Broadway’s ‘The Shark is Broken’ nips but fails to bite

The Rundown

Chumming the waters in hopes of luring the predatory great white shark that’s wreaked havoc on residents of imaginary Amity Island, local police chief Brody comes face to face with the 25-footer. He backs into the wheelhouse, cigarette dangling from his mouth, and tells shark hunter Quint, “You’re gonna need a bigger boat.”

The new Broadway play The Shark is Broken invites theatergoers behind the scenes of Jaws, Steven Spielberg’s famously overbudget and highly successful 1975 film, and the complex relationship among its three lead actors, Roy Scheider (Colin Donnell), Richard Dreyfuss (Alex Brightman), and Robert Shaw (Ian Shaw, Robert’s real-life son).

Set aboard the fictional Orca, a 1940s lobster boat on which the last half of the film was shot off the coast of Martha’s Vineyard, the actors playing actors playing characters offer an insider’s look at the film and the technological and emotional challenges faced during the nearly five-month shoot.

No Tea, No Shade

For those who suffer from sea sickness, consider taking Dramamine before arriving at the Golden Theatre, where scenic designer Duncan Henderson’s faithful replica of the Orca bobs in the Atlantic, thanks to Nina Dunn’s video design, which is projected onto a wrap-around cyclorama.

While the sea and the circumstances provide plenty of drama, Nixon and Shaw’s script fails to dig much beyond intel widely available through previously produced documentaries, including Inside Jaws and The Shark is Still Working. Instead, the playwrights focus their energies on the bigger-than-life personalities of the film’s stars.

As a 27-year-old Richard Dreyfuss on the brink of success, Brightman aptly exudes the now familiar ticks, mannerisms, and ego of a star on the rise (several years later, Dreyfuss would win the Academy Award for Best Actor for his role in The Goodbye Girl). Shaw naturally embodies his father’s swagger and struggle with the bottle in a part initially offered to Lee Marvin. As peacekeeper and consummate professional Roy Scheider, Donnell fades into the background, except for a thirst-trappy scene in which he strips down to a Speedo to sunbathe on the deck.

Days turn into weeks, then months, as the film shoot soars over budget, often due to pneumatically-powered mechanical shark delays as the designers and crew work on the fly to manage corrosion, passing sailboats, and other unforeseen circumstances.

The open-water location leaves plenty of time for the trio to get on one another’s nerves, debate the film’s potential demise or success, and — for Shaw — drink. But despite the theoretical high stakes (at $12 million, Spielberg went 300% over budget), the action often feels as flat as the boat’s keel.

Let’s Have a Moment

Peter Benchley wrote the original novel and was originally contracted to adapt Jaws to film. But when the project hit rough waters, Spielberg brought in comedy writer Carl Gottlieb to strike a balance, and the pair would often be writing and revising long into the night throughout the shoot.

One particularly problematic passage was Quint’s five-page monologue describing the USS Indianapolis‘s real-life sinking and the character’s survival. Shaw, a classically trained actor and writer, besieged the script and fine-tuned the scene into a harrowing account of survival.

The actor’s drinking impairs the first take, but when the crew returns the following day, he delivers a master class, creating one of the film’s (and play’s) most powerful moments.

The Last Word

The Shark is Broken’s scenic design is packed with memorabilia from the original film, including a floatation barrel used to track the fictional predator, but the real memories pay homage to Robert Shaw’s complicated life as an artist struggling with addiction.

In preparation for the role, son Ian reviewed a drinking diary the actor logged during the 1970s.

“It gave me a baseline about how he felt about his alcoholism,” Shaw told the New York Times. “He had tried to quit and couldn’t do it. He wanted to concentrate on his writing and it was interfering with that.”

Those glimpses are more harrowing than any fake shark could muster.

The Shark is Broken plays on Broadway at the Golden Theatre through November 19, 2023.