‘Jaws’ Making-Of Musical ‘Bruce’ Hooks Its Steven Spielberg: Broadway’s Jarrod Spector

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The Seattle world premiere of the Jaws-inspired stage musical Bruce has reeled in its Steven Spielberg: The Tony-nominated actor Jarrod Spector will play the young filmmaker circa 1974 as he confronts various challenges while directing what would become the most ferocious of all summer blockbusters.Not least of those challenges: the “highly dysfunctional mechanical star named Bruce,” as the musical’s synopsis states, referring to the robot shark that made filming a nightmare.Based on The Jaws Log, a 1975 nonfiction behind-the-scenes account of the film’s production by Jaws co-screenwriter Carl Gottlieb, the musical, directed and choreographed by Stratford Festival’s Donna Feore, begins previews at Seattle Rep’s Bagley Wright Theater on May 27, with opening night set for June 8.

The engagement runs through June 26.“After watching Jaws the first time, for years I was so terrified of the water I could barely step foot in a swimming pool, let alone the ocean,” said Spector, who most recently starred on Broadway as Sonny Bono in The Cher Show and was Tony-nominated for his performance as Barry Mann in Beautiful: The Carole King Musical. “Now having joined the Bruce gang (and having read The Jaws Log, of course), I’ve learned that making the movie was every bit as harrowing as what the guys on the Orca endured.“It’s a real honor to portray perhaps the foremost genius in all of filmmaking,” he continued, “and I’m so excited to work with Donna Feore and the whole Bruce team to help tell this story about the group of brilliant artists who stared down every obstacle imaginable to somehow emerge with this genre-defying masterpiece.