A comedy about the making of the film Jaws is coming to a Malvern stage.

Celebrating the 50th anniversary of the 1975 iconic blockbuster, The Olivier award-nominated play The Shark Is Broken will be at Malvern Theatres from Tuesday, January 28 until Saturday, February 1 next year.

Producers Sonia Friedman Productions, Scott Landis, GFour Productions, and Kenny Wax have announced the cast for the forthcoming tour.

Ian Shaw, son of Robert Shaw, plays his father, alongside Dan Fredenburgh as Roy Scheider and Ashley Margolis as Richard Dreyfuss.

The play, co-written by Ian and Joseph Nixon, is inspired by Robert’s experience playing the role of Quint in Jaws.

The play imagines what transpired on board the Orca when the cameras stopped rolling during the filming of Steven Spielberg’s epic movie.

Set in the open ocean in 1974, filming is repeatedly delayed.

The lead actors, theatre veteran Shaw and young Hollywood stars Dreyfuss and Scheider, are cramped in a too-small boat, entirely at the mercy of inclement weather and a malfunctioning mechanical co-star.

The play takes audiences behind the scenes of Hollywood’s first blockbuster, revealing a chaotic voyage that could either lead to cinematic magic or sink them all.

The play had critical and sell-out success at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe in 2019 and moved to the West End in 2021, where it was extended due to popular demand and received 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, where it again received critical acclaim.

The play is directed by Martha Geelan for the tour, with original direction by Guy Masterson.

The play features set and costume design by Duncan Henderson, lighting design by Jon Clark, sound design by Adam Cork, video design by Nina Dunn, with Molly Stacey as assistant director and James Melling as associate sound designer.