🦈 Jaws: Live, Abridged and Completely Underfunded
October 5 – 27, 2018

We’re gonna need a bigger stage.

The All Puppet Players took a bite out of Spielberg’s legendary blockbuster and spit out something far weirder, foamier, and 100% unforgettable. Jaws: Live, Abridged and Completely Underfunded brought the shark to the stage—sort of. In reality, it was a giant inflatable pool toy with vengeance in its plastic eyes, and it was perfect.

The story closely followed the original—Brody, Hooper, and Quint versus one very pissed-off shark—but this time with puppets, pop-culture twists, and a budget that clearly prioritized snacks over scenery. In Act 2, we covered the entire stage with cardboard “water” so puppeteers could dive, pop up, and “swim” like foam-fueled predators. Quint’s boat, The Orca, became one of the largest and most detailed set pieces we’ve ever built—fully playable, fully ridiculous, and fully APP.

And just when audiences thought they’d seen it all, Act 1 ended with a heartfelt, dead-serious parody of “One Day More” from Les Misérables—rewritten as “Jaws No More,” complete with puppets harmonizing about beach closures, shark revenge, and the pain of seasonal tourism. It was haunting. It was operatic. It was wildly unnecessary. And audiences loved it.

The shark wasn’t just a beast—it was also weirdly theatrical, calling Brody and taunting him like a villain from In the Line of Fire. Meanwhile, a dog on the beach developed a deeply inappropriate fixation on the police chief, and multiple slaps turned one famous scene into a full-blown smackdown montage.

It was silly. It was smart. It was APP at its very best—punching above its weight with duct tape, imagination, and a cast of puppets who never stood a chance.

Performances ran:
October 5 – 27, 2018
(You’ll laugh. You’ll scream. You’ll never look at pool toys the same way again.)