The Shark Is Broken (Broadway) NYC Reviews and Tickets
Show-Score Member Reviews (632)
See it if you are a fan of the movie Jaws. This is a once in a lifetime experience for the true Jaws nerd
Don't see it if you have never seen the movie and have no idea who Robert Shaw, Roy Scheider or Richard Dreyfuss were.
See it if Great show, so refreshing, funny. The actors did a great job with their characters.
Don't see it if It funny but you may not get it if you know nothing about jaws, or you may get it for its about actors film and things go wrong. Read more
See it if You loved- and still do - jaws; you think some cussing adds spice to a dialogue; you like great acting and some good laughing
Don't see it if You never saw jaws...
See it if you are a fan of 'behind the scenes' documentaries and want to see what happened during the making of a classic movie
Don't see it if you can't sit still for 90 minutes or do not want to see three people sitting around and talking
See it if loved the movie Jaws and just want a funny drama
Don't see it if hated the movie Jaws and don't like dramas
See it if You can muster interest in 3 excellent actors portraying the 3 actors who starred in Jaws while the movie was being filmed.
Don't see it if This description is not appealing to you. Read more
See it if Do you know what actors do when the weather changes their opportunity to work. They sit around and make us laugh.
Don't see it if There isn’t anything I didn’t like about this show.
See it if THOSE WHO REMEMBER THE MOVIE JAWS AND SUBSEQUENT SPIELBERG FILMS WILL ENJOY THE QUIPS. GREAT ACTING.
Don't see it if THE INSIDE JOKES CAN BE APPRECIATED NLY BY THE THE 50+ CROWD.
Critic Reviews (31)
“...details do not on their own create much dramatic interest. Plots consisting of hurry-up-and-wait rarely do. Were it not for its curious meta-story, the play would be little more than a pleasant diversion: 95 minutes of bloodless, toothless, Hollywood-adjacent dramedy.”
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“For a play that draws much of its appeal from nostalgia, ’The Shark Is Broken’ mostly avoids documentary-style exposition about the making of Jaws...In any case, the play has the good sense to end with Shaw’s performance of that very speech—which the actor also had a hand in writing—in its entirety. Intense and lean, it handily outmatches the preceding scenes of uneasy boatmates bobbing in the drink.”
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“ ‘The Shark Is Broken’ is all talk, and a pattern emerges. Shaw and Dreyfuss clash. Scheider referees. It gets repetitive over the 95-minute run time. On the plus side, there are moments when the warring trio clicks and a sort of camaraderie shines through. Plus, the co-authors seasoned the script with laughs.”
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“Fathers end up being ‘The Shark Is Broken’s’ primary way into its whole central trio...The scene in the latter half of the one act where the three of them start to open up about their fathers hits at something emotionally where the rest of the play tends to be too stuffed with trivia...It’s where the actors’ performances cool off from nervous, meticulous imitation into a truer dynamic.”
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“ ‘The Shark Is Broken’ is not a play for the ages, or even for those who have never seen ‘Jaws,’ but it’s a frisky and continuously amusing diversion—perfect late-summer entertainment if you want to stay away from the ocean.”
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“Beyond its good will and nostalgic conjuring, ’The Shark Is Broken’ is too slender a tale, too gentle, to provide thrills or even, truth be told, much drama.”
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“In the end, there’s not a lot here: No crazy shark puppets, little sense of the raging seas nor of tormented, insecure actors — not much for the eye to see and very little happening that you don’t anticipate just five or 10 minutes into the show.”
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“This might have been a fascinating portrait of male ego and insecurity, with real insights into the workings of Hollywood in the 1970s...But written by the son of the late Robert Shaw, the piece feels like artless autobiography or maybe even a son’s revenge.”
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