‘Real Live Brady Bunch’ Even Upstages Reruns

The Scene: Opening night of the L.A. run of “The Real Live Brady Bunch” at the Westwood Playhouse. The show is a live, hilarious re-creation of the television show done directly from the original scripts. Tuesday’s episode, “The Subject Was Noses,” had the audience roaring with every Brady-esque nuance. Some of the audience and the cast celebrated later at a dessert buffet party at the Westwood Marquis.

The Buzz: It was a heavy hit of nostalgia for the audience, who all seemed to be rabid Brady fans. At the after-party, people talked about the cast’s amazing ability to capture, dead-on, the mannerisms of every original player from the TV show. It also got guests chatting about their favorite episodes from the series (complete with memorized lines), and which character they identified with.

Who Was There: The main cast members of the stage show--Andy Richter, Jane Lynch, Jon Kean, Becky Thyre, Benjamin Zook, Kathryn Kelly, Tom Booker, Madeline Long and Mari Weiss; co-directors and producers Faith Soloway and Jill Soloway and producer Ron Delsener; original TV cast members Florence Henderson (Carol), Eve Plumb (Jan) and Susan Olsen (Cindy), and the TV show’s creator, Sherwood Schwartz. Also, Ricki Lake, Wink Martindale and Dawn Wells.

The Food: The dessert buffet included choices for the cholesterol-conscious (fresh berries) and cholesterol-junkies (cheesecake, tarts, ice cream, cookies and chocolate-dipped strawberries). Not surprisingly, there was a run on the high-calorie goodies.

Quoted: “I’m still kind of speechless,” said Henderson upon entering the party. “I think the actors have really done a lot of homework.” Was it odd seeing another actress portray her as Carol Brady? “Yes, but she (Jane Lynch) is awfully good. They’re all good. It just boggles my mind that the audience is so turned on by that. Their reactions were just incredible. People hold (the show) with such affection, and I think that’s what I felt tonight. I didn’t feel any sense of ridicule or being laughed at. . . . It was just fun.”

Is This Dedication or What?: “There was a screening of a movie that I did tonight,” said Ricki Lake, “and I passed that up to come here. This was something I was so looking forward to. Cindy Brady and I were like this . I bonded with her.”

Sorry, But We Had to Ask: Why did Schwartz never make much of the fact that this was a stepfamily? “Television is a shorthand language,” he said. “You can’t stop and explain everything because there isn’t time. (Dealing with the stepfamily issue) could have taken six weeks, and it could have been a pretty dull six weeks.”

Something to Think About: Does this mean that in 20 years we’ll look forward to “Real Live Thirtysomething”?