SEATTLE — Seattle Rep's "Bruce" is inspired by a novel called the "Jaws Log," written by Carl Gottlieb and it features an entirely original score.
The novel chronicles the craziness behind the scenes of the blockbuster film "JAWS" which included a mechanical shark by the name of Bruce.
"JAWS" tells the fictional story of a killer shark that caused panic and chaos in a beach community off Long Island.
Since the movie was filmed in 1974, the music is inspired by that time period; but not in the way you might think.
"The cool thing about 1974, it was right before disco happened. This is not about a score that has anything to do with disco. Seventy-four was when you had early Elton John and Billy Joel had just come on the scene. Fleetwood Mac was enormously popular. What was great about that music, it was melodic. It was extremely hook-driven, organic and it still had a lot of folk in it and it was analog," explained Richard Oberacker, who composed the "Bruce" score.
Richard Oberacker and Robert Taylor, the duo behind Broadway's Bandstand, teamed up to bring this story to the stage.
Oberacker, who came up with the original idea, did the music and together, they worked on the book and lyrics.
"When he first told me about this idea, I thought that it was one of the craziest and most wonderful ideas I'd ever heard of. So let's try to make it work!" Taylor shared.
It was 1974 when the young unknown director (Stephen Spielberg) set out to make this film that was also based on a novel. The writers say even though we know how the story ends, audiences will feel like they are on a thrill ride.
"When you get on the ride that is this show, you have no idea if or how they're ever going to make it to the end and actually get this film made. And the comedy is organic and situational because the situations they were faced with were crazy, ridiculously impossible," Taylor shared.
Bruce runs for just over 90 minutes and does not have an intermission.
It's playing at Seattle Rep through July 3rd. Tickets can be purchased here.
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