaving behind 10 children, including then 8-year-old Ian.
It’s difficult then, not to view The Shark is Broken as a peace-making, cathartic endeavor for Ian, who has been making the media rounds since the play began Broadway previews in late July. He’s publicly admitted his initial resistance to the project since so many comparisons have been made between him and his late father. Eventually, he warmed to idea and performed the piece at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival and London’s West End before bringing it to New York. With so much boat conversation about the relationships each actor had with their fathers, it sometimes feels as though the audience is eavesdropping on a therapy session.
Brightman brings the same bombastic energy he employed in Broadway’s School of Rock and Beetlejuice to the role of Richard Dreyfuss. He’s obviously studied his subject with care and flawlessly captures the actor’s arrogance, neuroses, vocal inflections, and mannerisms.
Some amusing moments occur between him and Shaw. The two had a complex relationship with one another but in later years, Dreyfuss professed his deep admiration and respect for Shaw, a then-established personality to Dreyfuss, a nascent upstart with unbridled ego. Donnell is cool and refined as Scheider who spends most of his downtime scanning the newspaper and mediating spats between his co-stars.
True admirers of the seminal film have likely watched the 2007 documentary, The Shark is Still Working and have read The Jaws Log by the movie’s co-writer Carl Gottlieb. The Shark is Broken is unlikely to reveal or illuminate anything they don’t already know. Still, it’s a pleasant enough supplement with some smart writing and great acting.
Furthermore, it’s refreshing to see a new work on Broadway that thoughtfully references a classic film rather than recreating a carbon copy of it onstage and adding mindless music to it.
Those who haven’t seen the film or are not fans of it should probably spend their time in other waters. With so many esoteric references, it won’t feel that significant. For the rest, it’s an acceptable night of entertainment that is neither too stagnant nor particularly turbulent.
The Shark is Broken is playing through Nov. 19, 2023 at the Golden Theatre, 252 West 45th St. in New York City. Tickets are $94 to $248. Visit www.thesharkisbroken.com.
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