Review: THE SHARK IS BROKEN, Ambassadors Theatre

"We're going to need a bigger theatre." Back in summer 2019, this fascinating behind-the-scenes tale took a bite out of the Edinburgh Festival. Now, following Covid delays, the hit show finally scales up and makes a big splash in the West End. But it's still a marvellous gem of a play - a 90-minute romp that strays just far enough into deeper waters to give you plenty to chew over during your post-show meal.

Set in Martha's Vineyard in 1974, it's essentially three men in a boat: actors Robert Shaw, Roy Scheider and Richard Dreyfuss (Quint, Chief Brody and Hooper respectively) who spend hours bobbing in the Atlantic Ocean waiting for the right weather conditions to shoot the film Jaws - and, per the title, endlessly subject to the mechanical problems that besieged their great white shark co-star, who was nicknamed Bruce after Steven Spielberg's lawyer.

Then an up-and-coming director, Spielberg had insisted on shooting in the actual ocean rather than in a tank in Hollywood, but hadn't anticipated how seawater might interfere with the prop sharks' pneumatic hoses or make their neoprene foam skins swell up like balloons. No wonder the actors began to wonder if they would ever finish this film - and expected it to bomb, rather than become a monster hit and the first ever summer blockbuster.

Shaw's son Ian, who co-wrote The Shark is Broken with Joseph Nixon and who plays his father, has a lot of fun with such dramatic irony as the trapped trio ponder the future of their industry, debating art versus commerce and quipping about a version of cinema packed with sequels and remakes (surely not!), or Spielberg following up his shark bait tale with something even more juvenile, like aliens or dinosaurs.

But the play works best when it hones in on this tangled combination of actorly egos and clashing personalities. Scheider is the stoic and frequent peacemaker, content to wait out the storm while reading his newspaper. The young Dreyfuss is all neurotic, coked-up energy, desperately seeking approval - and fame - while the alcoholic Brit Shaw is his cruel taskmaster, subjecting him to an endless series of humiliating challenges and devastating putdowns in between shots of whiskey.

Shaw claims he's helping Dreyfuss to a better performance, but there's a definite element of sadism, too, or perhaps projected self-hatred. And it's truly tragic watching the brilliant Shaw self-sabotage. Here, he's a raconteur, a genuinely skilled actor and writer, a thoughtful observer, and the producer of dynamite one-liners. In fact, he'd give Succession's Roy family a run for their money in that respect. Yet he's also a hopeless addict.

Ian Shaw's affection for his late father is apparent in every inch of this detailed portrait; it really is a labour of love. And he's an eerily close match to the elder Shaw, who in turn bleeds into his character, the irascible, eccentric hunter Quint. The writing and capture of the film's standout scene, Quint's monologue about sharks picking off the stranded crewmen of the torpedoed USS Indianapolis, is similarly the play's most arresting moment.

There's also a poignant thread about fathers and sons. Robert Shaw lost his own father when he was young, and hopes to live longer; we know he will not. And would Shaw have wanted son Ian to follow him into the same troubled, unpredictable profession, to be here with us telling his story on stage? That meta question is left lingering. Scheider and Dreyfuss reveal their own fractious familial relationships, too - a rare moment of bonding amidst the sniping.

It's one of the ways in which the show opens out to a wider audience, going behind Jaws trivia and industry jokes. And, even if you've never been on a film set, you've definitely had to fill time with mindless games, as the cast does here. Games which, because of the simmering tension, suddenly take on outsize importance.

The play really let us feel the longueurs of this neverending shoot, and occasionally Guy Masterson's otherwise very entertaining production dips in energy as well. But there's also the riveting spectacle of Duncan Henderson's set, which - like Jaws itself - juxtaposes the small fishing boat with the might of nature. Nina Dunn's gorgeous video projections give us a huge sky that shifts with the weather or time of day, while seagulls swoop and dive, as well as water lapping at the boat and heaving waves so convincing that I started to feel seasick.

But at heart, this is still an intimate three-hander, and it's blessed with a note-perfect cast. Demetri Goritsas as the amusingly straitlaced Scheider, and Liam Murray Scott as the needy but swaggering Dreyfuss, both play off Shaw magnificently. It's definitely safe to get back in the water - in fact, you should dive straight in.

The Shark is Broken is at the Ambassadors Theatre until 15 January - book tickets here

Photo credit: Helen Maybanks