Fringe Theater Key West stages Jaws comedy The Shark is Broken at Armory

Fringe Theater Key West opened a spring run of The Shark is Broken at the Key West Armory, betting that one of Hollywood’s most famous production disasters still has plenty of bite for Monroe County audiences. The play runs April 15-25 at 7 p.m. in the intimate black-box space at 600 White Street, with tickets listed from about $49.04 to $69.84.

The production stars Trey Forsyth, Mathias Maloff and Ray West in a backstage comedy built around the 1974 filming of Jaws, when Robert Shaw, Richard Dreyfuss and Roy Scheider were stranded together on a boat while a faulty mechanical shark kept shutting down production. Written by Ian Shaw and Joseph Nixon, the play turns that tension into humor and unease, then adds another layer by drawing on Robert Shaw’s real-life drinking diary, which his son discovered.

Fringe Theater is using the show to lean into what the island’s arts calendar does best: make live performance feel like a local event, not just a ticketed night out. The nonprofit describes itself as community-focused and says it presents new works, classic plays in fresh form, play readings, community projects and education outreach. Staging the play at the historic Armory, a restored 1903 landmark with studios upstairs and Fringe performances below, gives the production a setting that is small enough to feel immediate and old-Key West enough to feel special.

That combination matters in a city where tourism and the arts overlap. A recognizable title like Jaws can pull in visitors looking for something beyond bars and beaches, while also giving local audiences a reason to buy a seat in the off-hours between larger festivals and the busiest travel periods. For a company that depends on recurring turnout, a production with name recognition and an established production pedigree offers more than nostalgia. It offers a reliable draw.

The play first premiered in Brighton, England, in July 2019, then moved to the Edinburgh Festival Fringe, where it won attention strong enough to earn a Laurence Olivier Award nomination for Best Entertainment or Comedy Play. It later transferred to London’s West End in 2021 and reached Broadway in 2023, giving Fringe Theater Key West a title with proven appeal and a story that still resonates: artistic ego, mechanical failure and the scramble to keep going when nothing works as planned.