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‘The Shark Is Broken,’ a ‘Jaws’ Comedy, Plans Broadway Run

The making-of comedy “The Shark Is Broken,” starring the son of one of the film’s main characters, hits Broadway this summer.

The play was the brainchild of Ian Shaw, whose father, Robert Shaw, played psychotic shark hunter Quint in the film. Some have gotten worse, and the play depicts the complicated relationship between him and his co-stars Richard Dreyfuss and Roy Scheider.

In the play, set in 1974, three men are trapped in a boat together, dealing with bad weather, (fake) shark trouble, and alcohol.

The play premiered at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe in 2019 and, after pandemic-related delays, in London’s West End in 2021 and Toronto last fall. The Broadway production is scheduled to begin previews on July 25th and open at the Golden Theater on August 10th.

The play received many strong reviews in London. from the evening standard, said Ian Shaw, “arguably delivers one of the best plays of the year.” (The Guardian was more modestpraised Ian Shaw’s “loving and eerily evocative portrayal of his own father”, while stating that “too much humor rests on 21st-century hindsight”. )

Ian Shaw wrote a play with Joseph Nixon. The production is directed by Guy Masterson and produced by Sonia Friedman and Scott Landis.

The play joins what is becoming an unusually busy summer on Broadway. It’s already represented horror (“Grey House”) and farce (“The Cottage”), and three big musicals (“Once Upon a One More Time,” “Here Comes Love,” and “Back to the Future”) and solo comedy (“Just For Us” by Alex Edelman).

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