Jersey Arts Podcast

'The Shark is Broken' Brings Hollywood Foibles to the Stage at George Street Playhouse

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"Jaws." It was an iconic moment in cinema history. The three-time Academy Award-winning film is credited as the first true “summer blockbuster,” having toppled box office records to become the top-grossing film of 1975. And as we approach its 50th anniversary, George Street Playhouse is bringing the behind-the-scenes story of the film’s making to the stage.

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.

That’s the official description of the play, “The Shark is Broken,” written by Ian Shaw and Joseph Nixon. Shaw is the son of the late actor Robert Shaw who played the memorable Captain Quint. He brings to life the moments of Jaws that had, prior to this show, lived only in the tall tales of Hollywood memory.

Check out today's episode to meet the talented cast of "The Shark is Broken," directed by Peter Flynn.

Thanks for listening!

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The Jersey Arts Podcast is one medium of Feature Stories on Discover Jersey Arts (jerseyarts.com), where articles and videos also cover New Jersey’s vibrant arts and entertainment scene.

Discover Jersey Arts is presented by ArtPride New Jersey. The program was co-founded by, and is currently supported by funds from, the New Jersey State Council on the Arts. Additional support for JerseyArts.com content is provided by the National Endowment for the Arts.

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Gina Marie Rodriguez:

This is Gina Marie Rodriguez and you're listening to the Jersey Arts Podcast. Whether you're a fan or not, I'm willing to bet that you've heard of a little film called Jaws. It is an iconic moment in cinema history. The three-time Academy Award-winning film is credited as the first true summer blockbuster, having toppled box office records to become the top-grossing film of 1975. And as we approach its 50th anniversary, george Street Playhouse is bringing the behind-the-scenes story of the film's making to the stage.

Gina Marie Rodriguez:

Allow me to set the scene. Fade in the open ocean, 1974. Filming is delayed Again. The lead actors, theater 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. That's the official description of the play the Shark is Broken, written by Ian Shaw and Joseph Nixon. Shaw is the son of the late actor Robert Shaw, who played the memorable Captain Quint. The writer brings to life the moments of Jaws that had, prior to this show, lived only in the tall tales of Hollywood memory. During their rehearsal process, I had the pleasure of speaking with the cast of George Street's production. The wonderful gentlemen who are bringing to life the moments not captured on camera, stay tuned to meet the talented cast of the Shark is Broken. I'll let them introduce themselves Wait for it.

Jason Babinsky:

Wait for it Wait for it.

Jeff Bender:

Hi, my name is Jeff Bender. I'm playing Robert Shaw in the Shark is Broken.

Max Wolkowitz:

Hi, I'm Max Wolkowitz playing Richard Dreyfuss in the Shark is Broken.

Jason Babinsky:

And I'm Jason Babinsky. I'm playing Roy Scheider in the Shark is Broken. Hi, I'm Max Wolkowitz, playing Richard Dreyfuss in the.

Gina Marie Rodriguez:

Shark is Broken and I'm Jason Babinsky. I'm playing Roy Scheider in the Shark is Broken. Yay, wonderful, I'm so happy to meet you guys. Thank you so much for taking the time to talk to me today. First, I would like to start by saying I was very brave. I was a big girl and I watched Jaws just in preparation for this interview.

Max Wolkowitz:

For your sacrifice. Yeah.

Gina Marie Rodriguez:

Thank you. I'm going to ask you for a round of applause, but I won't go that far.

Gina Marie Rodriguez:

But Jeff knows this I am a huge, huge, scaredy cat. Don't like the ocean, don't like horror films, don't enjoy being scared, don't like horror films, don't enjoy being scared. And I wanted to understand what I was getting myself into by talking to you guys. So I did it. I braved my way through and it actually wasn't that bad. I'm very proud of myself. Good job, thank you. Thank you. But it's interesting for me because now that I'm looking at your faces, I can see bits of your characters in you as well. So good job casting guys. I can see why you are who you are. But I want to know your story with Jaws. So how familiar were you? Were each of you with Jaws before being cast?

Max Wolkowitz:

Well.

Jason Babinsky:

I'm a huge Jaws fan. A friend of mine discussed it and we kind of decided that it's maybe the perfect movie. I was very, very, very familiar with it. I still think it holds up. The score is incredible. Everything about it is great. I can't shut it off. And when it's not on, when it wasn't on years ago, I went out and bought the blu-ray and so I have it at my disposal 24 hours a day and I don't shut it off.

Gina Marie Rodriguez:

I think that's amazing.

Jason Babinsky:

Yeah, Was that the first time you had seen it, though the other day Is it bad if I say yes, no, it's okay.

Gina Marie Rodriguez:

I'm super scared of everything. No-transcript. For better or for worse, that was my first viewing of Jaws.

Jason Babinsky:

Hard to still make you jump.

Gina Marie Rodriguez:

I actually didn't, but I think I was. I was watching with my mother because she had seen it before and I was like please tell me when things are going to happen. So I did cheat you made me admit that I was cheating the purpose of a whole show. I can't watch horror. Okay, this was as brave as I get.

Jeff Bender:

Okay, alright, you did good. I'm proud.

Gina Marie Rodriguez:

Thank you, you should be. It was really hard for me, but the show should not be scary. Right, correct me, okay, everybody how good it is. Yes, there you go, scary, how good it is there's your soundbite, yeah that'll be the teaser, jeff. Does anybody else want to weigh in on their history with Jaws?

Max Wolkowitz:

uh, I mean, I love the movie. I'm not nearly as obsessed as Jason, um, but I think few people are. Um, I yeah, I think I love the movie. I'm not nearly as obsessed as Jason, but I think few people are. I yeah, I think I saw it probably for the first time when I was in high school. I think it's great. There's a in a way, and I'm also not a horror movie person. I don't like horror movies, but I would argue that it's actually not a horror movie but rather a suspense film in a certain way or thriller is another term that people use. But to me, what's brilliant about the film is the use of suspense and how long it takes for us to see the shark. But there's all of these ways in which it's just, it's a slow build in a way that People don't make those kinds of movies that much anymore. And yeah, I love it for that. But yeah, I've seen it many times and in preparation just for auditioning for this, I watched it, I think six times.

Jeff Bender:

Well, I think the funny thing about the suspense of it is because the shark was broken and it was accidentally more suspenseful because you were supposed to see the shark much sooner and it was always broken, so Steven Spielberg couldn't use it, so you just never saw him, but it was always there. I think that's kind of the heart of what our show is about.

Gina Marie Rodriguez:

And I think that's fantastic. I was watching also in preparation for this interview. I was watching I think it's called the Shark is Still Working the documentary and, Jeff, you may have even recommended that to me. There was one of the producers and now I'm going to butcher it because I can't remember his name, but he had said who is it. Zanuck or Brown maybe it was someone else.

Gina Marie Rodriguez:

Daryl Zanuck there was someone, because I don't think it was either Zanuck or Brown, but I'll figure that out and we'll put it in post right, he was saying that he viewed this film as an indie right, disguised as a big hollywood picture, and I think the shark is broken. Is the the reason that you can call it an indie right? Because nothing was going right. You kind of had to play to your strengths and at the time that was the suspense of not knowing if this thing is going to pop up or not.

Gina Marie Rodriguez:

So, it worked out really well and I do agree that if I had seen the shark sooner, like that opening where the was her name, chrissy where she gets pulled under, that was much scarier.

Jason Babinsky:

One time viewer, you got all yeah.

Gina Marie Rodriguez:

Thank you, I did also watch the documentary which really helped seal it in there. But, yeah, that opening was really excellent. Thank you, I did also watch the documentary which really helped seal it in there. But yeah, that opening was really excellent because we didn't know and because our imaginations forced us to picture whatever the scary monster was right, and now we have movies like the Meg and stuff which is a little bit different. I'm not going to trash other movies. That's not fair. I want to know had anybody here read the book?

Jeff Bender:

I have Peter Benchley's book. I have not.

Max Wolkowitz:

I did not, I haven't either, jason, you said you did the Jaws nerd?

Jason Babinsky:

Yeah, I've read the book.

Gina Marie Rodriguez:

I'm not surprised, but did you read it first, or you saw the movie and then you read the book?

Jason Babinsky:

There's a copy in my sister's uh crawl space in a box of my old books, and then I have one that I bought for this too, so I've read it back in the 90s and then, uh, before this again oh my gosh, jason, what would you have done if you were not cast in this? Cried himself in a huge pillow yeah, it was my own little white whale to use maritime terminology.

Jason Babinsky:

I really wanted to be in this when it was on Broadway. And so when this popped up and I auditioned for it on Broadway and I was really trying to and I had callbacks and I was like, oh, I want to play Roy Scheider because people said you look like Roy Scheider and I love the movie, and then I didn't get it. And then this is the first time it's being done, so I'm very happy to to take a crack at it out here at the uh, george Street yeah, well, congratulations, you finally got there.

Gina Marie Rodriguez:

You got your white whale yeah with a great white shark.

Jason Babinsky:

I mean, I guess we shouldn't really say that well, did you have a question about the book or?

Gina Marie Rodriguez:

I was just curious if that played in about the book.

Jeff Bender:

No, don't get them started. How long is this?

Max Wolkowitz:

not not long enough, not long enough I usually am an actor who, like I, will do so much research and and stuff before a role, but in the script it specifically there is a line that richard dreyf that I have as Richard Dreyfuss which is. They told me not to read it, they said it might confuse me, and so I was like, well, I'm going to go about as method, as I ever go, which is to just not read the book, which is you know easier than reading the book.

Max Wolkowitz:

So yeah, that was. But I was like I, I was like maybe I should read the book and then I re read the script and I was like I'm not going to read the book.

Gina Marie Rodriguez:

That makes me so happy. Also, it makes me happy because you just sounded so much like Richard Dreyfuss the little girl in me just freaked out.

Max Wolkowitz:

This is when I I mean, that's a little taste of it. I, in you know, I spent however many hours we just spent rehearsing. He creeps in quite a bit.

Gina Marie Rodriguez:

I love it and, honestly, that's probably a good note, because all that I know about the book and I'm so sorry, jason, if you loved it but one of the reviews that I saw was that people found the characters really unlikable and they were rooting for the shark. So you know I can understand why. Maybe they told him not to read the book. But I did just want to ask for each of you, what does go into your research? How do you? You're emulating real life, well-known figures, so how do you approach that?

Jeff Bender:

Well, I, we started off or at least I started off looking at interviews with Robert Shaw and how his mannerisms he's British, so he's English, so he has a dialect. I wanted to hear his cadence of his dialect and his mannerisms, the way he sits, the way he walks. And then I would watch some of his performances, which don't necessarily have anything to do with Jaws, because he's playing this old New England sailor with an American New England dialect and you don't hear his British, but he's British in the show. So it didn't do a lot for me to watch his other performances, just to enjoy his performances. I love watching him, his characters. But, um, yeah, I started off with the, with the interviews, particularly dick cabot. Um, there's one that he's talking um to these reporters on nantucket island, uh, just out on the dock, and he's having like this, this, uh, you know, like this candid interview. He talks a lot of crap in it too, and and, uh, I really found that one to be helpful, one of the most helpful ones.

Max Wolkowitz:

Yeah, for me. I started with. I watched the Apprenticeship of Doody Kravitz, which is the film that he made that Dreyfus made right before Jaws, and there's a number of references to it in our script, so that was where I started. I found it. It was available in full on youtube and I was like, okay, great, I'm just gonna watch this movie.

Max Wolkowitz:

Um, and so there was a intensely frenetic quality to him that I think is captured in the script. Um, and then I'm uh, I'm a big voice and speech nerd, um, and so I go straight into let me figure out how this guy sounds and like he's got, he's just like pure mask and and then he makes he, I was doing some reading about you know his upbringing and he's got this very particular way of speaking because he spent his youth in Queens but then is in Beverly Hills High and then he gets this, this strange thing that happens in his mouth that is neither East Coast nor West Coast, but somehow both, and so that's sort of I. That's where I start when I'm playing somebody who doesn't sound like, who doesn't have to sound like me.

Gina Marie Rodriguez:

That was impressive.

Max Wolkowitz:

Thank you.

Gina Marie Rodriguez:

Chasing your off screen, but I know you're there. Yeah, as far as off screen.

Jason Babinsky:

but you're there, yeah, uh, as far as research, when you're having to research like great films from the 70s, there are far worse things to have to. You know, it's like it's not a medical tv drama where I'm online trying to figure out how to put in a catheter. You know, like it's like this was like watching the, like french connection, and you know, uh, all that jazz and every roy scheider movie and then all the movies that we reference in the script, which is quite a few of like the kind of that great counterculture movement in the 70s where cinema took a turn. And then this is kind of the next turn, because Jaws was that next turn in movie making to the summer blockbuster that we still now are obsessed with. And so, like that was my research, looking at it, and you know, I read up on a lot of Roy's stuff.

Jason Babinsky:

I read his biography. That was, you know, I don't know, not the greatest book, but it was fine. It was fine. It's got some nuggets I saw, you know, like, but it's fun. I mean, researching is so much easier now than when it used to be. You can just sit there at home, you can sit on the train and, like Max said, whole movie's on YouTube. You can watch some of this stuff anytime you want and pause it.

Gina Marie Rodriguez:

That's a very good point, and if it means anything to you I don't know if it should, but Roy Scheider is the one that I had a crush on, so I'm just going to throw that out there Without any spoilers, if that's at all possible. Can you share your favorite moment, what you enjoy playing the most in this show?

Jeff Bender:

For me, there's a game that we play. I don't want to give too much away, but we play to pass the time. These characters are playing games while they're waiting to fix the shark, and so there's one game that we play in particular that is very lively. We're finding it's a really good group with the last couple of rehearsals and I'm having a blast with it. I think it's a lot of fun and that's one of my favorite moments. Just the three of us, we found this groove and it's just been joy. I really enjoy it.

Max Wolkowitz:

Yeah, I think the game is certainly the most fun. There's lots of like little things that I enjoy. We have an unbelievably virtuosic prop master that is giving us the most beautiful objects to play with, and so, for me, just every day there's new toys in the room and with more detail and more um texture, and so every day I'm like, how can I spend more time in or I don't even have to invest in them because they're so, uh, rich. I'm like, oh great, I can just be here with these things and and that's been a real joy for me on the in the process is just like getting to work with these great objects.

Jason Babinsky:

Yeah, I mean, jeff said it the most enjoyable time that the characters have on stage is when they play this game too. So we're allowed to. Actually, I mean, I guess it's odd that the three actors were kind of like that is the best time. Most of the time, the actors are like well, I like it when we go head-to-head and it's a big emotional blow-up. And this is actually three guys having an enjoyable time playing a game, for the most part.

Jason Babinsky:

And it is the best time in the show for us and I think the audience. It'll translate to them and they'll go along the journey, even you know, because we're genuinely having a fun time trying to beat one another.

Jeff Bender:

It's not the only thing that we do on the show. I mean, it makes it sound like that's like the only only we do.

Max Wolkowitz:

Also check in with us in three weeks. We're still enjoying each other.

Jeff Bender:

I like them now, but yeah Well how long have you been rehearsing?

Max Wolkowitz:

We're coming up to the end of our third week of rehearsal. We've been flying through. We finished staging in like a week and a half, so we've been doing run-throughs, which in my experience recently is unheard of to have multiple run-throughs before we get to tech so we've really been able to get into the nitty gritty of it in a great way. Yeah, but we've been working for three weeks. We've got another like week and a half before our first performance we go into tech a week from today, tomorrow today today next.

Jeff Bender:

Friday or Thursdays yeah, next week.

Gina Marie Rodriguez:

Well, it sounds like you guys make a great team and have some great chemistry, so I'm willing to bet that you're still going to like each other another three weeks from now. So, fingers crossed though, I think so too. Yeah, it's a safe bet. If anybody's placing bets, now's the time.

Max Wolkowitz:

No, no, no no.

Gina Marie Rodriguez:

In your research. Is there anything that you've come to love about the men that you're playing, something that you hadn't known prior, something that you really appreciate? I'm seeing faces and reactions here, so now I'm very curious.

Jason Babinsky:

Yeah, I mean, I think it's funny because this was written by Robert's son and so he takes liberties with each of these characters for both good and for bad and both for comedic and dramatic purposes. But Roy Scheider, playing for his career like the heavy in a lot of things, always playing cops, always the Jersey gravelly kind of and he was. When you watch interviews with him, he's a bona fide dork and so it's like I think that side of it I didn't. I didn't know much about roy scheider prior to this. I knew his movies and he's always like you know, you're like, yeah, there's that badass cop, like and and actually the script leans into more of him being a nerd, and so that's been. The most enjoyable thing that I found out about Roy Scheider is that he is not what he appeared on screen but somehow, mostly because of his broken nose, he got typecast as like he's that guy and he played that guy a lot.

Jeff Bender:

I love that and I feel validated in my crush now Watching Robert Shaw's. Well, let me start off. I love watching his films. I think he's. I really enjoy his movies. My first taste of him was in Bond, but I didn't know he was in From Russia With Love, right as the blonde, short, blonde haired villain. And then I saw him in Jaws and then I didn't know they were the same person. But you see him in interviews and he's kind of a pompous kind of guy and he's very I don't know if you'd say full of himself, but yeah, I could say that and he's very intellectual, he's very, he knows a lot of things and he has opinions about all those things. And so just to see his his real life character as opposed to the characters that he plays is very interesting to me to see the differences and how about for?

Max Wolkowitz:

richard. Um, I, I will say that, uh, I love playing richard dreyfus, in part because I love playing Richard Dreyfuss, in part because I love playing villains, and I think there is something sort of mysteriously lovable about this guy who is almost entirely unredeemable, almost entirely unredeemable, and the duality of that of this guy, who's like he's got a charm, he's got a charisma, but he's kind of just a prick, is really delicious to play and so like watching interviews with him and like seeing this young, crazy, ambitious guy who you know has a bit of, I think, self-delusion, um, is is just like it's super fun. But in terms of like things I fell in love with about Richard Dreyfuss, not sure quite what to say on that front.

Gina Marie Rodriguez:

Let's hope that this isn't the one episode of Jersey Arts that Richard Dreyfuss doesn't, do you know?

Jeff Bender:

what you know what Rick.

Gina Marie Rodriguez:

Bring it on. Well, let's not end on that note.

Jason Babinsky:

We can't end on a come at me, bro.

Gina Marie Rodriguez:

Maybe I mean there's still time, but my last question for you guys is what about this show is special to you and why do you think Jaws fans, why would you encourage Jaws fans to see this show and non-Jaws fans?

Jason Babinsky:

Oh, it's great for Jaws fans right now. I mean it's the 50th anniversary this year. It's kind of like when the movie was coming out With the book, the book didn't sell that great in hardcover, and then when we're later, I'm going to tell you about the book. I think it's a great movie. It's a great play for Jaws fans. Hands down, it's 50th anniversary. Much like the book, when it was in paperback it flew off the shelves and that's when they had it and they were figuring out how to make it. So there was all all this like sizzle behind it then. And this is just a great year to to do this play. I mean they're going to be doing shark fest out and jaws fest out in martha's vineyard this summer, so like we're kind of like almost kicking it off out here, you know, in jersey, like bringing jaws. I yeah and I mean non-fans, I think will enjoy it too.

Jason Babinsky:

I like ever, because it's it's everybody's heard of the movie yeah and and it's three, like three guys, guys who have big-ish personalities that are just stuck together, and I compared it to an office situation where you're like these are your co-workers. They just happen to be three big-name actors stuck in a tiny little boat for a very long time that are forced to get along for whatever that means, and it doesn't mean good things.

Gina Marie Rodriguez:

I think that's really relatable.

Jason Babinsky:

Yeah, everyone's got their, you know.

Gina Marie Rodriguez:

Absolutely so. For people like me who were afraid to watch Jaws, you guys can still see it. You don't have to be brave. I was very brave. I'm still telling myself that, but you don't have to be brave. I was. I was very brave. I'm still telling myself that, but you don't have to be.

Jeff Bender:

You can see the show without having seen the movie, you can see it without seeing jaws if you wish, but, uh, I highly recommend seeing jaws.

Max Wolkowitz:

Yeah, yes, I'll also, I'll also say um, uh, because this is my obsession, but like, our designers are also fantastic. And um, the set design, the costume design we haven't seen it yet, but the projections sound incredible, the lighting, like I'm so excited because our designers have such attention to detail. So for obsessed fans like Jason who have seen the movie 30,000 times, they will be able to see like, like little Easter eggs throughout the play. But for people who haven't seen the movie, it just gives you this great texture of like this is a real place and these are real people going through a real thing, and that's really exciting.

Gina Marie Rodriguez:

Thank you so much for shouting out the designers. I love the design team.

Jeff Bender:

Amazing across the board.

Max Wolkowitz:

I'll also say that our director, peter Flynn, is just phenomenal. He is a true leader who leads with kindness, and expertise yeah, and that is honestly rarer than it should be in this industry. And he cares so deeply both about the art we're making and the people who are making the art, and that's a magical combination.

Jeff Bender:

It's been a joy to come to rehearsal. I love coming to work. The stage management team is some of the best I've ever worked with. I mean, they're just fantastic. They're on top of it and I actually like my co -stars here. They're actually really nice guys. I mean, if you looked at them you wouldn't think that, but they are. They're really nice.

Gina Marie Rodriguez:

When you have a cast that's this comfortable joking around with one another and praising their creative team, it's almost always a safe bet that you've got a great production on your hands. So if you're as into Hollywood foibles and behind-the-scenes stories as I am, you may want to check out. The Shark is Broken, now running through May 18th at the George Street Playhouse in New Brunswick. For tickets and more information, be sure to visit georgetreeplayhouseorg. If you liked this episode, be sure to review, subscribe and tell your friends. A transcript of this podcast, links relevant to the story and more about the arts in New Jersey can be found at jerseyartscom.

Gina Marie Rodriguez:

The Jersey Arts Podcast is presented by Art Pride New Jersey, advancing a state of creativity since 1986. This show was co-founded by, and currently supported by, funds from, the New Jersey State Council on the Arts. This episode was hosted, edited and produced by me, Gina Marie Rodriguez. Executive producers are Jim Atkinson and Isaac Serna-Diez, and my thanks, of course, to Jeff Bender, Max Wolkowitz and Jason Babinsky for speaking with me today. I'm Gina Marie Rodriguez for the Jersey Arts Podcast. Thanks for listening.

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