The Shark Is Broken at Jobsite Theater

By Ian Shaw and Joseph Nixon

Mar. 11 – Apr. 5, 2026

Shimberg Playhouse, Straz Center

FADE IN: The open ocean, 1974. Filming is delayed … again. The lead actors — theatre veteran Robert Shaw and young Hollywood hotshots Richard Dreyfuss and Roy Scheider — are crammed into a too-small boat, entirely at the mercy of foul weather and a faulty mechanical co-star. Alcohol flows, egos collide, and tempers flare on a chaotic voyage that just might lead to cinematic magic… if it doesn’t sink them all.

Step aboard the Orca and into The Shark Is Broken, a “profound dive behind the scenes of the making of Jaws” (The Daily Telegraph, ). This Olivier Award-nominated new play is “hilariously brilliant and pure genius” raves the Sunday Express ().

The Shark Is Broken celebrates movie history and peeks at the choppy waters behind Hollywood’s first blockbuster. Short tempers. Short circuits. 95 minutes, no intermission.