T. CHARLES ERICKSON
From left, Max Wolkowitz as Richard Dreyfuss, Jeffrey M. Bender as Robert Shaw, and Jason Babinsky as Roy Scheider in George Street Playhouse’s production of “The Shark Is Broken.”
“You know, I’ve always figured the waiting is what I get paid for. The acting I do free,” Edward G. Robinson once said.
The three characters in “The Shark Is Broken” — currently being presented by George Street Playhouse at The New Brunswick Performing Arts Center, with direction by Peter Flynn — might agree. They are film actors, and the 2019 play, co-written by Ian Shaw and Joseph Nixon, is devoted, almost entirely, to scenes in which they wait, together, for the filming to begin. And they are not exactly having a great time.
T. CHARLES ERICKSON
From left, Jason Babinsky, Max Wolkowitz and Jeffrey M. Bender in “The Shark Is Broken.”
The characters are Robert Shaw (played by Jeffrey M. Bender), Richard Dreyfuss (Max Wolkowitz) and Roy Scheider (Jason Babinsky), and they are making the 1975 blockbuster, “Jaws,” co-starring as shark hunter Quint, marine biologist Matt Hooper and police chief Martin Brody, respectively. And they are doing their waiting, in this play, on a boat, as repairs to the movie’s mechanical shark and other issues are dealt with by the movie’s crew.
They chat, drink, play cards and bar games, speculate about who will get top billing in the movie, and sing “The Wild Rover” together. But, mostly, they get on each other’s nerves.
Shaw (the father of Ian Shaw) and Dreyfuss, in fact, don’t get along at all. Shaw, who is old enough to be Dreyfuss’ father, is an old-school, hard-drinking, Shakespeare-quoting lion of British acting. Dreyfuss, who is starting to make his mark in the acting world but is not yet a star, is insecure, sensitive and whiny.
Dreyfuss knows he is getting under Shaw’s skin, but he can’t stop himself, or just doesn’t want to.
Shaw dismisses Dreyfuss as a “Beverly Hills milk puff” and says ruefully to Scheider (more or less his contemporary), regarding the acting profession, “I fear the future belongs to a generation of self-absorbed neurotics.” He challenges Dreyfuss to do pushups. And when he climbs onto the boat, only to see Scheider hugging Dreyfuss to try to help him get through a panic attack, he smirks, “I thought I’d stumbled into Woodstock for a moment!”
Scheider, the least talkative of the three, calmly buries himself in a newspaper when he’s not playing peacemaker between his two castmates, though a scene in which he nearly destroys the ship’s radio with a baseball bat — but regains control of himself, and refrains from doing so — effectively shows that he, too, is being brought close to his breaking point by the movie shoot’s never-ending frustrations.
T. CHARLES ERICKSON
Jeffrey M. Bender in “The Shark Is Broken.”
Set designer Anne Mundell has created a wonderfully realistic boat, on which the action takes place. It rotates, to create a sense of the passing of time, and videos, on back screens, of the sea and the stormy skies add to the sense of atmosphere.
The voice of “Jaws” director Steven Spielberg is heard offstage, as are the voices of others involved in the making of the movie. But it feels like the three actors are alone, stuck with each other, as if they are in a jail cell.
Ian Shaw and Nixon have managed to create an entertaining 90-minute, one-act play out of what is essentially scenes of three mismatched actors trying to kill time together. There is no plot here and, really, no tension — we know the movie will get made, however rocky the road to get there may be. We also know that Shaw will not kill Dreyfuss, though he seems to be on the verge of doing so, at times.
Dreyfuss comes off a little bit cartoonishly. But Babinsky’s Scheider exudes quiet authority as the former former-welterweight-boxer-turned-actor. (It helps that Babinsky looks the most like the actor he plays). And in Robert Shaw — brought to vivid life by Bender — Nixon and Ian Shaw have created a marvelous character: Arrogant, witty, and charismatic. Literary but also macho. The kind of larger-than-life star that Hollywood used to produce, before everything changed, but also, sadly, a man unable to stop the rampages of his own alcoholism.
Ian Shaw and Nixon also fill the dialogue with lots of wry jokes, like when Scheider predicts, about the man who had just resigned as President, “there will never be a more immoral President than Tricky Dicky.” (Don’t we all wish.)
T. CHARLES ERICKSON
Jeffrey M. Bender, left, and Jason Babinsky in “The Shark Is Broken.”
At one point, the talk turns to Spielberg’s next project, “Close Encounters of the Third Kind.”
Scheider (to Dreyfuss): Has Steven said he’ll cast you?
Dreyfuss: I think he wants Nicholson, but he’s impossible to work with. I’ll wear him down.
Shaw: UFOs! Aliens! Jesus! Whatever next? Dinosaurs? Can this business get any more puerile?
They then talk about a possible “Jaws” sequel.
Shaw: Christ, I hope not! Not much more to say, is there?
Scheider: One thing’s for certain — if there is a sequel, I will not be in it. … What on Earth could happen? .. another shark comes to town? That’s crazy!
Of course, we all know what happened. “Jaws” was a huge hit, and “Jaws 2” followed in 1978, without Spielberg, Dreyfuss or Shaw, but with Scheider back, fighting off another shark who has come to town. And Scheider got uncontested top billing, this time.
George Street Playhouse will present “The Shark Is Broken” at The New Brunswick Performing Arts Center through May 18. Visit georgestreetplayhouse.org.
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