New trailer for The Shark Is Broken has real bite

The brand new show trailer for The Shark Is Broken is here, and it's suitably cinematic in feel, but then you'd expect nothing less when that trailer is for a show about the making of Steven Spielberg's Jaws.

The distinct tones of Quint wash over teases of what is unmistakably the Orca, a swinging table light, a close up of Quint's hands cradling his cup and a glimpse of a yellow barrel.

If the camera is hunting like a shark, then Quint's voice is the Jaws theme. His commanding tone regales us with the opening lines of the greatest monologue ever committed to film...the USS Indianapolis speech.

And then, it's like a needle scratches of a record as Quint booms: "Oh my god, I can't say this. It's duller than my tax returns."

This isn't a film, it isn't Jaws, and it isn't even Robert Shaw, but it is the closest thing we do have to him, in looks and sound, and that is because it is his son, Ian Shaw.

There's some wonderful snatches of Shaw, Scheider and Dreyfuss (dressed as Quint, Brody and Hooper) verbally sparring against one another as they wait for the shark not to be broken, complete with a genius delivery of that Roy Scheider line that Stephen King has called his favourite in all of cinema.

It really is pitch perfect in selling the play, its sense of verve and knowing comedy and tone, showing any idea that this is Jaws the film on stage the way to go home.

The trailer is a sheer delight and Jaws fans will have the hairs on the hairs on the back of the their necks standing on end. The play isn't just good, it's sublime, and this new trailer leaves you in no doubt of that.

It is incredibly moving at times, but also hugely funny, the cast just ping off one another and it really is a three barrels of laughs.

At one wonderful point Robert Shaw states "Do you really think we are going to be talking about this in 40 years?"

Yes we are Robert, yes we are. And in no small part that's in thanks to the sharper than shark's teeth script by Ian Shaw and Joseph Nixon, and the bristling performances of Ian Shaw, Demetri Goritsas and Liam Murray Scott stuck on the Orca.

Be in no doubt, this is the biggest thing to happen to Jaws since Jaws was released on the big screen.

The Shark Is Broken really captures the anarchy and camaraderie of being in the confines in the cabin on the Orca, which is a stunning design by Duncan Henderson, and is very much a member of the cast.

With its intimate 500 seat theatre setting at The Ambassadors Theatre, we the audience are like the fourth crew member. And this electric performance by all involved is the nearest you'll get to being on Martha's Vineyard in 1974.

If you have been sitting on the karate chopped picket fence on whether you should come aboard and see the show, after watching this exhilarating new trailer the only question you'll be asking is show me the way to buy tickets.

The Shark Is Broken is at The Ambassadors Theatre until February 13th, 2022. You can buy tickets for The Shark Is Broken here.

Words by Dean Newman

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