Photo By: Katie Settel
What was the inspiration behind The Bardy Bunch?
I'm a completist. I love series finales, whether they're good or bad. Every show should get to write its own ending, but "The Brady Bunch" and "The Partridge Family" didn't get that opportunity. They were both abruptly cancelled in 1974. They never got to finish their stories. Both shows are now considered TV classics, so I wanted to give them a long overdue classic send-off. And what better way to do that than through the prism of the greatest storyteller of all time, William Shakespeare.
What is your favorite part of the creative process?
There's nothing more exciting to me than the moment when a new story idea pops up, and the early stages of transforming that idea into a narrative that feels fresh. I was doing laundry when "The Bardy Bunch" hit me. I was loading the washer and thinking of Keith Partridge and Marcia Brady as the star-crossed lovers Romeo and Juliet and somehow, that concept triggered a whole thought exercise of inserting different Brady and Partridge characters into various Shakespearean tragedies and comedies. Danny Partridge as Hamlet? Sure! Mr. and Mrs. Brady as Macbeth and his Lady? Why not! By the end of the day, all of the people and plot-lines were in place. It was like solving the ultimate brain puzzle.
What are you hoping the audience takes away from coming to see a performance?
"The Bardy Bunch" is as much an ode to the fans of these two '70s sitcoms as it is to the shows themselves. I want audiences to leave feeling that they got to revisit the characters they grew up watching in a way that is both familiar and wholly original. I'm not going to lie -- some pretty terrible things happen to the Bradys and Partridges in this musical, but I think at the same time, we pay a lot of respect to the shows and the impact they had on our culture.