Giant Killer Shark: The Musical is a meta-musical composed by Canadian musician Sam Sutherland. At both the Toronto and Winnipeg Fringe Festival, Giant Killer Shark was named the Best of the Fest, being awarded a five star

Star (classification)

Stars are often used as symbols for classification purposes. They are used by reviewers for ranking things such as movies, TV shows, restaurants, and hotels. For example, one to five stars is commonly employed to categorize hotels.-Restaurant ratings:...

 rating.

The meta-musical is based on the 1975 movie Jaws

Jaws (film)

Jaws is a 1975 American horror-thriller film directed by Steven Spielberg and based on Peter Benchley's novel of the same name. In the story, the police chief of Amity Island, a fictional summer resort town, tries to protect beachgoers from a giant man-eating great white shark by closing the beach,...

. Sam Sutherland states in a blog: "we decided to forgo the lengthy legal process of securing the rights to the source material by merely avoiding any direct reference to it. Set on a Copyright-Protected Island, [the] play features concerned citizens, a nameless mayor, and at least one Insolent Fisherman. All the action unfolds to a pop-punk soundtrack that owes as much to mid-90s Fat Wreck Chords

Fat Wreck Chords

Fat Wreck Chords is a San Francisco, California based independent record label, focused on punk rock. It was started by Fat Mike and his ex-wife, Erin, in 1990....

 bands as it does Andrew Lloyd Webber

Andrew Lloyd Webber

Andrew Lloyd Webber, Baron Lloyd-Webber is an English composer of musical theatre.Lloyd Webber has achieved great popular success in musical theatre. Several of his musicals have run for more than a decade both in the West End and on Broadway. He has composed 13 musicals, a song cycle, a set of...

. There's also hardcore for the shark attacks, rapping for the autopsy (where else should rap take place?) and triumphant power-pop for the shark-killing finale."

The original cast ofGiant Killer Shark features three main characters: a Crazy Old Fisherman (played by Aaron Zorgel), a Grizzled New York City Cop (played by Graham Losee), and a Hippie Scientist (played by writer Sam Sutherland). Throughout the play, numerous fringe characters make an appearance, mainly played by Aaron, Graham and Sam, when not appearing on-stage as their main characters.

Giant Killer Shark is managed by Ashley Carter and directed by Amy Duncan.

Giant Killer Shark: The Musical has received a rating of four out of a possible 5 bars from CBC

Canadian Broadcasting Corporation

The Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, commonly known as CBC and officially as CBC/Radio-Canada, is a Canadian crown corporation that serves as the national public radio and television broadcaster...

. As well as perfect ratings of 5 stars from both the Toronto Fringe Festival and Winnipeg Fringe Festival.

The show did its final run at the New York Musical Theatre Festival

New York Musical Theatre Festival

The New York Musical Theatre Festival is an annual three-week fall Festival which presents more than thirty new musicals at venues in New York City's midtown theater district...

 in the fall of 2008, with its final performance staged at the Tranzac in Toronto

Toronto

Toronto is the provincial capital of Ontario and the largest city in Canada. It is located in Southern Ontario on the northwestern shore of Lake Ontario. A relatively modern city, Toronto's history dates back to the late-18th century, when its land was first purchased by the British monarchy from...

on October 18, 2008.

Musical numbers

2006

• "Totally Sexy Nudie Swim Party!"
• "Livin' On A Copyright-Protected Island"
• "Lookin' For (Beach) Closure"
• "Fourth Of July"
• "Big Sexy American Beach Party!"
• "Shark Attack!"
• "100% Autopsy Dance Party!"
• "Interlude"
• "What Are We Gonna Do?"
• "Ska Fishing"
• "Bondin' An' Boozin'"
• "Shark Attack Reprise!"
• "Balls, I'm Dead"
• "The Only Good Shark Is A Dead Shark"

2007

• "Super Awesome Magic Show Party! (Montage)"