JAWS MUSICAL FINDS ITS SINGING STEVEN SPIELBERG
A new musical about the making of Jaws has found its Steven Spielberg, in the form of Jarrod Spector.
The musical in question is Bruce, and takes its cue from The Jaws Log by Carl Gottlieb, who also featured in the film and was also on co-screenwriting duties on the 1975 shark classic.
Spector, who will be playing the Young Hollywood director, has been previously Tony-nominated and his Broadway credits include Beautiful: The Carole King Musical and The Cher Show.
And now he'll be turning back time to Martha's Vineyard, 1974. When on the interview circuit for West Side Story, Spielberg even said that Jaws would make a great musical.
The show is set to have its world premiere at the Seattle Rep with previews starting at the end of May, and opening night setting sail on June 8, just 12 days before the film made its cinema debut on June 20, back in 1975.
Spector said: "I just hope Mr. Spielberg doesn’t mind that his singing voice sounds an awful lot like my own.”
Bruce - the nickname given to the sporadically working great white shark, which was named after Spielberg’s lawyer - has music by Richard Oberacker and story and lyrics by Oberacker and Robert Taylor.
They are the same team behind the 2017 Broadway musical Bandstand. The making of shark film musical will be directed and choreographed by Donna Feore.
After the roaring success of the making of Jaws origins play The Shark Is Broken in London, all eyes (black eyes, like a doll's eyes) will be on this show across the pond – insert your own but it’s for the old ladies joke here - and whether it can deliver the goods for Jaws and musical theatre fans alike.
Words by Dean Newman
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