Take a romp through the ‘70s sitcoms with Wolfpack Theatre

With a comedic mash-up of campy ‘70s sitcom parody and the tangled and sometimes bloody works of Shakespeare, the Wolfpack Theatre Company presents “The Bardy Bunch: The War of the Families Partridge and Brady” March 18, 19 and 20 at 6:33 p.m. in the Wolfpack Theatre at Glacier High School.

Tickets for this musical parody are $13 for adults and $10 for children, students and senior citizens and are available at the GHS Main Office and Photo Video Plus, or at the door if still available.

In the summer of 1974, the sitcom-perfect “Sunshine Days” are about to come to an end for the Partridges and the Bradys. Desperate after receiving their cancellation notice from the network, the two clans meet for the first time after being double-booked for the same cabaret. Emotions spike and a feud between the families immediately erupts. Amid a fight-to-the-finish sing-off Keith Partridge and Marcia Brady make an instant “Romeo and Juliet” connection and passionately fall in love at first sight.

Later that night, Keith and Marcia secretly meet and hatch a plan to bring peace to the warring families by convincing Greg Brady and Laurie Partridge that they are secretly in love with each other in a “Much Ado about Nothing” fashion. And thus begins the numerous plot references and iconic lines that are drawn from Shakespearean classics.

“The play is very faithful to the characters and plot lines of both “The Brady Bunch” and “The Partridge Family” television shows,” said director and GHS instructor, Chris Adamcyk. “It’s a comedy in the genre of the ‘70s sitcom variety — but the action also gets a little bloody in a nod to the ‘Bard’ in ‘The Bardy Bunch.’”

In true Shakespearean style, the body count grows as the musical weaves together the tragic and romantic storylines of 12 Shakespearean classics with the corny jokes and iconic songs of the Partridge family and the Brady’s including “Time to Change,” “It’s a Sunshine Day” and “I Woke Up in Love This Morning.”

“The music is all from songs that “The Partridge Family” and “The Brady Bunch” performed back in the 1970s. You may be familiar with the Partridge’s hit “I Think I Love You” — it was a No. one hit on the Billboard Hot 100 in November 1970,” Adamcyk said.

Fans nostalgic for these famous sitcom families will certainly appreciate the music. And those who count themselves as Shakespeare enthusiasts will appreciate the classic references.

“It’ll be interesting to see if the audience picks up on all of the Shakespearean allusions,” Adamcyk said.

Conceived by playwright Stephen Garvey, “The Bardy Bunch” premiered in 2011 at the New York International Fringe Festival, where it won an Overall Excellence Award for Outstanding Ensemble. It went on to play a sold-out Off-Broadway run in 2014.

“Stephen Garvey, is a childhood friend of mine. We grew up together and I can remember putting on versions of the movies that were popular at the time — like ‘The Omen’ and ‘Jaws.’ Adamcyk said. “And of course - we loved “The Brady Bunch” and would come over to each other’s houses after school and watch reruns on a daily basis. My family went to see “The Bardy Bunch” during the off-Broadway run and Steve and I have been talking about doing it here ever since. When a publishing company purchased the rights and started to market it to high school theaters I just couldn’t delay any longer.”

The cast of “The Bardy Bunch” includes Christopher Breese, Brooklynn Pitts, Dresden Allred, Zach Hall, Ethan Strand, Sydney Barcus, Sierra Riley, Ashley Bruce, Suzanne Loviska, Sydney Fletcher, Braden Wakefield, Isaac Schroeder, Hailey Anderson, Derek Smith, Alexa Wilton, Asher Robinson, Paul Cornish, Teslyn Hartman, Ellie Haag and Ty Espeseth.

Supporting the cast behind the scenes is the stage and technical crew, Lauren Kohler, Tylin Hartman, Kassidy Murphy, Joe Schlegel, Emily Cleveland, Isabella Auclaire, Mac Adkins, Elise Pitts, Mayleen Hoover, Avrey Mele and Zach Lapke.