The Shark Is Broken – A JAWS-ome opening night

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Paulie Christine – who we previously featured as being in the queue when tickets first went on sale and his first reaction to seeing The Shark Is Broken – is back, swimming in the seats of the Golden Theater and giving us an insight into attending the memorable opening night – special Playbill in hand.

The weather was treacherous in New York City, and although the weather was broken, it added to the feeling that it could have been us on the Orca in this crappy weather, while they waited for Bruce the mechanical shark to work.

Approaching the theater there was all media taking pictures and interviews of the star-studded guests, obviously the marketing folks had reached out further than just putting an ad in Field and Stream.

Those guests on the Blue Carpet (it’s just blue carpet!) included Christian Slater, Al Roker, Jeffery Kramer (Deputy Hendricks from JAWS and JAWS 2) Gary Springer (Andy Nicholas JAWS 2) and Stephen Arnell (Green Arrow).

Each seating location is going to give a different vantage point of the show, this performance I was more Orca’s crow nest than ocean level view.

This time, I was sat in the front mezzanine and on the side, meaning I had a different perspective from seeing it in the orchestra, for example when they play the coin game you had a better visual of them actually playing the game.

And each performance brings with it its own nuances, Alex Brightman (Richard Dreyfuss) was putting on his dungaree jacket and his arm got stuck in the sleeve and it was one of the funnier moments. I think it was an accident (not of the boat kind), but they should keep it in.

There is a wonderful sun tanning scene with Colin Donnell as Roy Scheider, who takes off his clothes to his undies on the Orca. The scene starts out with a call from the crew telling him he can take his lunch break, so he strips gets in his chair to relax and not two minutes later the crew his calling to say they are cutting out the lunch and are ready to do a scene. During this whole time Roy was the calm and reasonable one and has a freak out moment – now who’s certifiable - where he pulls out a bat and wants to smash the walkie talkie! All of which is wonderful attention to detail for JAWS fans.

Ian Shaw as Robert Shaw is pure perfection and the real dramatic scenes are so intense and riveting, I can see the Tony in his hands on the night of the awards.

And judging by the audience reactions to those opening night bows, those proportions could well be correct.

The Shark Is Broken is swimming at the Golden Theater until November 19, so c’mon in the water and see the Broadway show everyone is Jaws-ing about.

Words by Paulie Christine, additional content and editing by Dean Newman.

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