Theater Review: A play about the making of the movie 'Jaws' makes a nice splash on Broadway

For free real time breaking news alerts sent straight to your inbox sign up to our breaking news emails Sign up to our free breaking news emails Sign up to our free breaking news emails SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Not what you might be expecting with “The Shark Is Broken,” the lyrical play that opened Thursday about the trio of actors who enlivened the pioneering Steven Spielberg -directed movie “Jaws.” Set on a boat off Martha's Vineyard during filming in 1974, “The Shark Is Broken” is a moving comedy-drama, mirroring the way the movie segued from horror to playfulness so effortlessly. The script — and Guy Masterson’s unfussy direction — never lets interest lag over the play's 90, intermission-less minutes, the tension, humor, depth, silliness and horror coming like waves lapping the boat. Quint’s famous USS Indianapolis speech — “1,100 men went in the water, 316 men come out, the sharks took the rest” — forms the play's backbone as Shaw struggles to initially memorize it, then rewrites it and finally delivers it masterfully. Donnell as Scheider is the sensible one, a newspaper-reading, controlled pro, inserting dry facts into the discussion, sitting angularly and trying to keep the other two civil.. All three actors — think of them as nebbish, brutish and fastidious — pitch their performances well beyond caricature and more like inspiration, showing the audience their character’s quirks only as a way to understand them in a larger way as flawed and delightful men.