The Shark Is Broken: Jaws stage comedy starring Ian Shaw heads to Broadway

Written by Joseph Nixon and Ian Shaw, the look-alike son of legendary actor Robert Shaw, the stage comedy The Shark Is Broken, which goes behind-the-scenes of the filming of the 1975 Steven Spielberg classic Jaws (watch it HERE) and sees Shaw taking on the role of his father, made its premiere at the 2019 Edinburgh Festival Fringe before moving to the West End’s Ambassadors Theatre in 2021. And now, Deadline reports, The Shark Is Broken is heading to Broadway!

Deadline shares the details: Directed by Guy Masterson, The Shark Is Broken will begin a limited 16-week engagement on Tuesday, July 25, at the John Golden Theatre, with an official opening on Thursday, August 10.

Shaw reprises the role of his father, who played Quint in Jaws. The stage comedy imagines what happened on board Quint’s boat (the Orca) when the cameras stopped rolling during the filming of Spielberg’s blockbuster.

This marks the Broadway debut for Shaw. Casting is underway for the roles of Roy Scheider and Richard Dreyfuss, and the actors who will be playing those actors will be announced at a later date.

Based on a novel by Peter Benchley (pick up a copy at THIS LINK), who also worked on the script with Carl Gottlieb (with John Milius, Matthew Robbins, Hal Barwood, and Robert Shaw also making uncredited contributions), Jaws has the following synopsis: When a young woman is killed by a shark while skinny-dipping near the New England tourist town of Amity Island, police chief Martin Brody wants to close the beaches, but mayor Larry Vaughn (Murray Hamilton) overrules him, fearing that the loss of tourist revenue will cripple the town. Ichthyologist Matt Hooper and grizzled ship captain Quint offer to help Brody capture the killer beast, and the trio engage in an epic battle of man vs. nature.

The film stars Roy Scheider, Richard Dreyfuss, Robert Shaw, Lorraine Gary, and Murray Hamilton.

I’m a big fan of Jaws and of Robert Shaw’s performance in it, so The Shark Is Broken sounds like a lot of fun to me. Will you be watching the show on Broadway? Have you caught a previous performance of it? Let us know by leaving a comment below.