Chase Austin, Brad Hauskins, and Alexander Richardson in “The Shark Is Broken" at the Black Box Theatre -- June 12 through 27.
Friday, June 12, through Saturday, June 27
The Black Box Theatre, 1623 Fifth Avenue, Moline IL
Hailed by The Guardian as "boisterously comic" and by New York Stage Review for "the canny way in which it channels Jaws itself," the three-man comedy The Shark Is Broken makes its area debut at Moline's Black Box Theatre June 12 through 27, this lauded production dramatizing, and sometimes satirizing, the off-screen chaos behind one of Steven Spielberg's most explosive hits.
As The Shark Is Broken begins, the first summer blockbuster in movie history is being filmed – but no one working on the film would know it. In this comedy by Joseph Nixon and Ian Shaw (the son of Jaws co-star Robert Shaw), audiences are invited to dive deep into the tumultuous, murky waters of the making of a major motion picture with dueling co-stars, unpredictable weather, and a shark prop named "Bruce" whose constant breakdowns are looking like an omen for the movie's future. In this 90-minute stage odyssey, the short tempers and short circuits of Jaws actors Robert Shaw, Richard Dreyfuss, and Roy Scheider take center stage as they bond, argue, drink, gamble, and pray for an end to the film shoot, not knowing how the experience will change their lives, and the shape of cinema, forever.
Directing The Shark Is Broken for the Black Box Theatre is the Circa '21 Dinner Playhouse's longtime production manager Jeremy Littlejohn, a multi-faceted stage artist whose area credits include directing the Circa '21 Speakeasy's presentations of Misery and The Rocky Horror Show, helming Quad City Music Guild's Singin' in the Rain, and appearing in Circa '21's recent musical comedy Lucky Stiff. Heather Hauskins serves as the production's lighting designer, with Michael Kopriva acting as set builder and Black Box co-owner and artistic director Lora Adams as set designer.
Portraying Jaws lead Roy Scheider is Chase Austin, whose recent area credits have including leading roles as Robbie in the Spotlight Theatre's The Wedding Singer, Frank N. Furter in the Circa '21 Speakeasy's The Rocky Horror Show, and the title figure in Quad City Music Guild's Jesus Christ Superstar. Robert Shaw is played by longtime Circa '21 veteran Brad Hauskins, who currently appears in the theatre's mainstage musical Fiddler on the Roof and has enjoyed roles in Lucky Stiff, Grumpy Old Men: The Musical, and the Speakeasy's Misery. And Richard Dreyfuss is enacted by Reader theatre reviewer Alexander Richardson, whose Black Box productions as the originator of Barely There Theatre include An All-American Riot, To Lear at Lear, and this past winter's What Might Have Been and word play.
The Shark Is Broken runs in Moline from June 12 through 27, with performances Fridays, Saturdays, and Thursday, June 15 at 7:30 p.m. and Sundays at 2 p.m. Admission is $18, and more information and tickets are available by calling (563)284-2350 and visiting TheBlackBoxTheatre.com.
