Jaw-dropping comedy: Good Luck Macbeth sinks its enamel into the unique summer time blockbuster

A few years in the past, my husband and I launched our daughter to the film Jaws. It’s lengthy been a favourite of my husband’s, and we each keep in mind the frenzy the movie (and its sequels) triggered when launched. Household lore is that he and his sister had been afraid to get into the tub for days after seeing it.

However when our 11-year-old watched it, she laughed. After which, throughout Quint’s well-known recounting of the USS Indianapolis catastrophe, she fell asleep. Ah, nicely.

It’s true; not all the things concerning the 1975 Steven Spielberg movie holds as much as fashionable scrutiny, and the results, in fact, appear foolish in comparison with immediately’s CGI capabilities. However few would argue with its designation as the unique summer time blockbuster, a memorable traditional, which is why we return to it yr after yr … and why it’s such good fodder for parody.

Good Luck Macbeth Theatre Firm has earned a fame for its parodies of traditional favorites—some pre-existing, and a few truly conceived and written in home by proficient groups of native writers/performers. Nowhere is that extra obvious than with the corporate’s newest manufacturing, Shark!, a foolish, campy parody of Jaws that provides loads of Easter eggs and deep dives into plot factors for die-hard followers, but in addition permits a complete new technology to dip their toes within the water, with loads of snark, native references and present pop-culture callouts.

It’s summer time within the seashore city of Amity, on the opening day of its summer time Artown celebration. Vacationers are flocking to the seashores, however a younger blonde was not too long ago killed by a shark, so Police Chief Brody (performed by Brandon Collins) desires to shut the seashore. The mayor (Cory Easley) flat-out refuses, with so many vacationer {dollars} at stake. When little 6-year-old Alex and his oddly geriatric mom, Mrs. Kintner (Liz O’Neill)—why is she so previous?—be part of the beachgoers, Alex is killed in a shark assault.

Now the neighborhood is out for blood. Native grizzled shark hunter Quint (David Richards) affords his know-how and his boat (for a worth) to go kill the shark. Chief Brody, who has been petrified of water ever since a nasty expertise with a Kevin Costner movie, should resolve the problem and reopen the seashore, however he wants reinforcements.

Enter Matt Hooper (Leif Aucoin), a marine biologist with J.A.W.S., the Joint Aquatic Moist Scientists, who claims to grasp sharks and know the right way to kill this specific menace (which is performed brilliantly by comic Nick Josten). Brody and Hooper take Quint up on his provide and head into open water to search out little Alex’s killer.

Whereas Shark! primarily follows the essential plot of Jaws, it additionally highlights how foolish and bizarre a lot of the unique movie (and its namesake guide) truly is. It additionally manages to skewer way more than that—as an illustration, our personal native theater scene, a controversial native persona we like to hate, and a memorable Tremendous Bowl halftime present.

It’s a brisk 90-minute present, and you’ll spend nearly the complete time laughing, I guarantee you. Many kudos are as a result of GLM writing staff, a staff of longtime native performers whose confirmed comedic chops are razor sharp: Amanda Alvey-Fannin, Ashley Atack, Rhiannon Field, Ryan Costello, Ryan Kelly, Mojo Montelongo and Ian Sorensen. A lot credit score additionally goes to director Greg Klino, who needed to captain this ship of foolishness and did so admirably.

You’ve gotten a sea of leisure choices to select from this month, however it’s best to make some extent to dive into this soon-to-be traditional from GLM. It’s a beautiful reminder of how deep our native pool of outstanding comedic expertise actually is.

Good Luck Macbeth’s manufacturing of Shark! shall be carried out at 7:30 p.m., Thursday by way of Saturday; and a couple of p.m., Sunday, by way of Saturday, July 29, at 124 W. Taylor St. Tickets are $28 to $38, with reductions. For tickets or extra info, name 775-322-3716, or go to goodluckmacbeth.org.

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