The Cast Photo by Dave Lepori Photography

But Stephen Garvey certainly can conjure up such a major booboo as his 2011-premiering The Bardy Bunch: The War of the Families Partridge and Brady mashes together in full camp and comedy two popular 1970s sitcoms, a dozen or so Shakespeare plays and plots, and fifteen once-big-hit songs from TV's "The Partridge Family" and "The Brady Bunch." With tongue in cheek and voices that collectively soar, Guggenheim Entertainment is presenting a West Coast premiere that is overflowing with merriment, mock, and murder in the final production of the company's 3Below Theatres & Cafe, closing after a ten-year life in downtown San Jose.

With the Partridge bus on one side of the color-packed stage and the Brady's living room on the other (all designed by Jeff Christensen and Jon Gourdine), the two families emerge to make their mark by each singing in full-voiced harmonies one of their trademark songs ("Keep On," The Brady Kids, and "Looking for a Good Time," The Partridge Family). As insults and threats fly back and forth, with each family claiming the gig at the park belongs only to them, mirky plots quickly mushroom between and within the families, drawing heavily from the Bard himself–so many that at one point, the Partridges' band manager, Reuben Kincaid (Brain Herndon), remarks, "In the last couple of days, there have been more plots than in "Peyton Place."

As the Brady's head to a masquerade ball (maybe they know the Capulets?), Carol Brady (Susan Gundunas) convinces her husband Mike (Stephen Guggenheim) to kill his boss, Mr. Philips (Eric Stephenson), and usurp control of the kingdom, in this case an architecture firm. Handing him a plastic dagger and suggesting he go find a real one, Carol and Mike enact with full aplomb this Macbeth-like scheme, which is just the first of many opportunities for bodies to accumulate on stage and for their ghosts to roam about (and serve often as backup singers).

Chris Partridge (Eric Stephenson) is jealous of his brother's position as the band's bassist and convinces brother Danny (Kyle Caldwell) that Mr. Philips' ghost is their deceased father, killed by their mother, Shirley (Tanika Baptiste), and her new husband, Reuben Kincaid. Danny's Hamlet-inspired madness overtakes him and he leads step-dad Kincaid to seek help in finding and killing Danny before he himself is a victim.

As that particular chase is on, blood and guilt that cannot be washed away plague the Brady parents. He vanishes in his own mad state and she sleepwalks, babbling unknowingly of all their sins to soon-doomed Alice the housekeeper (Sheila Savage). In the meantime, Keith Partridge (Dave Abrams) is crooning from below his love for the forbidden Marcia Brady (Sophie Schulman) as she hangs out on the balcony, with this Romeo/Juliet pairing heading toward a familiar, sad ending but with many laughs and groan-deserving puns along the way.

As Shakespearean plots and characters mount in reference and implication (The Tempest, Titus Andronicus, Othello, and Much Ado about Nothing among others ), knives stab victims intentionally, and not, genders hilariously mix to match subplot demands, and a family's meat pies have a strange taste soon after the latest murder. The meat locker of Alice's beau, Sam the Butcher (also played by Eric Stephenson), becomes the afterlife haven for more and more bodies as silly-sheeted ghosts often wearing oversized sunglasses and crazy wigs rise to roam and to sing. And all along the way, characters take on identifiable aspects that fans of shows premiering a half-century ago still recognize, like a pooched-lip lisp (Heather Mae Steffen as Cindy Brady), problems attracting boys (Rheagan Rizio as Jan Brady), or magic and tricks obsession (Noah Lerner as Peter Brady). A fair amount of the show's humor requires some knowledge of the two shows, leaving a non-fan like myself somewhat out to lunch at times when others in the audience were chuckling or even guffawing.

Director Scott Guggenheim certainly has leaned heavily into sitcom farce and even Saturday morning cartoons, as exaggeration abounds in most characters' portrayals. The resulting slapstick shenanigans can be on the verge of tiresome after a while, especially for the uninitiated in the specifics of the Partridges and Bradys. However, the ongoing references to Shakespeare's tragedies and occasional comedy are totally fun for us Bard enthusiasts.

Even for those of us not familiar with the songs of the Partridge Family and Brady Kids bands, there is much to enjoy as the entire company, with happy voices ringing resoundingly, sing "Roller Coaster," It's a Sunshine Day/Sunshine," and "I Can Feel Your Heartbeat." The nostalgia and fun factors climb even higher via the big-armed, jumping-jack, and line-danced '70s choreography created by Brie Anne Martin that accompanies most of the stage-filling numbers with fifteen bouncing singers/dancers going at it. Topping off the fun are the wild and ever-more outlandish costumes of the times designed with evident glee by S.E. Copperman.

Individually, song rendition quality varies greatly, sometimes due over-enthusiastic singing and sometimes due to vocal mismatch of operatic style rendered to sitcom situation. However, there are several wonderful highlights where voices shine spectacularly.

As it was on the Partridge family show and recordings, Keith is featured time and again, with Dave Abrams' smooth and sexy voice along with his rock-star moves reigning supreme on songs like "It's One of Those Nights (Yes, Love)." When his Romeo side is joined in duet by Marcia Brady's Juliet in "I Think I Love You," Sophie Schulman shows off her vocal prowess triumphantly.

As she is want to do often on Bay Area stages, Tanika Baptiste impresses with her ebullient and exciting vocals as well as her comic talents when her Shirley Partridge sings with high-spirited Kyle Caldwell as son Danny, "I'll Meet You Halfway." But the night's showstopper comes from a most unlikely source, as the stringy-haired Jan Brady–whom everyone seems to ignore both in life and in death–knocks it out of the park via Rheagan Rizio's crystal clear, vibrant soprano on "Doesn't Somebody Want to be Wanted."

As death overtakes all but two members of the double-plagued clans, so did both sitcoms arrive at death's door of cancellations in 1974. However, in this retelling of the families' joint demise, the surviving Greg Brady (David Salper) and Laurie Partridge (Madelynn Crimi)–once sworn enemies and now lovers–seem to sense all is not lost as they revive the collected ghosts all around them and join them in a rousing, upbeat "Together We're Better," perhaps saying to the world, "We aren't really dead but will live on in syndication and reruns forever."

While 3Below Theatres and Cafe will unfortunately not live on after the April 26th closing of The Bardy Bunch, hopefully the company's ghost will someday likewise resurrect so that more delightful, edgy, and entertaining shows like this Guggenheim Entertainment production can once again grace a San Jose stage as they have for the past decade.

Guggenheim Entertainment's The Bardy Bunch: The War of the Families Partridge and Brady runs through April 26, 2026, at 3Below Theatres & Cafe, 288 South 2nd Street, San Jose CA. For tickets and information, please visit 3belowtheaters.com.