"The Shark is Broken": Bill Hanney's "Jaws" Journey to Broadway

Jaws has become a classic New England-centric movie over the years, but it turns out, behind the scenes, it was anything but easy to put together. In fact, it was so chaotic that a new comedy on the stage highlights all the production maladies. It's called "The Shark is Broken", and New England theater owner Bill Hanney is lending his talents to the show to make sure it's a resounding success. He returns to the show this week to talk about the show's journey to Broadway, along with what's happening these days at the North Shore Music Theatre.

Episode Transcript

(00:07):
From WBZ News Radio in Boston.This is New England Weekend, where each
and every week we come together talkabout all the topics important to you and
the place where you live. Greatto be back with you again this week.
I'm Nicole Davis. All Right,confession time here on New England Weekend.
It's kind of embarrassing, but youknow, being honest with you as

(00:28):
I always am, I did notsee Jaws until I was in my mid
twenties. It's true. I'm pushingforty now, so that should give you
an idea of how recently I sawJaws. It's the quintessential New England summer
movie. It's got sharks, it'sgot the vineyard. I mean, what
else do you need? Right?It's even gotten Narro against it here.

(00:49):
It's become a classic over the years. But it turns out that behind the
scenes, Jaws was actually anything buteasy to put together. In fact,
it was so chaotic that a comedyshow on broad has been pulled together about
it, called The Shark Is Broken. The show recently opened up on Broadway
in New York just a few daysago. A major force behind this why
we're talking about this here on NewEngland Weekend is a man whose name we

(01:12):
know very well here on the showand really in the region overall, Bill
Hanny over at the north Shore MusicTheater. I got to chat with him
for a few minutes on the phonethe other day and we talked about what
it's like to be a Broadway producer, but also kind of caught up about
what's going on over at the northShore Music Theater. So here's our conversation.

(01:32):
It came. That's for a frienof mine in the Haley Swindows is
a show that she was getting involvedwith to be one of the producers,
and was I interested when she saidthe Shark is Broken it's about the making
of Jaws. I said, absolutely, one of my favorite movies of all
times. So that's exactly how ithappened. And we opened it head in
New York City on Broadway at theGolden Theater and it was terrific. The

(01:53):
audience loved it, and we openit runs for a long time. Absolutely,
So this is a really interesting astory to me. I personally haven't
seen the movie, but I tellus a little bit really quickly about for
people who might not be familiar,what the story is about. You said,
it's kind of about the making ofJaws. Well, when when they
made Jaws back in whatever year itwas seventy something seventy three, It was

(02:15):
made on the Vineyard a Egartown whereI also have a movie theater, which
is a coincidence also, and itwas just loaded with problems. The shark
never worked. It was a bigmechanical shark. Stevens Builder was the director,
and they went over budget, theywent into extra time and making it.
It was just a disaster. Butit ended up being one of the

(02:36):
biggest hits in movies back in thatdecade because the movies was died to kind
of go away, and it becameone of the first summer blockbusters. Wow.
So how do you feel about beinga producer on this show? I
mean, this is certainly not yourfirst rodeo, but it seems like this
is a show that you really enjoy. I love it. I've seen it
twice already. As I said,I'll see it probably many more times.

(02:58):
And my other thought was, thisthing will be I'll bring it tack Cape
Cod and it'll run it forever ata theater summer on Cape Cod because it's
that good and it's that it's it'sabout Cape Cod. It's referenced a lot
of times in the show Agritown,the Visneyard things for that sort. So
it's made for the Cape. Butwe hope that's a long time for now
because we wanted to be on Broadwayfor a little while. I've got to

(03:19):
know, do you have a mechanicalshark involved in this somehow? Because I
would really love to see that.No, we don't. This is actually
great. It's it's only three peoplein the show. It plays the three
principal people that were in Jaws,and it takes place on the boat kind
of have a replica vote in Jaws, and these three guys, Roy Scheider
and uh and Ritz Dreyfuss and RobertShaw playing basically it's it's what they were

(03:44):
doing when they weren't making the actualfilm, sitting around doing nothing and just
it's it's all about the story ofthis show, the story of their lives.
It's just it's it's a lot offun and funny, cool, all
right. So what's the latest makinga shift over to the north Shore from
the Cape Cart sort of vibe here? What's going on over at the north
Shore Music Theater right now? Weopened Jimmy Buffett's musical Margharitaville. This it's

(04:08):
going to be a party. We'vegot the entire theater outside all all done
up like a Margaritaville kind of anatmosphere. It should just be a fun
party to watch. What is justa fun show. And I'm assuming that
there's still tickets available, but stillI'm assuming they're also going to sell out
fast. No, well, weloved when that happens. But keep in
mind we have fifteen hundred seats andwe're running sixteen performances of it, so

(04:30):
we have a lot of chairs availablealways. Okay, okay, And I
see that there's going to be atiki bar involved here. What's all that's
all that about? That's all onthe outside of the court. Yeah,
we've got a biggy bar. We'vegot the music of Jimmy Buffett type of
still drum kind of atmosphere, andjust lots of fun color, palm trees
everything. It's just going to befrozen margharita Is. It will be just

(04:53):
the blast Oh goodness Broadway and frozenmargarita Is. That's a solid combo,
if you ask me, beat itand for the people well who can't drink
Margarita's, namely the kids. We'vegot SpongeBob coming too, we do.
That's coming up in a few weeksalso when that's doing really well. So
if people want to to that,but I hurry and get them because those
those types of shows that this datasells so well, Yeah, they do

(05:15):
all right. So if anybody wantsto find out what's happening at the North
Shore Music Theater, what's going onwith the shark is broken, just what's
happening with you in general? Tellus how they can get in touch.
It's really easy. NSMT dot orgis our website and it's a really really
good When I tells you everything,you can link at my other theaters.
My movie theater is a Shockers Brokeand everything's on there. All right,
beautiful Bill, thank you so muchfor your time. As always, thanks

(05:39):
go have a safe and healthy weekend. Please join me again next week for
another edition of the show. I'mNicole Davis from WBZ News Radio on iHeartRadio.