Reviews: What Are Critics Saying About Seattle Rep's Jaws Behind the Scenes Musical Bruce? | Playbill

The Verdict Reviews: What Are Critics Saying About Seattle Rep's Jaws Behind the Scenes Musical Bruce?

Tony nominee Jarrod Spector leads this new musical about the making of the blockbuster film.

BRUCE

Reviews are in for the new musical Bruce, now playing a world-premiere engagement at Seattle Rep's Bagley Wright Theater through July 3. 

Based on Carl Gottlieb's novel The Jaws Log, tracking the making of the blockbuster film Jaws, Bruce features music by Richard Oberacker and a book and lyrics by Robert Taylor and Oberacker, the team who penned the Broadway musical Bandstand.

The musical casts Tony nominee Jarrod Spector—who played Sonny Bono in The Cher Show, a record-breaking 1,500 performances as Frankie Valli in Jersey Boys, and Barry Mann in Beautiful: The Carole King Musical, all on Broadway—as Oscar Award-winning director Steven Spielberg. Bruce tells the story of the then-26-year-old director as he sets out to film an adaptation of a best-selling novel in 1974 and the challenges he faces along that way, including weather, water, hostile locals, an exploding budget, and a highly dysfunctional mechanical star named Bruce.

Read the reviews here.

Seattle Gay Scene (Michael Strangeways)

The Seattle Times (Jerald Pierce)

Variety (Misha Berson)

Playbill will continue to update this list as reviews come in.

Spector is joined by Hans Altwies (An Iliad), Eric Ankrim (Come From Away), David Benoit (Les Misérables), Preston Truman Boyd (Kiss Me, Kate), E. Faye Butler (Fannie: The Music and Life of Fannie Lou Hamer), Beth DeVries (Les Misérables), Candice Song Donehoo (Beauty and the Beast ), Jay Donnell (The Color Purple national tour), Alexandria J. Henderson (VDreamgirls), MJ Jurgensen (Matilda), Justin Keyes (MaryPoppins), Ramzi Khalaf (A Christmas Carol), Corinna Lapid Munter (The Hunchback of Notre Dame), Timothy McCuen Piggee (Catch Me If You Can), Cullen R. Titmas (The Last Ship), Brenna Mikale Wagner (The Little Mermaid national tour), Matt Wolfe (Scandalous), Geoff Packard (Bandstand), and Napoleon Maurice Douglas (A Christmas Carol) with understudy Kyle Nicholas Anderson (Les Misérables) and swings Brian Lange (25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee) and Sarah Rose Davis (Urinetown).

The Stratford Festival's Donna Feore, also attached to the Broadway-aimed The Griswolds’ Broadway Vacation, directs and choreographs the production, which also features scenic design by Jason Sherwood, costume design by Tina McCartney, lighting design by Jeff Croiter, sound design by Brian Hsieh, projection design by Shawn Duan, music direction by Lily Ling, orchestrations and music supervision by Greg Anthony Rassen, stage management by Jessica C. Bomball, hair and wig design by Liz Printz, and dialect coaching by Gin Hammond. Rebecca Aparicio serves as the associate director, Angela Chan as the associate music director, and Nikki Long as the assistant choreographer.

 
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