Imagine working on the set of “Jaws,” but there’s a problem: the 25-foot-long animatronic shark is down.
That’s the plot for “The Shark is Broken,” which the Springs Ensemble Theatre will be presenting through Sept. 14.
The play is based on the conversations among “Jaws” co-stars Roy Scheider, Robert Shaw and Richard Dreyfus as they wait on the malfunctioning shark, coined “Bruce,” to be fixed to continue filming. Set in the cabin of the Orca, the boat in the movie, the actors are trying to wrap filming without killing each other, joked Steve Emily, who plays Shaw.
“One of the co-writers of the script is actually Robert Shaw’s son. So a lot of this is based on stories that his dad told him,” said Emily, who is also vice president of the theater company.
“It’s pretty well known that Dreyfus and Shaw did not get along. So it kind of dives into ego and generations, because Shaw was of a different generation than Dreyfus. He was the new up and comer. And Shaw was, his career was starting to wind down a bit, so, and then poor Roy Scheider is kind of stuck in the middle.”
For the show, SET will recreate the Orca on stage. The show, which is a comedy, is a bit different than the plays the theater company often tackles, Emily said, which has been a fun change of pace.
“It’s really funny, and it’s not just comedy. It goes in a little deeper in terms of, like I was saying, generational gaps and people who feel like the world is passing them by a little bit,” he said. “We can look back on it kind of with hindsight at this point, but at one point, Shaw says this film is going to end up in the dustbin of history. Nobody’s going to remember this thing. So it’s one of those things where he was incredibly wrong.”
The show also will pay homage to the 50th anniversary of “Jaws” this year, featuring fun Easter eggs that will be a real treat for movie fans, Emily said.
“That movie changed everything. It changed how films are released. It’s changed how films are marketed, toys and all that other stuff,” he said. “It’s also just kind of a tip of the hat to this cultural icon, so to kind of help celebrate the 50th and we felt it was a really good way to kick off our 16th season.”
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‘ Some details of this article were extracted from the following source gazette.com ’
