New Play Takes Us Behind the Scenes as ‘Jaws’ Is Made

Can a work be called a loving tribute if the subject is portrayed as an insufferable, sometimes hypocritical snob, not to mention a raging alcoholic?The answer is a resounding yes, at least judging by “The Shark Is Broken,” second-generation British actor Ian Shaw’s comedic valentine to his father, Robert, whose many notable stage and screen roles included that of Quint, the veteran shark hunter who’s a principal character in a little Steven Spielberg film you may have heard of: “Jaws,” the director’s 1975 film adaptation of the Peter Benchley novel. The younger Shaw not only co-wrote the one-act play, with Joseph Nixon, but portrays his father, whom we follow along with fellow “Jaws” principals Roy Scheider and Richard Dreyfuss as they endure weeks of production delays, owing only in part to the stubborn mechanical shark who starred alongside them.Particular attention is paid to the animosity that famously festered between Shaw and Mr. Dreyfuss, who was cast as Matt Hooper, the oceanographer who becomes involved in the hunt along with Scheider’s police chief, Martin Brody. Richard Dreyfuss is played in this production by Alex Brightman, known by Broadway audiences for his zealous performances as over-the-top characters in musical adaptations of “School of Rock” and “Beetlejuice.”As writers, Messrs. Shaw and Nixon have indulged Mr. Brightman with another such figure in their portrait of Richard Dreyfuss, who comes across as a whiny ham preoccupied with his career and, to an only slightly lesser extent, his ethnicity. “Jews should stay away from water,” Richard frets at one point, lamenting the decision by Mr. Spielberg — who is represented occasionally by an offstage voice, speaking pleasantly and patiently — to shoot on the New England coast.“Didn’t Jesus walk on water?” asks Roy Scheider, played for the most part as a drily quirky straight man by a charming stage and TV actor, Colin Donnell. “Yeah,” Richard responds, then adds, without missing a beat, “Look what happened to him.”Alex Brightman, Ian Shaw, and Colin Donnell in ‘The Shark Is Broken.’Such hokey humor is eventually, perhaps predictably, interrupted by bursts of earnestness; in one passage, the three actors huddle in Duncan Henderson’s set — a simulation of the fishing vessel used in the movie, made to look claustrophobic against the vast ocean and sky projected in the video design, by Nina Dunn for Pixiellux — and wax nostalgic, exchanging tales of personal glory and trauma. Shaw would die at 51, just three years after the movie’s release, when Mr. Shaw was still a child. The younger actor reportedly consulted different accounts of the behind-the-scenes tensions documented in the play, as well as his father’s journals, but the character he has crafted here — as both a playwright, with Mr. Nixon, and a performer — is clearly also shaped both by memory and legend, not to mention Shaw’s iconic screen performance. We get to watch the evolution of Quint’s big monologue based on the sinking of the USS Indianapolis in 1945, and to hear Robert, a writer himself, soothe Richard, in a rare moment of peaceful commiseration, with a Shakespeare sonnet. We listen as Robert snootily dismisses “Jaws” as “a trifle,” presaging critics who will fault Mr. Spielberg with ushering in the era of the spectacle-driven blockbuster. Sporting industrial-length sideburns and a mustache, Mr. Shaw evokes his father’s presence both physically and in his speech and mannerisms. The performance avoids caricature by virtue of affection and discipline, even during Robert’s blowouts with Richard. If Mr. Brightman shows less discretion, the audience at the preview I attended didn’t seem to mind; his antics drew steady laughter and, more than once, hearty applause.Director Guy Masterson nonetheless ensures that these talented players don’t overshadow their colleagues. If “The Shark Is Broken” is itself something of a trifle, the four men manage to keep it afloat.

New Play Takes Us Behind the Scenes as ‘Jaws’ Is Made

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