Yellow Playbill cover for The Shark Is Broken sets fitting tone for JAWS play
Playbill, the distinctive yellow-covered program, has a The Shark Is Broken show cover – as it does for most Broadway shows – but the iconic yellow cover really lends itself to the show which is about the behind the scenes making of JAWS.
In that 1975 film by Steven Spielberg the colour yellow is a signifier of the shark – which often goes unseen and famously only had four minutes of screentime – although that is still 240 seconds more time than it gets in Ian Shaw’s and Joseph Nixon’s play – based in part on the diaries of Quint actor Robert Shaw, who Ian is the son of.
That’s right, there is no shark in The Shark Is Broken, it is sharkless, but that doesn’t mean that it’s mechanical presence isn’t felt, helping slow production and with it creating a making of – helped by the publication of The Jaws Log by co-screenwriter of the film Carl Gottlieb – that is as legendary as the finished blockbuster film.
And although there is no shark, you may just spot a pesky yellow barrel on set, meaning that although unseen – like in the film – our thoughts of the shark are just below the surface.
The Shark Is Broken began performing previews on Broadway at the Golden Theater from July 25 and stars Ian Shaw as his dad Robert Shaw. The Olivier-nominated comedy also stars two-time Tony nominee (Beetlejuice and School of Rock) Alex Brightman as Richard Dreyfuss and Colin Donnell as Roy Scheider. Its 16-week limited run opens on August 10, and you can buy tickets here.
And here for fans of JAWS is just why yellow is so important and prevalent in JAWS and is so much more than a set of yellow barrels.
The score to JAWS, by John Williams, gets much of the praise, with the music being the shark for the most part - alongside those point of view shots and masterful Oscar-winning editing by Verna Fields.
But besides that and the water level camera, the other element of JAWS that helps gives us that constant feeling of unease, is the presence of the colour yellow. It's like a harbinger of doom, meaning that the shark is omnipresent even in scenes that it isn't a part of.
And that provides a constant feeling of unease and trepidation.
The usual sunny colour signifies the presence of the shark, think about it, featuring on everything from Alex Kintner's inflatable, those yellow barrels, the shirt that Pipit's owner is wearing to the yellow chord featured on the boat that the estuary victim is rowing.
In this interesting food for thought BBC article by Stephen Dowling - which, believe it or not was forwarded to us by a certain Mr Ian Shaw (he obviously takes his sharkin’ very seriously) - it actually turns out that yellow - which is often referred to as ‘yum-yum-yellow’ - could attract some sharks. It isn’t a new theory as it was something that was researched during World War 2 when many US servicemen found themselves treading water, wearing bright yellow or orange life jackets.
Ian Shaw as Robert Shaw, dressed as Quint from JAWS
They may stick out in the water to be spotted and rescued by planes or boats, but did it then also attract curious sharks to those splashing in the water - including survivors of the ill-fated USS Indianapolis. made famous in JAWS?
All of which adds new meaning to when Quint (Robert Shaw) says he’ll never put on a life jacket again. For many, it was dismissed as myth, but research by the US Navy did show that some sharks could tell the difference between colours and contrast, including the great white shark.
Some surfers and divers may have ditched the bright colours, but colour doesn’t mean you won’t have a shark encounter as a silhouette on a surfboard or swimmer thrashing in the water like a destressed mammal or fish is still going to seem fair game. This is why many shark encounters are suggested to be exploratory bites.
Keeping that glinting underwater camera, GoPro or divers watch hidden may also prove a good bet, as it has been suggested such reflections mimic the scales of fish and such glinting can attract sharks. The good news is - despite how it can seem in the media - sharks attacks are extremely rare occurences.
So much so that the International Shark Attack File suggests that “the benefit of increasing one’s chances of being rescued far outweighs the minimal risk of attracting a shark.”
Wherever you stand on the subject there is no denying that yellow still provokes fear in JAWS, so here's all those brightly coloured signifier moments in the Steven Spielberg shark classic that you may have missed.
Some are obviously intentional, others may not be, but once you start seeing yellow in JAWS it is almost impossible to stop.
Amity Island sign
As Chief Brody sets off in his car to what turns out to be the first victim of the shark, Chrissie Watkins, he drives by an 'Amity Island Welcomes You" sign for the 50th regatta.
The border of the sign, which we return to later in the film after it has been graffitied with a shark fin, has a border of yellow around it.
And the woman in the image is laid atop a yellow inflatable, that looks very similar to Alex Kintner's.
Mrs Kintner's hat
A young boy exits the water to ask his mum if he can have 10 more minutes in the water, meet Alex Kintner. His mum is wearing a large sun hat, which is yellow. As the tension of what appears to be a normal beach scene escalates, so does the colour yellow.
Pipit's owner
We all love Pipit the dog. Right after the Alex talks to his mum, we see Pipit's owner throwing a stick into the shallows for the dog to retrieve. His owner is wearing a yellow shirt.
We see him later stood at the edge of the beach calling for his dog, only his stick remains floating on the surface.
If the shark has killed a dog, all bets are off for who is next.
Alex's inflatable
And then Alex leaps out onto the water on his yellow inflatable, and we see him paddle out.
And sadly, it is Alex who is the next victim of the shark.
His mum, still wearing her yellow sun hat, initially confused by the commotion and people being rushed out of the water.
And then her desperate calls for him at the water's edge.
His bloody and tattered inflatable then washes up on the beach.
Harry’s bad hat approaches
As the red herring pf the top of Harry’s swimming hat approaches a swimmer, we - along with Chief Brody - think this could be the shark. During this moment the people walking between shot - acting as cutting moments between Brody and the sea - are all wearing yellow.
And when Harry comes and speaks to Brody, he is even drying himself with a yellow towel.
Mayor Vaughn’s jacket
Amity’s Mayor is known for his loud jackets, but in the town hall meeting scene where they discuss teh incident and closing the beaches, Mayor Vaughn is wearing a yellow mustard jacket. This is also the scene where we are introduced to Quint.
Hooper explores Ben Gardner's boat
The shark is not there, but it has been, the hole in Ben Gardner's head is proof of that...oh and his head that comes looming out of it. Just before that moment, Hooper has managed to retrieve a shark tooth, which he looks at with his yellow torch.
At this point, in the darkness of the water at night, we are fearful that the shark could be out there. The torch quite literally shines a light on its possible presence.
Even when Hooper surfaces, after been spooked by Ben's emerging head, the water around him is illuminated yellow, as if the shark is all around. Or perhaps it is because Hooper had an accident of another kind.
Mayor convinces people to go back into the water
The beaches are open, and everyone is having a wonderful time, not quite. No one is going in the water, so Mayor Vaughn convinces a family to go into the water. They carry with them an inflatable that looks similar to the one that Alex was on.
Is the grinning Mayor sending them to the same fate?
Beach evacuation
After the cardboard fin is spotted, panic sets in and the sea is evacuated, during this sequence we see a child atop another yellow inflatable - hinting that the same fate could await them as it did Alex Kintner …
…and a yellow helicopter flies by as a woman screams in the water holding her young child.
Sh sh shark lady
After the false alarm of the cardboard fin a woman sees a fin entering the estuary and pond, as she does and shouts shark, to the right of her is someone wearing yellow on the rocks.
Estuary victim
His death in JAWS is still pure nightmare fuel but check out the yellow rope on his red boat prior to his attack.
Quint's shack
Surrounded by shark jaws, Brody and Hooper talk business with Quint, part of that conversation sees both Hooper and Brody framed by a yellow stained-glass window.
Yellow barrels
The daddy of all yellow signifiers in JAWS is of course the yellow barrels. These were a necessity to indicate the shark when he wasn't working and showcased his presence without the need to show a dorsal fin or the shark emerging from the water.
The increasing number of barrels on the shark also showed how powerful it was, especially when Quint said that it couldn't stay down with three barrels on him, not with three he can't.
Well, apparently, he could.
Spielberg isn't the only director to have used a colour as a signifier, two of the most famous examples are Alfred Hitchcock in Vertigo and M. Night Shyamalan in The Sixth Sense.
In Vertigo. Hitchcock used a lot of green, which - using the psychology of colour - is usually associated with something mysterious and sinister. This represented the character of Madeline, with Scottie (James Stewart) represented by the colour red.
Red was used in a different way in the Bruce Willis film, The Sixth Sense. Red was a signifier of death or the spirit world, from a red balloon to a red doorknob and the child's red jumper.
Words by Dean Newman
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