ALL JAWS & NO TEETH: It’s not just the shark that’s broken
- Chase Harrison
- 20 hours ago
- 6 min read
Once in a creative writing class I attended back in college, the professor let us in on his number one secret for storytelling; a simple trick to keep the audience on the writer’s side and engaged with the story in front of them. It was his be-all-to-end-all rule: Don’t reference another story in your story, don’t give your audience the chance to even think, I would much rather be reading or watching that than what I currently am.
In “The Shark is Broken” playwrights Ian Shaw and Joseph Nixon missed that concept. Their play aims to be an exploration of boredom, creativity, and conflicting personalities on the isolated film set of "JAWS." Emphasis on boredom, though when-in-doubt of its own material, the writers find any and every opportunity to remind the audience, "Hey wasn’t ‘JAWS’ a great film?"
Ian Shaw, the son of the famed actor/drunkard Robert Shaw, want’s “The Shark is Broken” to be akin to Godot on a Boat; yet the material sinks with its fishy gimmick of being based around his father’s famous film role. The script plays out more like Ian Shaw’s unprocessed therapy sessions on the stage.
Set in 1974, midway through the filming of the aquic classic “JAWS,” the play meanders through the months long film shoot all because Bruce (the mechanical shark used in the film) is broken. The three lead actors—Robert Shaw (Woody Stefl), Richard Dreyfuss (Jamie Lane), and Roy Scheider (Bradley Coxe)—are all stuck on the floating film set.
Unfortunately, to the detriment of the production, the script excruciatingly captures the monotonous hurry-up-and-wait mentality prevalent on film sets. The plot bouncing between Shaw waxing poetically about being a refined man’s man with Scheider, knocking the "poof profession" that is acting to take the wind out of Dreyfuss’s sails, or covering Shaw’s own notoriously violent on-set drinking proclivity. Tempers and conversation sink and swim like a 25-foot great white shark with three barrels stuck on its body.
I say all of that to make it clear that I had a number of issues with the script of “The Shark is Broken.” The play was a disinteresting look on the concept of boredom with a great white gimmick. I didn’t think the material provided enough depth to adequately keep the plot’s head above water and left me feeling quite bored for a majority of its 95-minute runtime.
As a fellow patron hilariously phrased it to their date as we all exited the theatre: “I mean, ‘JAWS: The Revenge’ sucked, yeah, but at least that HAD a shark in it!”
Admittedly, that got one of the few laughs out of me from the whole night.
Unfortunately, Big Dawg Theatre Company’s production of “The Shark is Broken” has more broken elements than just a poor script about a busted prop and underlining daddy issues. Under the direction of Kat Vernon, the production waddles through a bland staging made up of disjointed performances on an impressive looking set, basked in neat but unmotivated lighting choices. All to crescendo in a whimper of a thankless job of performing Quint’s USS Indianapolis speech, possibly the best modern monologue.
The play being a fictionalized account allots license for the performers to find independence from their real-life inspiration. For the most part the cast does a solid job of keeping their characters away from caricature. Though it does take the trio of Stefl, Lane, and Coxe quite a while to form a pace between three actors. No sooner does a steady pace begin to take shape—during a touching talk where each man opens up about their distant fathers—does the first act end to reset the pace by the 15-minute intermission!
Coxe as Roy Scheider delivers the best work of the three, the straight-man and perpetual peacemaker between the other two. Coxe gives a quiet de facto leader energy to Scheider, the same type that made Scheider such an overlooked talent of his era. The character embodies a Zen energy of “It’ll be what it’ll be,” while his daily sunbathing session gets interrupted by one costar trying to kill another! Shaw is wroth with depression, so he drinks. Dreyfuss is full of anxiety, so he drugs. Coxe’s Scheider is so secure in himself that he services as a stable middle for the other two, balancing them out to actually get some real work done.
In a bit of silent reactionary comedy gold, Coxe scores Buster Keaton-level laughs. When on an early lunch break from filming he strips down to swimming trunks to begin his afternoon tan. Which is continually disturbed by a production assistant over a walkie talkie. A crazed look on his face and a baseball bat in hand later, Coxe exits the stage with laughter following close behind him.
Richard Dreyfuss is a mile-a-minute actor, but cocaine is a hell of a drug, as the real Dreyfuss would attest to. Jamie Lane matches that jittery anxious with aimed ambition of the young thespian on the cusp of a career breakout. However, Lane often spits his lines out too quickly, like a machine gun on rapid fire. He doesn’t allow for the moments to land before spouting off the next rushed punchline. Where each are punctuated by an aptly obnoxious sounding chuckle, authentically matching Dreyfuss’s own annoying giggle. Lane leans heavily into a cartoonish approach to the Dreyfuss character. That often equals out to "What if Jason Alexander’s George Costanza had been in 'JAWS?'”
Think fast, who received top billing in “JAWS?” Correct, Robert Shaw! While “The Shark is Broken” very much is a three-man-band ensemble piece, it’s the Robert Shaw show for sure. As the role which looms largest over it, like his name on the marquee, oh yeah, and his son did write the script.
Actor, Woody Stefl embodies a true grit nature of toxic masculinity for Shaw. (Better to be a bully than the bullied.) A neanderthal trying to pass himself off as learned gentleman. He rings out pearls of slurred wisdom like, “Fame is the shit of Act” and “Acting is no profession for a real man!” All while being an actor himself enjoying the benefits of fame. The play doesn’t hide Shaw’s rampant alcoholic nature either, instead it revels in it. He hides bottles around the set, shows up to set already sauced, and even becomes too drunk to film when the time finally comes. The words "brutishly cavalier" best fit Stefl’s approach to Shaw as a character and as a real man.
The play, however, has an albatross around its neck for a majority of its runtime. As the show’s one key through-line is the rewriting and inevitable preforming of the immortal Quint USS Indianapolis speech. A monologue that is a masterclass on screen. Sadly, while Stefl does make the most of the words, poor blocking decisions—which hold too rigorously to the film’s framing—leave the moment left in profile for the audience. Really cheapening the effect of what is the production’s selling point.
One thing is for certain; the production isn’t going to need a bigger boat. The full-size boat set of The Orca that Terry Collins and his team have constructed within the Ruth and Buckey Stein Theater is a sight to behold. The set also rocks as if on the high seas! Though that might just had been the natural shaking of the set from actors moving on and off of it?
Bryce O’Dell’s lighting design highlights every nook and cranny of the ship, too. Bathed in blue swirling light to give an underwater-like vibe to the surroundings at the top of the show, O’Dell also impresses with a hellacious indoor lightning storm show at one point.
Don’t get the impression I didn’t care for the production, it was the script I overall found lacking. The cast do their best the to overcome a lethargic staging and subject matter of a film set during downtime. I’m just a single opinion amongst a sea of them, however, and the packed Saturday night audience enjoyed the show much more than I did, laughing at near every line.
So maybe don’t take my word for it? Go out and take in some live theater yourself, and see if this "Shark is as Broken" production is for you.
Details
The Shark is Broken
Thalian Hall July 9-19 (Ruth and Bucky Stein Theatre) Thurs-Sat 7:30pm, Sun 3:00pm