'Son of Quint' letter explains origins of hit Broadway JAWS play
You can catch The Shark Is Broken from 25th July 2023 at the Golden Theater, New York, NYC.
When video surfaced of Ian Shaw (son of JAWS actor Robert Shaw) with shaggy hair and moustache, the father-son-Quint likeness was undeniable. Rumours began to swirl about a JAWS reboot, Quint prequels and more. However, the truth was even more imaginative and incredible… Ian Shaw was going to co-write and star in a live action play about the making of JAWS. This would lead to the Broadway smash hit ‘The Shark Is Broken’.
Based on his late father’s drinking diaries and ‘The JAWS Log’ by JAWS screenwriter Carl Gottlieb, the play’s story would centre on how the three lead JAWS actors Robert Shaw,Roy Scheider and Richard Dreyfuss passed the time while 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.
Like father, like son, like Quint….
The Daily Jaws was lucky enough to see the show’s very first performance in Brighton in 2019. We were blown away and helped Ian and team spread the word about this amazing event. Ian even recorded a special video message for us - see below.
On the eve of the show’s maiden Broadway performance, Ian wrote a touching letter about the gensesis of the show, paying tribute to those who helped get things off the ground and the impact this very personal project has had on him so far. Copies of the letter were inserted into opening niight playbills as well as published on thesharkisbroken.com.
Read Ian’s full letter below….
In 2017, I read a drinking diary my father kept, which I found painful and very brave. I had a moustache for another role I was playing. Suddenly I realized I looked like Quint. We were the same age. So I sketched out some ideas for a play. I shoved it in a drawer, thinking it was too crazy to actually do. Many years ago, I read about the extraordinary difficulties they had making JAWS, and it occurred to me that there was an interesting story behind the scenes of one of cinema’s most legendary movies.
I mentioned it to two of my friends, David Mounfield and Duncan Henderson, who thought the idea was good enough for them to co-produce at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe. Then I spoke to a writer friend, Joseph Nixon, who also thought it had legs and could be something a lot of people would find entertaining. I always loved the film, it feels burned into my DNA. And who doesn’t like a peek into a private world? So we wrote it together. Thank you to my wife Rachel and my family for all their support and love during that difficult process.
The play is dedicated to the wonderful David Mounfield and Joseph’s father Michael Nixon, both of whom sadly died in 2020. It is a farewell to them, and of course, my amazing father. Thank you to them for all the love and laughter they gave us.
Ian Shaw, 2023
About Ian Shaw (Co-Writer, Robert Shaw) trained at the Webber Douglas Academy of Dramatic Art, having obtained a BA in American Studies at Sussex University. Theatre includes War Horse and Common (National Theatre); Widowers’ Houses, The Importance of Being Earnest, Nude with Violin, The Philadelphia Story, and The Brothers Karamazov (Manchester Royal Exchange); Three Sisters (Nuffield and Theatre Royal Bath); Private Lives and Closer (Birmingham Rep); The Rivals (Derby Playhouse and Philadelphia Walnut St); The Tempest (SRT) and Much Ado About Nothing in London’s West End. Television includes “Sharpe,” “Soldier, Soldier,” “Medics,” “Wuthering Heights,” “The Queen,” “Ghost Hour,” “Silent Witness,” “Cambridge Spies” and the Emmy award-winning “Hiroshima.” Film includes Century, Moondance, The Boys and Girl from County Clare, The Contract and Johnny English Reborn.