The shark from ‘Jaws' breaks again, but onstage

Boston Globe

30-04-2025

'It's a big departure for us,' Hanney says of the NSMT, which usually presents musicals in an arena-style setting, 'but everyone is so familiar with the movie, I think they will love this.'
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'The Shark Is Broken' zooms in on a period during the film's oft-delayed shooting schedule (it ran three months longer than expected) when the three stars — Robert Shaw, Roy Scheider, and Richard Dreyfuss — were stuck together out at sea on a boat called the Orca, with nothing to do and nowhere to go while the mechanical shark (nicknamed Bruce) underwent repairs.
'Filming a movie involves intense periods of stress and long periods of boredom,' says 'The Shark Is Broken' co-writer Joseph Nixon, best known as a British playwright and sketch comedy writer. 'When the people involved are big personalities, like these actors, it makes for great dramatic tension, and quite a lot of humor.'
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'It's not an unvarnished portrait,' says Nixon. 'Ian found some of his dad's diaries, written during a period when [Robert] was drinking heavily, that also chronicled his clashes with Dreyfuss.'
Dreyfuss was in his mid-twenties during the filming, without Shaw's extensive theater training and experience (which included 'A Man for All Seasons,' 'From Russia with Love,' and 'The Sting,' to name just a few films). Dreyfuss had only two films to his credit ('American Graffiti' and 'The Apprenticeship of Duddy Kravitz'), while Scheider had a decade of screen credits under his belt, including 'The French Connection,' 'The Seven-Ups,' and 'Klute.'
'The dynamic on the Orca was kind of 'The Three Bears,'' says Nixon, 'with Shaw as the gruff Papa Bear, Scheider as the calm, conciliatory Mama Bear, and Dreyfuss as the demanding Baby Bear.'
The heart of 'The Shark Is Broken,' says director Guy Masterson, 'is the father-son dynamic. The idea that three people from very disparate backgrounds are forced to spend significant time together — remember, the filming lasted 160 days — makes the story work as a great drama even without 'Jaws' as the background.'
But anchoring the story with these three well-known personalities, confined together in a small space while making a legendary film, provides 'a smorgasboard for 'Jaws' fans,' Masterson says, 'while also exploring relationships complicated by egos, alcoholism, and fame.'
While Ian Shaw has had a successful acting career in England — he's currently touring the United Kingdom and Ireland with 'The Shark Is Broken' — it took him years to focus on his father's story, Masterson says. Shaw and Masterson had been friends for decades, sharing the early loss of their fathers, and the toll of alcoholism (in Masterson's case, he had a father-figure relationship with his great-uncle, actor Richard Burton).
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'When Ian asked me to read his script about three men on a boat,' Masterson says, 'I loved the context 'Jaws' provides, but the populist aspect makes these characters recognizable and their story universal.'
Masterson took 'The Shark Is Broken' to the Edinburgh Festival,' which, he says, provides opportunities to take risks. The play was a hit there, and went on to successful runs in London's West End, and was revised slightly for a production in Toronto, before playing an 18-week run on Broadway where Hanney was a co-producer.
The current production has reunited the original production team (including sound and set designers), while casting three new actors who bear a striking resemblance to Shaw (Timothy Hull), Dreyfuss (Jonathan Randell Silver), and Scheider (Josh Tyson). The NSMT's arena stage has been reduced to around 700 seats, all on one side, in a reimagined, proscenium-style set up. The Orca set, where all the action takes place, is realistic, but also modular, easy to dismantle and bring to Martha's Vineyard, where Hanney will remount it at the Martha's Vineyard Performing Arts Center in Oak Bluffs for a two-week run starting July 5, not far from the Edgartown Cinemas, which Hanney owns.
'I hope the popularity of the film and the connection to the 50th anniversary will draw people,' says Hanney. 'But you don't have to know anything about the movie to enjoy this great story of three people trying to figure out how to get along and get their jobs done.'
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This summer's Shakespeare on the Common production, "As You Like It," will run from July 23 to Aug. 10.
Cast announced for 'As You Like It' on the Boston Common July 23-Aug. 10
Commonwealth Shakespeare Company returns to the Boston Common July 23-Aug. 10 for its annual free production of Shakespeare. This year's offering is the delightful comedy, 'As You Like It,' in which Rosalind and her cousin Celia flee the court when Rosalind's father is overthrown, taking refuge in the forest of Arden, where they find love, acceptance, and a new community.
Founding Artistic Director Steven Maler will direct a cast featuring many Boston-area favorites and CSC veterans, including Nora Eschenheimer ('The Tempest,' 'Cymbeline') and Michael Underhill ('The Tempest,' 'Much Ado About Nothing'), Maurice Emmanuel Parent ('The Tempest,' 'King Lear'), John Kuntz ('Twelfth Night,' 'Macbeth'), Remo Airaldi ('Much Ado About Nothing,' 'Richard III'), and Jared Troilo ('Charles Dickens' 'A Christmas Carol''). While audience members are free to bring blankets or chairs, or rent chairs on site, seats in the CSC Friends Section will be available in late May through a donation to CSC.
THE SHARK IS BROKEN
Play by Ian Shaw and Joseph Nixon. Directed by Guy Masterson, at the North Shore Music Theatre, Beverly, May 2-11. Tickets $45-$65. 978-232-7200,