Broken Shark
Ambassadors Theatre in London Until January 15, 1hr 30mins
Just when you thought it was safe to go back to the theatre, there’s a great white shark about. This is a rerun from an Edinburgh Fringe success story, which is about Steven Spielberg’s Jaws movie.
You get the famous boom-boom boom-boom music, video projections of the sea lapping a boat that looks as if it’s been bitten in half. The cabin is home to three film star bickering who spend hours waiting on the mechanical shark being fixed.
Without the mocking madness of Robert Shaw’s star turn as Quint, the shark-catcher, I suspect the film might have been a tad dull.

Here we get Robert Shaw’s shanty-singing, gnarly performance, lovingly recreated by his son Ian Shaw (above, with Liam Murray Scott and Demetri Goritsas)
Here we get Shaw’s shanty-singing, gnarly performance, lovingly recreated by his son Ian Shaw, who was only eight when his father died prematurely.
The two others on the boat are newcomer Richard Dreyfuss – a top impression from Liam Murray Scott – and the great Roy Scheider as police chief Brody, benevolently played by Demetri Goritsas.
Ian Shaw (the play’s co-writer with Joseph Nixon) dominates the action with growls, sneers and a boozed-up animosity towards the film, and the smart-arse ‘boy’ Dreyfuss, who comes over as needy and paranoid.
Scheider’s portrayal of Scheider as a pedantic and jobbing actor is inaccurate. However, Scheider was already an important star in The French Connection.
There is a lot of humor in the script. But it’s easily forgivable because this eccentric project superbly evokes such a meaty chunk of 1970s Hollywood film lore. Quint’s set-piece speech about the sinking of the USS Indianapolis and the sharks that feasted on hundreds of survivors chills to the bone.
This intimate look at the movie that scared a lot of people is a great way to get to know more about it.