Bruce, a previously announced new musical based on Jaws screenwriter Carl Gottlieb’s 1975 memoir The Jaws Log, is resurfacing: Seattle Rep will stage the world premiere next May, the regional theater company announced today.
Featuring music by Richard Oberacker and book and lyrics by Oberacker and Robert Taylor (the team behind the 2017 Broadway musical Bandstand), Bruce tells the story of a virtually unknown 26-year-old director named Steven Spielberg who in 1974 sets out to film an adaptation of the best-selling novel Jaws.
Reads the musical’s synopsis: “While invading a sleepy fishing island off Cape Cod to shoot on the open ocean, he faced several challenges including weather, water, hostile locals, an exploding budget, endless delays, and a highly dysfunctional mechanical star named Bruce, to bring his vision to life in what proved to be one of the biggest success stories in film history.”
The musical, to be directed and choreographed by Stratford Festival’s Donna Feore, was to have made its debut this summer at New Jersey’s Paper Mill Playhouse, but of course world health events larger than a Great White Shark muddied the waters.
Bruce will begin previews at Seattle Rep’s Bagley Wright Theater on May 27, 2022, with an opening night set for June 1. The engagement will run through June 26, 2022.
Cast and creative team will be announced soon.