The JAWS stars who trod the boards of Broadway
Hello, Islanders!
With Ian Shaw currently on Broadway in “The Shark is Broken,” it brought to mind the theater career of his father, Robert. Which got me thinking about the stage experiences of Roy Scheider and Richard Dreyfuss.
Most actors begin their careers doing theater. It’s their training ground. As someone who pursued acting as a career in my younger days – sadly, I found work but could never make a living at it – the challenge of live theater is both terrifying and exciting, often at the same time. Not only do you have to worry about your performance, but you also subconsciously try to feel out the audience for their reactions. Two experiences of mine stand out to this day. On November 21, 1980 I opened as Richard in “The Lion in Winter.” If you’re familiar with the film, I played the Anthony Hopkins role. There was a mad rush to the lobby at intermission and I thought to myself, “they hate us and they aren’t coming back.” But come back they did. However, as the second act started, there was a constant murmur going through the crowd. My first thought was that I was revealing too much to the audience when I sat down in my tunic. However, after the show I learned the truth. November 21, 1980 was the night that the television program “Dallas” revealed who had shot J.R. Ewing in the previous season’s finale’. With cell phones only a distant dream, people had raced to the lobby to use the pay phones to call home and find out who shot J.R. SPOILER ALERT – it was Kristin.
On September 11, 2001, I opened as Moss in “Glengarry Glen Ross.” Again, referencing the film version, I had the role played by Ed Harris. Though the adage “the show must go on” is well known, the events of the day guaranteed us a nearly empty theater and an audience with much more on their minds then corporate greed.
I mention these instances because I can’t imagine being Ian Shaw channeling his late father, especially in front of an audience that includes JAWS fans who he knows are comparing him to his father in their minds. Thankfully, Schieder and Dreyfuss have never faced the hurdle of playing real people. Let’s see how these two have fared on the Great White Way.
ROY SCHEIDER
Despite an extensive stage career – I have an old program from a Pennsylvania theater in which he played Ensign Pulver in “Mister Roberts” – and an Obie award (basically the Tony award equivalent for off-Broadway shows) for “Distinguished Performance” for his role in the play “Stephen D.” Scheider only appeared on Broadway twice. On January 4, 1964, he understudied the roles of Oliver and Tarver in “The Chinese Prime Minister.” For those unfamiliar, an understudy is someone that waits in the shadows, ready to go on at a moments notice should the actor playing the part fall ill or not show up. That Scheider understudied two roles meant he had to learn all of the lines, stage directions, etc for two separate roles. Brava! The show ran for three months, a total of 108 performances, at the Royale Theatre. I have no idea if Roy ever went on stage.
Almost sixteen years later to the day (January 5, 1980) Scheider returned to Broadway, originating the role of Robert opposite Blythe Danner and Raul Julia in Harold Pinter’s “Betrayal.” With previews, the show ran through May 31st – a total of 170 performances. A side note: Broadway theaters are “dark” on Monday nights. That year Scheide was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Actor for his role in ALL THAT JAZZ. Until 1999, the Oscars used to be held on Monday nights. Rather than having to either take a late flight from NYC to LA Sunday night, then turn around and come back early Tuesday morning to go on stage that night, Roy skipped the Academy Awards that year. And wisely so. Roy told me two weeks before the ceremony that Dustin Hoffman was going to win, presumably because he had “paid his dues.”
RICHARD DREYFUSS
Richard has appeared on Broadway a total of four times, beginning in 1969 when he originated the role of Stanley in “But Seriously…” However, this debut was short lived as the show only ran for four performances.
In 1983, he returned to Broadway in “Total Abandon,” a show which opened on April 28. Sadly, the show also closed on April 28.
In March 1992, he gave the stage another go, starring with Glenn Close and Gene Hackman in “Death and the Maiden.” The show, directed by Mike Nichols, ran at the Brooks Atkinson Theatre for a total of 159 performances. Like “The Shark is Broken,” I believe this was a limited engagement show. I had the amazing opportunity to see this production and to say I was overwhelmed by the talents of three of the best actors ever plying their craft 30-feet in front of me would be an understatement.
Richard Dreyfuss with Gene Hackman and Glenn Close in ‘Death and the maiden’
In 2004, he returned to Broadway again playing both Foxwell J. Sly and the Judge in a revival of “Sly Fox,” opposite Eric Stoltz and Bob Dishy. The show, which played at the Ethel Barrymore Theatre, opened on April 1st, played through the summer, and totaled 173 performances.
Words by Michael A Smith. Michael is co-author of Jaws 2: The Making Of The Hollywood Sequel. You can order the book by contacting Michael at OsFanMike@aol.com.
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