If you’re a fan of behind-the-scenes stories on film sets, then you’re going to flip over “The Shark Is Broken,” playing through Nov. 14 in the Off Broadway Palm theater in Fort Myers. It’s a dramedy that takes audiences aboard the “Orca” during the filming of “Jaws.”
“It is about the relationship between Roy Scheider, Richard Dreyfuss and Robert Shaw aboard the ship, the set, during the … off periods when the shark was broken and not functioning correctly,” explains Sean Fleming, who plays Roy Scheider. “They found themselves for weeks on end, hour after hour after hour, sitting on the set just existing and being around one another.”
Robert Shaw’s son, Ian, co-wrote the play’s script.
WGCU Arts Reporter Tom Hall
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WGCU Arts Reporter Tom Hall
“He was going through his father’s diaries and accounts and a lot of old lost interviews that were filmed and put all of this stuff together about what it was like for these three gentlemen on this boat at this time in history,” said Fleming.
Cody Farkas, who plays Richard Dreyfuss, says the play’s string of short scenes or vignettes are better than outtakes or bloopers.
“It’s what you don’t get to see when you watch the movie. It’s the stuff that maybe a true ‘Jaws’ fan is kind of craving, where it’s like, I’ve watched the documentary, I’ve watched the movie, I’ve watched interviews, but I need something more,” said Farkas. “How about a play written by Robert Shaw’s son about ‘Jaws’ from real excerpts from interviews and journals and true experiences on set from crew members and cast members?”
WGCU Arts Reporter Tom Hall
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WGCU Arts Reporter Tom Hall
It’s a clash of monumental egos, says Fleming.
“You have a new wave, modern American cinema actor in Richard Dreyfuss. You have an old-school Shakespearean titan in Robert Shaw. And you have this weird melding of the two in Roy Scheider,” Fleming observed. “And so you have a lot of very snappy exchanges in the dialogue, but then at some point the alcohol starts flowing and you realize that these are all very, very complicated people with very complicated relationships in their lives, especially with their fathers.”
Shaw and Dreyfuss’ on-set relationship was especially stormy.
WGCU Arts Reporter Tom Hall
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WGCU Arts Reporter Tom Hall
Alex Dagg plays Shaw. He said Shaw resented that Dreyfuss had not been required to play bit parts and perform Shakespeare before attaining success. Yet he saw potential in the young actor.
“There was ultimate respect, and I think Shaw just would get upset that Dreyfus could be better, and he just wasn’t getting there, and I feel like Shaw motivated himself to treat him a certain way because he was getting annoyed and frustrated with Richard,” said Dagg.
That way was through tough love – in the form of jokes, jabs and disparaging remarks – the way Shaw’s mother had motivated him, says Dagg.
WGCU Arts Reporter Tom Hall
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WGCU Arts Reporter Tom Hall
Robert Shaw saw a lot of himself in Dreyfus as well, right?” Dagg pointed out. “You see two individuals that think highly of themselves, that know that they are good, but need affirmation, so for as much as there’s a difference, I think they’re more similar than anyone, or that maybe social aspects have informed us.”
Dreyfuss actually idolized Shaw, but thought that he drank too much, Dagg added.
WGCU Arts Reporter Tom Hall
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WGCU Arts Reporter Tom Hall
“There was one moment where he took a bottle of Robert Shaw’s alcohol and tossed it overboard, much to the dismay of Shaw,” Farkas remarked. “That part was really interesting to see kind of the gall he had to do something like [that].”
WGCU Arts Reporter Tom Hall
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WGCU Arts Reporter Tom Hall
There was one thing all three actors agreed on.
“They all recognized that Spielberg had had a touch of genius in him for sure,” said Fleming. “They were all very impressed with the work that he was doing and the work that he was allowing them to do on the set because a good director really I think lets the actors take the vision that that they have and mold it into what they can bring to the table.”
According to Dagg, that’s what drove Shaw to drink over his now famous Indianapolis speech.
“He then wanted to make sure that the performance he gave was something of like an Alec Guinness or of, you know, Peter O’Toole or Olivier,” Dagg explained. “He always felt like he never had those moments and I think he then saw that moment with the USS Indianapolis as this is my magnus opus, right? Like this is, I need to make sure I’m at my best.”
“The Shark Is Broken” is also good theater, says Fleming.
“It’ll touch you. It’ll make you laugh. It might make you cry even,” he said. “It’s an hour and a half long with no intermission, so it’s a quick evening.”
During the filming of “Jaws,” the mechanical shark — nicknamed Bruce — broke down constantly. This created long lulls when the actors sat idly onboard a boat several miles off Martha’s Vineyard. “The Shark Is Broken” dives into the dynamics between the actors during these long hiatuses.
WGCU Arts Reporter Tom Hall
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WGCU Arts Reporter Tom Hall
It is structured as a series of vignettes or short scenes that all happen aboard the Quint’s fictional fishing vessel, the Orca.
WGCU Arts Reporter Tom Hall
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WGCU Arts Reporter Tom Hall
“The Shark Is Broken” had its first showing on July 24, 2019, at the Rialto Theatre in Brighton, England, for a three-day run. Following this debut, it moved to the 2019 Edinburgh Festival Fringe, where it was staged at the Assembly George Square Studios from August 2-25, 2019. In the production, Ian Shaw took on the role of his father, Robert Shaw, with Liam Murray Scott playing Richard Dreyfuss and Duncan Henderson as Roy Scheider.
“The Shark Is Broken” began its run at the Ambassadors Theatre on Oct. 9, 2021, with Shaw and Murray Scott returning to their respective roles, and Demetri Goritsas stepping in as Roy Scheider. The opening was delayed by nearly 18 months due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
The Broadway production of the play opened at the John Golden Theatre on Aug. 10, 2023. Ian Shaw reprised his role as his father, alongside Alex Brightman as Dreyfuss and Colin Donnell as Scheider.
WGCU Arts Reporter Tom Hall
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WGCU Arts Reporter Tom Hall
Nominee: 2022 Olivier Award for Best Entertainment or Comedy Play
Nominee: 2024 Outer Critics Circle Award for Outstanding New Broadway Play
Nominee: Nine 2024 Theatre Fans’ Choice Awards, including Best Play
WGCU Arts Reporter Tom Hall
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WGCU Arts Reporter Tom Hall
Director: Paul Bernier
Artistic Director: Amy Marie McCleary
Stage Manager: Mia Figueroa
Set Designer: Bill Taylor
Prop Designer: Brigid Reilly
Light and Sound Designer: Chris McCleary
Costume Designer: Roberta Malcolm
WGCU Arts Reporter Tom Hall
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WGCU Arts Reporter Tom Hall
Robert Shaw: Alex Dagg
Richard Dreyfuss: Cody Farkas
Roy Scheider: Sean Fleming
Richard Dreyfuss/Roy Scheider U/S: Cameron Rogers
Robert Shaw U/S: Brad Chidester
WGCU Arts Reporter Tom Hall
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WGCU Arts Reporter Tom Hall
Bill Taylor, who’s the founder and artistic director of Theatre Conspiracy, designed and built the set, which is a cross-section of Quint’s boat from the movie. The Off-Broadway Palm is very intimate. It only seats 86 people. So the minute you walk in the doors, you feel like you’re actually coming aboard the vessel, which Taylor has rigged to move as if it’s bobbing in the seas off Martha’s Vineyard.
It really enhances the experience — but without the seasickness.
WGCU Arts Reporter Tom Hall
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WGCU Arts Reporter Tom Hall
The role of Robert Shaw marks the beginning of Dagg’s fifth season at Broadway Palm. His previous Broadway Palm credits include Uncle Henry/Gatekeeper in “The Wizard of Oz” and Todd in “Unnecessary Farce.”
Dagg said that while he knew Robert Shaw by sight, he was not familiar with his body of work prior to preparing for his audition for “The Shark Is Broken.”
“As soon as I started looking into him, I felt like, oh, this is someone I’d like to portray,” Dagg said prior to a rehearsal for the show. “One of the things that I found most interesting is how much he had gone through, how much his family had gone through as he was growing up. You see this individual who seems like he’s high-end British but actually came from nothing and experienced a lot of hardship after his father passed away, and even prior to that.”
Shaw’s hardscrabble childhood, later alcoholism and frustrated desire to be a writer all informed the way he portrayed Quint, said Dagg.
While Scheider’s line, “You’re gonna need a bigger boat,” may be “Jaws’” best one-liner, the film’s most memorable scene is Quint’s now famous USS Indianapolis speech. No matter how many times you have seen it, the power of Shaw’s delivery grows in stature. It remains as stunning and as fresh as it was almost 50 years ago.
WGCU Arts Reporter Tom Hall
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WGCU Arts Reporter Tom Hall
And, said Dagg, Shaw sensed from the outset that it would be a career-defining moment for him professionally. And he was frustrated by early drafts of the haunting monologue, which is not part of Peter Benchley’s book but was instead to give the script a heightened sense of realism.
“Shaw and Steven Spielberg and other production people would have these discussions about this speech,” Dagg noted. “So, it was written multiple times by different people and Robert Shaw, being a writer himself, definitely wanted this to be his Oscar moment.”
As it turned out, Shaw wasn’t nominated for an Academy Award for his portrayal of Quint. But he did have a hand in the final version of the speech. [There are multiple accounts of how the speech evolved. Benchley, Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright Howard Sackler (“The Great White Hope”) and John Milius each took turns, with Shaw ultimately trimming Milius’ eight-page monologue to the final five-page speech.]
“He felt so much pressure that at one point, he gets completely smashed during a taping, fumbles it and basically blacks out. He comes in the next day, apologizes to Steven, and performs the take you see in the movie. He felt that he let everyone down, including himself, and I think when you feel like you’ve let yourself down, you definitely really have a come-to-Jesus moment. He certainly did.”
WGCU Arts Reporter Tom Hall
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WGCU Arts Reporter Tom Hall
While the USS Indianapolis speech is a pivotal dramatic moment in the play, much of the dramedy’s conflict and tension comes from Shaw’s relationship with Dreyfuss.
“Shaw said in interviews that he treated Dreyfus as if he was his son,” Dagg explained. “That’s not necessarily a good thing given how bad Shaw’s relationship with his own dad was. His father was hard on Shaw because he was the oldest son. His father was a drinker and went down a bad path. But Shaw always held out hope for his dad. So it was Shaw’s mom who raised him, and being a single mom in the 1930s and ‘40s, she was really harsh. So, the way I view how Robert Shaw treated Richard Dreyfus is very much the way that Robert Shaw’s mom treated him, through bullying and demeaning jokes, which is no different than how I was raised, which is like a similarity.”
The cruelest jokes contain a kernel of truth and that was certainly the case with the zingers Shaw directed at Dreyfuss over the course of the play. Shaw understood Dreyfuss because he was so much like Dreyfuss.
“They both have a substance problem when it comes to having to perform, or needing it to relieve stress,” Dagg observed. “You see two individuals that think highly of themselves, that know that they are good, but need affirmation, so for as much as there’s a difference, I think they’re more similar than anyone, or that maybe social aspects have informed us.”
WGCU Arts Reporter Tom Hall
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WGCU Arts Reporter Tom Hall
However, the play also underscores that Shaw, being deceptively cerebral, sometimes just enjoyed screwing with Dreyfuss because he was bored and it was so easy to get under Dreyfuss’ skin.
Dagg said that Shaw also knew that if he went too far, Scheider was there to reel him in.
“I believe he knew with Roy Scheider being there, that he could push some boundaries,” said Dagg. “I think he felt like Scheider was his safety net. Like, oh, if I’m getting too out of control, I know Roy will catch that. And even if he didn’t consciously think that, I think when you know there’s someone there that checks you, you know you can push a little bit further. Like, I have those people in my life. I know when there’s friends around, or people that are around, that if I go too far, if I’m crossing the line, I respect them enough that when they tell me to pull back, I pull back. And I think that was Roy for Robert Shaw.”
WGCU Arts Reporter Tom Hall
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WGCU Arts Reporter Tom Hall
And therein lies the comedy that’s implicit in the script and each of the characters.
“So Cody as Richard and then Sean as Roy, they both are extremely funny,” said Dagg. “Robert Shaw also shares that comedy aspect when you understand the relationship and what he’s trying to get. And then every single individual in this show as well has their moments where they connect. What makes this show so beautiful is how real it is.”
Dagg has a B.F.A. in acting from the University of West Florida.
WGCU Arts Reporter Tom Hall
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WGCU Arts Reporter Tom Hall
Cody Farkas makes his Broadway Palm debut in the role of Richard Dreyfuss. Farkas has been in “The Shark Is Broken” before. He appeared in the production when it ran at Jobsite Theater in the Straz Center in Tampa from March 11 to April 5.
Farkas began his preparations for the role by watching his press tour for “The Apprenticeship of Duddy Kravitz,” the movie Dreyfuss did right before “Jaws.”
“He’s fidgety. He’s neurotic. And I was like, that’s something I should do. That’s definitely something I should do [when playing the part].”
He studied and emulates these and his other mannerisms that by the mid-point of the play, you forget he’s an actor playing Richard Dreyfuss and come to believe you’re actually watching Richard Dreyfuss play himself.
WGCU Arts Reporter Tom Hall
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WGCU Arts Reporter Tom Hall
Perhaps it was that lack of self-confidence that led to his conflict with Robert Shaw.
“It was this battle of wit at times where he’s trying to prove that he is a real actor,” Farkas observed. “He wants to do Shakespeare. He wants to do all these things that Shaw has done. And Shaw, being a much more seasoned actor, sees this younger, this greener kid and he’s like, well, I need to give him the same treatment I got when I was a young actor. He’s got to pay his dues.”
Shaw triggered Dreyfuss in myriad ways. Dreyfuss was intimidated by Shaw’s success and accomplishments. But Shaw’s condescension also angered him, and he was frustrated by Shaw’s drinking even though he did cocaine and other drugs during the course of the filming.
While much of the play revolves around Dreyfuss’ ongoing feud with Robert Shaw, Farkas was quick to point out that Dreyfuss not only admired Shaw, he also cared about his physical and emotional wellbeing.
“There was one moment where he took a bottle of Robert Shaw’s alcohol and tossed it overboard, much to the dismay of Shaw,” said Farkas.
WGCU Arts Reporter Tom Hall
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WGCU Arts Reporter Tom Hall
The intervention did not quite work out the way Dreyfuss had envisioned. Had it not been for Scheider, Shaw might very well have choked Dreyfuss to death.
Farkas thinks audiences will be particularly enamored of the opportunity to see three iconic actors outside of the roles they play in the film.
“Seeing these people that you care deeply about onscreen, and then like, oh, they’re real people and I can relate to them, not only on screen, but as a person. I think it’s just, it’s humanizing, and I think that’s why people enjoy going behind the scenes like we do in this play.”
WGCU Arts Reporter Tom Hall
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WGCU Arts Reporter Tom Hall
Farkas said a play like “The Shark Is Broken” can also serve as an entry point into theater for people who have not previously been to the theater.
“This is a great starting point for someone who’s not into theater but who enjoys movies,” said Farkas. “I don’t know a human being that doesn’t love a movie. If you like movies and you’re kind of iffy about theater, come see this show. It’s a show about a movie. I think it’s a great entry-level play. Theater is very important, especially nowadays. I think seeing live performance is something that’s very special and should be cherished.”
WGCU Arts Reporter Tom Hall
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WGCU Arts Reporter Tom Hall
Farkas’ regional credits include “American Idiot,” “Much Ado About Nothing,” “The Comedy of Errors” (Jobsite Theatre), “Purlie” (Westcoast Black Theatre Troupe), “Whiskey & Soda” (Off-Central Players) and “Poirot Returns” (Stageworks).
WGCU Arts Reporter Tom Hall
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WGCU Arts Reporter Tom Hall
Fleming makes his Off Broadway Palm debut in the role of Roy Scheider. But he’s no stranger to Prather Entertainment. His other Prather credits include Bobby (and Zach understudy) in “A Chorus Line,” Detective Trotter in “Mousetrap,” Mr. Body in “Clue” and Willie Conklin in “Ragtime.”
Fleming learned much interesting trihe role
For example, he discovered that Scheider was once a welterweight boxer.
“I learned that he was also in the Air Force and before he decided to go into acting, he was actually intending to study history.”
WGCU Arts Reporter Tom Hall
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WGCU Arts Reporter Tom Hall
The latter explains Scheider’s penchant for sharing facts and trivia with his castmates.
“He’s constantly pointing out things that he finds very interesting that most people would roll their eyes at or think are rather silly, like facts about the crew and other projects they’d worked on,” Fleming noted. “Oddly enough, he brings up the fact that honey is the only food that doesn’t spoil. Nothing to do with Bruce [the nickname given to the mechanical shark], but he really found that interesting.”
Shaw and Dreyfuss didn’t share Scheider’s fascination with the esoteric, said Fleming, but they humored him because they respected him and the role he played onset acting as mediator and peacekeeper between Shaw and Dreyfuss.
WGCU Arts Reporter Tom Hall
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WGCU Arts Reporter Tom Hall
Fleming’s other stage credits include Judas in “Jesus Christ Superstar,” Jack in “Newsies” and Barrett in “Titanic.”
Support for WGCU’s arts & culture reporting comes from the Estate of Myra Janco Daniels, the Charles M. and Joan R. Taylor Foundation, and Naomi Bloom in loving memory of her husband, Ron Wallace.
