Many documentaries have told the stories of the magnificent dysfunction on the set of “Jaws.” The mechanical shark didn't work a lot of the time. There were massive cost overruns, and it took 159 days to make a movie that should have taken about two months.
And on top of all the technical and mechanical troubles, there were interpersonal clashes spawned by big egos and discord over acting styles.
Still, a film that might have sunk director Stephen Spielberg’s career before it ever got started is now considered the first summer blockbuster.
Tampa’s Jobsite Theater is taking its audiences behind the projector with a play called “The Shark Is Broken.” It was co-written by Ian Shaw. He’s the son of the late British actor Robert Shaw, who starred as the irascible Quint, who captained The Orca in the 1975 film.
David Jenkins is Jobsite’s producing artistic director. He's also directing the play.
He said not only was Ian Shaw on the “Jaws” set as a child, but he also had the benefit of his father’s “drinking diary” to propel the story forward.
“In finding this diary and reading a lot of these stories that some of them he probably knew, some of them maybe he didn't know. And that sort of like that flood of memories, not only of the experience, but the man, I feel like, that's probably where this came from,” Jenkins said.
The younger Shaw also hauled up stories from television interviews his father and co-stars Roy Scheider and Richard Dreyfuss did to promote the movie. And on-scene accounts from others involved in it.
Despite what you might expect, Jenkins said the play is a comedy. The humor, he said, is born from the character’s challenges.
“The humor comes out of these men in the circumstance, too, because they're literally trapped on this boat. They can't do anything about it. And, you know, Dreyfuss is a neurotic and Shaw's sort of an old, stodgy British drunk. And these two really meet like oil and water, with Roy Scheider being the one in between the two of them,” Jenkins said.
If you’ve seen “Jaws,” you may know the famous USS Indianapolis scene where Shaw’s character Quint recounts the terror of that true story from World War II. First, the ship on a top-secret mission was torpedoed by the Japanese. Then the survivors had to survive the heat and exposure of the Philippine Sea. More than 100 were killed by shark attacks.
“That scene by so many is referred to as, like the heart and soul of that movie. And it's the crown jewel in the “Jaws” crown. And we do get to see sort of the evolution of that. But I think that over the course of this 90 or so minutes that the audience sits with it, you get the idea that this shows off how these three guys really did help carry that film, and how the dynamics between the two of them started off-screen,” Jenkins said.
Jenkins said “The Shark Is Broken” has a lot of fun things to say about art and acting fathers.
“All three of the men in the show have points where they sort of tell their dad story. And I think that people also enjoy insider baseball, sort of behind-the-scenes stuff. So, I think that part of the show's appeal with folks is that they kind of feel like they get to be a fly on the room and listen to these three guys, you know, spill the tea, as the kids say,” Jenkins said.
Jobsite Theater’s production of “The Shark Is Broken" runs through April 5 at the Straz Center 's Shimberg Playhouse in Tampa. Get more information through its website.
