Producers Sonia Friedman Productions, Scott Landis, GFour Productions and Kenny Wax announce casting for the forthcoming UK and Ireland tour of The Shark Is Broken, the behind- the-scenes West End and Broadway smash hit comedy about the making of the movie Jaws. Ian Shaw stars as his father, Robert Shaw, alongside Dan Fredenburgh as Roy Scheider and Ashley Margolis as Richard Dreyfuss.
Celebrating the 50th anniversary of the 1975 iconic blockbuster, the critically acclaimed Olivier award-nominated play, The Shark Is Broken, co-written by Ian Shaw and Joseph Nixon, opens on tour at Oxford Playhouse on Thursday 23 January, visiting a further 14 venues culminating with a week at The Gaiety Theatre in Dublin until 17 May 2025. Tickets are on sale.
Inspired by Robert Shaw’s experience playing ‘Quint’ in Jaws, The Shark Is Broken is the brilliantly funny play which celebrates movie history as it peeks at the choppy waters behind Hollywood’s first blockbuster and imagines what happened on board ‘The Orca’ when the cameras stopped rolling during the filming of Steven Spielberg’s epic movie.
FADE IN: The open ocean, 1974. Filming is delayed… again. The lead actors – theatre veteran Robert Shaw and young Hollywood hotshots Richard Dreyfuss and Roy Scheider – are crammed into a too-small boat, entirely at the mercy of foul weather and a faulty mechanical co-star. Alcohol flows, egos collide, and tempers flare on a chaotic voyage that just might lead to cinematic magic… if it doesn’t sink them all.
Following its critical and sell-out success at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe in 2019, The Shark Is Broken transferred to the West End in 2021 playing at the Ambassadors Theatre for a limited season where it enjoyed an extended run due to huge popular demand and an Olivier award nomination for Best Comedy Play. In July 2023 the production transferred to Broadway for a 16-week run at the John Golden Theatre where it garnered fresh critical acclaim.
Martha Geelan directs the tour of The Shark Is Broken, based on original direction by Guy Masterson, set and costume design by Duncan Henderson, lighting design by Jon Clark, sound design by Adam Cork, video design by Nina Dunn. Assistant director Molly Stacey, associate sound designer James Melling.
