Hope Juber -- she played Greg Brady’s girlfriend on "The Brady Bunch" -- describes her new comedic play as "Dream Girls" meets "Spinal Tap."
The musical is called "It's the Housewives" and opens for a month on Sept. 4 at downtown's Tenth Avenue Theater.
"Housewives" is about three homemakers who form a band for their PTA talent show. The group becomes a hit. Their brand of domestic rock & roll produces pun-alicious songs like "Ironing Bored," "Reynolds Rap" and "Be My Baby-sitter."
Juber, who is married to former Wings lead guitarist Laurence Juber (he's the musical director for the show), really played in a band called The Housewives from 1982-95. Watching a performance of "Jersey Boys," she realized the band's songs could be cobbled together around a narrative effort.
But "Housewives" is a fictitious account, she said.
"It's not the story of my real band -- it's the fake story of a real band," Juber said.
In the play, the band breaks up over a guacamole recipe. Juber said a tiff did break out in her neighborhood over an avocado-related incident, but that's not why the real Housewives broke up.
Juber's father is 92-year-old Sherwood Schwartz, the creator of "The Brady Bunch" and "Gilligan's Island." As an insider to the latter, I had to ask Juber to weigh in on the oft-debated Ginger/Mary Ann comparison.
"For a fictional character, I'd have to pick Ginger, because I'm a redhead," Juber said. "But in real life, Dawn [Wells, who played Mary Ann] was the warmest and sweetest person -- she used to take me shopping."
Close your eyes and try to remember the "Brady Bunch" episode when Greg takes his date, Rachel, to the drive-in movie…with a car full of frogs.
"Yes, the frogs were really jumping on my head," Juber said.
"It's the Housewives" first opened in Los Angeles in September 2008. This is its first road trip. Throughout September, it will play Fridays at 8 p.m., Saturdays at 2 p.m. and 8 p.m., and Sundays at 2 p.m.
Ron Donoho is a regular contributor to NBCSandiego.com and a contributing editor to sandiego.com. His Web site (sandiegoDTOWN.com) is dedicated to news, sports, culture, happy hours and all things downtown.
