The Bardy Bunch: The War of the Families Partridge and Brady

This is What Happens After Cancellation

By: Victor Cordell - Apr 02, 2026

Dave Abrams as Keith (center), cast members of the Partridge Family doing what they do best - sing. All photos by Dave Lepori Photography.

Tanika Baptiste as Shirley Partridge, Brian Herndon as Reuben.

Stephen Guggenheim as Mike Brady, Susan Gundunas as Carol Brady.

Cast members of the Brady family children riding bicycles.

Eric Stephenson as the ghost of Mr. Phillips, Sheila Savage as Alice.

Sophie Schulman as Marcia Brady, Dave Abrams as Keith Partridge.

No doubt, the whole world has drooled in speculation, wondering what would happen if Keith from The Partridge Family and Marcia from The Brady Bunch fell in love.  Totally Shakespearean - like the tragedy of Romeo and Juliet!   Well, if nobody else did, playwright Stephen Garvey did.

The outcome is a parody of the two squeaky-clean, oversized families from sit-com television in the first half of the ‘70s.  But instead of confronting the Brady’s trivial domestic problems or the Partridge’s performance issues, these clans in The Bardy Bunch enter a blood feud that starts with a clash of booking and ends with virtually everyone in both families slain.  And it’s all played to pop music from the original two TV series and with integration of situations and dialog from around a dozen of Shakespeare’s plays.  Do I hear a farce?

Jumping on the bandwagon is rife in the entertainment business, and these copycat cohorts ran in primetime both starting and ending within months of each other.  Both had loving parent or parents with an age-diverse five or six kids whose competition with one another became an issue.  And each had a dorky non-family member who was part of the mix – the maid Alice for the Bradys and the manager Reuben for the Partridges.

A lot of theatergoers grew up with these TV series, while others had not.  This production offers ticket upgrade options that include screenings of excerpts from the two shows, so that even those who are unfamiliar can get a flavor of the characters and then see their theatrical personas.  Probably the more familiar the viewer is, the more pumped they will get with the theatrical mash up.  Yet, even those who know nothing of the series’ background but know a little Shakespeare should find it a gas.  Of course, there is a lot of parody of Romeo and Juliet but also bits from Macbeth including Lady Macbeth’s sleepwalk; Hamlet, with a particular fractured line delivered by Bobby Brady as “To BB or not to BB” (get it?); The Merchant of Venice’s “pound of flesh;” and more.

Guggenheim Entertainment’s rowdy revival captures the ‘70s with silly characters clad in garish period costumery with an emphasis on comic/graphic flowers and orange color that look straight out of Rowan and Martin’s Laugh In. 

Dave Abrams as Keith and Sophie Schulman bring verve to their central roles.  On television, Keith was the most musical of the kids, so Abrams does the heavy lifting here.  The most famous song to come out of the shows was the Partridge’s “I Think I Love You,” a pop anthem that rose to number 1 on several charts.  With that as a benchmark, one might expect that the whole soundtrack would be bubble gum.

But with some solid tunes and arrangements and a heavier sound led by the energetic Abrams, much of the music rocks and even has a touch of soul.   Numbers like “I Woke Up This Morning” and “I Can Feel Your Heartbeat” hit the spot.  And while most of the lead singers deliver the goods, some underutilized voices are particularly powerful.  Stephen Guggenheim and Susan Gundunas as the Brady parents both have considerable opera resumés.  Meanwhile, between the chirpy interludes, intrigue and mayhem abound, but the dark side is delivered in such a goofy manner that you don’t even think of the body count.

Director Scott Evan Guggenheim keeps the action moving on a stage that divides the two families onto respective sides of the stage.  The staging cleverly serves many purposes, with the special visual attraction being the Partridge family’s bus in the style of a Mondrian painting.

The Bardy Bunch is for most but not for everyone.  It has no layers of meaning, thoughtful provocation, or ethereal performances.  But if you relish nostalgia, like pop music, enjoy identifying markers from Shakespeare plays, and are into cheesy camp and chaos, this one’s for you.

The Bardy Bunch, written by Stephen Garvey, with music from the original TV series and produced by Guggenheim Entertainment, plays at 3 Below Theaters, 288 South 2^nd Street, San Jose, CA through April 26, 2026.