THE SHARK IS BROKEN LONDON DEBUT COINCIDES WITH 40TH ANNIVERSARY OF JAWS UK TV PREMIERE
It’s the year 1981, and almost six years since Jaws swam onto UK cinema screens, it was making its journey onto television, on 8 October.
And now, with a certain sense of serendipity, almost exactly 40 years later, The Shark Is Broken, a new West End play co-written by and starring the son of Jaws legend Robert Shaw, surfaces on the London stage on Saturday 9 October.
The Ambassdor’s Theatre will be home to The Shark Is Broken until mid-January
Some 23.25 million viewers, one of the largest British TV audiences ever for a film screening, tuned into ITV that night in 1981, to watch Hooper, Quint and Brody battle against the giant shark.
Back then, there were only three TV channels in the UK, homes had just started having video recorders - with VHS and Betamax vying for home supremacy – and there was no satellite television and the likes of Netflix and Prime weren’t even pipe dreams yet.
The Shark Is Broken actor and co-writer Ian Shaw mid rehearsal earlier this month
And to this day, ITV2 and ITV4 can still be found screening Jaws and its sequels at regular intervals. The shark is still very much working. Unless you are in present day London that is.
In London, word on the street is that The Shark Is Broken, but that is just the title of the brand new play about the behind-the-scenes goings on during the making of Jaws. It’s already taken The Edinburgh Fringe by storm and is expected to do the same at The Ambassadors Theatre, which it is calling home for a 14-week run.
If it has a similar impact to the original Steven Spielberg classic when it was released in 1975 – it was released in the US on June 20 that year, but not until December 26 in the UK – then it is set to be a sure thing, although Shaw thing might be a better description.
Some 23.25 million viewers, one of the largest British TV audiences ever for a film screening, tuned into ITV one night in 1981, to watch Hooper, Quint and Brody battle against the giant shark.
That’s because it features Ian Shaw playing his dad, Robert Shaw, dressed as Quint. And hearing a packed audience gasp when Ian first enters stage is worthy of the ticket price alone, it will make your hairs stand on end.
The characters of Richard Dreyfuss and Roy Scheider are also all aboard this hilarious and often touching account of the making of a bona-fide Hollywood classic.
And the serendipity continues, as it was a quirk of casting fate that set Ian Shaw thinking about the idea that became the play that everyone will be Jaws-ing about this season: QUINT-UM LEAP: WHEN JAWS STAR ROBERT SHAW DELIVERED THE BOMB TO HIS SON, IAN SHAW — THE DAILY JAWS
Dean Newman, head of content for The Daily Jaws, the world’s number one Jaws website, who are also official media partner for the show, said: “That screening of Jaws on ITV was my introduction to the film, and I’ve been scared of it, but always been in love with it ever since. So, with them happening almost 40 years apart to the day, it almost feels as if the Jaws journey has come full circle.
“I know it was the introduction to the Spielberg shark classic for lots of people, so it will mean a lot to many of them, many who I am sure will be in the audience at some point. And we’ll all feel the rush of excitement like when we saw it for that very first time on TV.”
And that first screening of Jaws on British television has had a lasting impression on many a Jaws fan, it was real event television that would be guaranteed to be talked about in the school playground or in the office the very next day.
In one town Cubs was even called off, as @ArlosDad on Twitter recalled. He said: I was too young to remember but my Mum was fond of saying they cancelled Cubs in my town that evening because no one was going to turn up. It was a big deal.
@davidpkidd added: This was the first time I watched Jaws. I was 11 yrs old and was riveted and terrified from start to finish. Even the adverts didn’t spoil it. I didn’t swim in the sea for years. Which is a bit of an overreaction because we holidayed in North Wales....
And now you can have that same feeling all over again, but this time with a stage show about the making of that very film. You can buy tickets for The Shark Is Broken below:
