The Shark is Broken casting announced for UK & Ireland tour

Casting has been revealed for the UK and Ireland tour of The Shark is Broken.

This hit West End and Broadway comedy goes behind-the-scenes of the making of Steven Spielberg’s movie Jaws, as the film celebrates its 50th anniversary.

The cast includes Ian Shaw, starring as his father Robert Shaw, alongside Dan Fredenburgh as Roy Scheider and Ashley Margolis as Richard Dreyfuss.

Inspired by Robert Shaw’s experience playing ‘Quint’ in Jaws, The Shark Is Broken is a brilliantly funny play which celebrates movie history as it peeks at the choppy waters behind Hollywood’s first blockbuster and imagines what happened on board ‘The Orca’ when the cameras stopped rolling during the filming of Steven Spielberg’s epic movie.

The tour opens at the Oxford Playhouse on 23 January 2025, before visiting Malvern, Salford, Richmond, Nottingham, Bath, Canterbury, Newcastle, Guildford, Plymouth, Brighton, Cheltenham, Poole, Birmingham, and Dublin. See all tour dates here.

The show proved a sold-out success in Edinburgh in 2019, before transferring to the West End’s Ambassadors Theatre in 2021 and scoring an Olivier award nomination for Best Comedy Play. In July 2023 the production transferred to Broadway for a 16-week run at the John Golden Theatre.

Co-written by Ian Shaw and Joseph Nixon, The Shark is Broken is directed by Martha Geelan, based on original direction by Guy Masterson, with set and costume design by Duncan Henderson, lighting design by Jon Clark, sound design by Adam Cork, video design by Nina Dunn. The Assistant director is Molly Stacey, and associate sound designer James Melling.

The Shark is Broken is produced by Sonia Friedman Productions, Scott Landis, GFour Productions and Kenny Wax

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Main photo: The Shark is Broken - Tour casting: Ian Shaw (Photo by Nick Driftwood), Dan Fredenburgh, Ashley Margolis