Just when you thought it was safe to go back to the symphony hall, Jaws will be unleashed this summer as a live-to-picture experience thanks to Film Concerts Live!. Jaws In Concert will feature Steven Spielberg’s original summer blockbuster with a live orchestra performing John Williams’ iconic score, including a theme so memorable that just humming it in a swimming pool at night is enough to terrify people. According to Billboard, the experience “will have its world premiere at the Boston Pops Orchestra (which Williams famously helmed from 1980-1993) next summer, with Keith Lockhart conducting.”
Unsurprisingly, Jaws has been one of the titles that orchestras have been eager to perform since Film Concerts Live! began doing these live-to-picture experiences, usually of Spielberg-Williams collaborations. (E.T. The Extra-Terrestrial, Raiders Of The Lost Ark, and Jurassic Park have all been done previously.) “It’s not only a testament to the power and timelessness of Steven’s masterful film,” explains FCL co-producer Jamie Richardson, “but also to the iconic nature of John’s score, which certainly includes one of the most immediately recognizable themes in the history of the movies, perhaps even in the history of music.”
Arrangements of the main theme from Jaws, as well as “Shark Cage Fugue,” have been available to orchestras to perform for years, but Richardson explains that this will be “the first time the entire Jaws score will be played before live audiences.” There will also be about five minutes of never-before-heard music that was composed for the film but excised from the final cut. It’ll be up to audiences to perform “Show Me The Way To Go Home,” though.
Jaws In Concert will terrorize concert halls next summer, and the only thing better would be a live orchestra on a lake. Somebody please buy Mike Huckabee a ticket so he can see who actually kills the shark, would you?