The Shark Is Broken, actor and playwright Ian Shaw’s behind-the-scenes take on the filming of Jaws in 1974, is finally coming to the Vineyard this summer after successful runs on Broadway and overseas.

Produced in partnership with Island nonprofit Circuit Arts, the Island opening comes shortly after the 50th anniversary of Jaws, which premiered in theatres on June 20, 1975.

Bill Hanney, the owner of Edgartown Cinemas and numerous other movie houses and live theatres around New England, was one of the Shark Is Broken’s Broadway producers and is now bringing the play to the Martha’s Vineyard Performing Arts Center in Oak Bluffs for a two-week run opening July 5.

“I only had one thing in mind: to bring it here. That’s why I invested in the Broadway show,” Mr. Hanney said this week, during a visit to the Gazette offices with producer David Elliott.

The troublesome shark.

The troublesome shark.

“I’ve loved this movie since I was a little kid,” said Mr. Hanney, who normally produces musicals but is making an exception for The Shark Is Broken. “This is such a good play,” he added.

Mr. Shaw, who was a young boy when his father Robert Shaw starred in Jaws as Quint, based The Shark Is Broken on his father’s “drinking diary” from the movie’s production.

“I had a moustache for another role I was playing. Suddenly I realized I looked like Quint. We were the same age. So I sketched out some ideas for a play,” Mr. Shaw wrote, in an author’s letter on the website for the play’s British-Irish touring production. 

A friend, writer Joseph Nixon, collaborated with Mr. Shaw to develop the script, which takes place entirely aboard the floating set of Jaws during the last act as stars Robert Shaw, Roy Scheider and Richard Dreyfuss wait out the hours between takes.

It’s somewhat like a combination of the 20th-century plays Waiting for Godot, by Samuel Beckett, and No Exit, by Jean-Paul Sartre, Mr. Elliott said — but with much less existentialist bleakness in its 95-minute running time.

“There’s a lot of humor in it,” Mr. Elliott said.

At one point in the play, Mr. Dreyfuss muses that in 20 years, nobody will remember Jaws.

Drinking and squabbling with each other as they wait for the film’s mechanical shark to be repaired yet again, the three movie stars discuss their careers, their peeves, their fathers, other movies and the craft of acting itself.

There are also many Martha’s Vineyard references amid the off-camera conversations between the three actors. 

“It’s about as behind-the-scenes as it gets,” Mr. Hanney said.

In 1975, film played in town hall, which was also featured in the movie.

Ray Ewing

In 1975, film played in town hall, which was also featured in the movie.

Ray Ewing

At the heart of the narrative is Robert Shaw’s struggle to master Quint’s Indianapolis speech, in which the old seafarer recalls his first encounter with man-eating sharks after the 1945 torpedoing of warship USS Indianapolis by a Japanese submarine.

The actor, who also was a published playwright, disliked the script from Jaws screenwriter Carl Gottlieb and wound up writing his own version for the scene. Filmed uncut by director Steven Spielberg, the Indianapolis speech has become an icon among filmed monologues.

Starring Ian Shaw in the role of his father, The Shark Is Broken premiered in the British seaside resort of Brighton in 2019, before quickly moving to the Edinburgh Fringe Festival the same year.

After pandemic closures, The Shark Is Broken played in London’s West End over the winter of 2021-2022 and made its North American premiere in Toronto later that year, followed by a limited Broadway run in 2023.

Ian Shaw, who appeared in all of the previous productions, is now touring England and Ireland with The Shark Is Broken and will be unable to join the Vineyard cast, Mr. Hanney said. But the play’s original director, Edinburgh Fringe Festival mainstay Guy Masterson, eagerly accepted the Island gig.

“Guy, because of Martha’s Vineyard, leapt at the chance,” Mr. Hanney said.

There’s also a chance that Ian Shaw will come to the Vineyard during the run, after his U.K. tour ends, Mr. Hanney added.

The Island production also will have the play’s original lighting design and music, he said. Composed by Tony Award-winner Adam Cork, the music evokes the Jaws soundtrack without using any of the film’s John Williams score, Mr. Hanney said.

Mr. Cork also designed the play’s immersive sound environment, rich with waves and birds. 

With 750 seats, the Martha’s Vineyard Performing Arts Center is a bit larger than ideal for The Shark Is Broken, Mr. Hanney said. But the Orca set piece, on which all the action takes place, won’t fit on other Island stages. To paraphrase Jaws, the producers would need a smaller boat.

The Shark Is Broken will open first at Mr. Hanney’s North Shore Music Theatre in Beverly, playing from May 2 to May 11 before striking the set and transporting the production to Oak Bluffs.

The actors will arrive in late June, Mr. Hanney said, and the show will be part of a float in Edgartown’s Independence Day parade on July 4.

A website for tickets is still being developed, he said, with the address sharkmv.com.

Ticket pricing for the Vineyard production is still to come. Mr. Hanney is charging $45 to $65 for tickets to the Beverly shows.

“The most important thing is we want everybody to see it,” he said.