FADE IN: The open ocean, 1974. Filming is delayed…again. The lead actors—theatre veteran Robert Shaw and young Hollywood hotshots Richard Dreyfuss and Roy Scheider—are crammed into a too-small boat, entirely at the mercy of foul weather and a faulty mechanical co-star. Alcohol flows, egos collide, and tempers flare on a chaotic voyage that just might lead to cinematic magic…if it doesn’t sink them all.
Step aboard the Orca and into The Shark Is Broken, a “profound dive behind the scenes of the making of Jaws” (The Daily Telegraph, ★★★★). This Olivier Award-nominated new play is “hilariously brilliant and pure genius” raves the Sunday Express (★★★★★) and stars Ian Shaw (War Horse, Common) as his father, Robert Shaw, Alex Brightman (Beetlejuice, School of Rock) as Richard Dreyfuss, and Colin Donnell (Anything Goes, Chicago Med) as Roy Scheider.
Directed by Olivier Award winner Guy Masterson, co-written by Ian Shaw and Joseph Nixon, and inspired by Robert Shaw’s experience playing Quint on the notorious shoot, The Shark Is Broken celebrates movie history and peeks at the choppy waters behind Hollywood’s first blockbuster.