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An Original Comedy Stage Play by Lloyd J. Schwartz

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The Brady Bunch

Palm Springs Life Reviews
“Dinner At Five”
By Julie Pendray

February 9, 2018 By Tom

Couples Counseling
Two veterans of The Brady Bunch reunite for the new play Dinner at Five, a very un-Brady take on relationships.

Julie Pendray / January 22, Arts & Entertainment

dinner-at-five

Christopher Knight of The Brady Bunch fame plays a scene from Dinner at Five with Caryn Richman from The New Gidget.
PHOTOGRAPHS BY DEAN BLAGG


Christopher Knight and Lloyd Schwartz, who helped make The Brady Bunch one of the most-loved TV sitcoms of the 1970s, will team up for a most unlikely stage play Jan. 24 through Feb. 24 at Indian Wells Theater in Palm Desert.

Dinner at Five is a comedy that asks, “How about wife-swapping?” This might seem an odd topic for the résumés of Knight and Schwartz, juxtaposed against the squeaky-clean TV show. Knight, who back then played middle son Peter Brady, appears in Dinner at Five as Eddie, half of one of the curious couples. Schwartz — who worked as a writer and dialog coach on The Brady Bunch, which his father, Sherwood Schwartz, created — wrote this new play and directs it.

“When I read part one of the play, I phoned Lloyd and said, ‘You’re a sick man,’” Knight recalls. “But he told me, ‘Keep reading.’ Things change in part two. It’s not what you think.”

The play involves after-dinner conversation among two mature couples, in which one character suggests “mixing things up.” “Switching partners? That’s for young couples,” says one husband. His wife retorts, “Why should they have all the fun?”

The couples do change houses, but don’t expect sexy romps from people who can barely give each other high-fives without joint pain. There are twists and turns in the plot that eventually lead to … well, you’ll have to go and see.

“Don’t be offended, and don’t give up at intermission,” is all Knight will say.
Schwartz says he incorporated his and his wife’s real-life idiosyncrasies into the characters, though he’s quick to say that the resemblance in their behavior ends there — he and Barbara, married 42 years, have never wife-swapped, he stresses.


Read the complete review in Palm Springs Life Magazine ~ Arts & Entertainment


Filed Under: Reviews Tagged With: Caryn Richman, Christopher Knight, Dinner At Five, Indian Wells Theater, Lloyd Schwartz, Palm Desert, Palm Springs, Palm Springs Life, The Brady Bunch, The New Gidget

BWW Review: DINNER AT FIVE at Indian Wells Theatre
by Stan Jenson

February 5, 2018 By Tom

BWW Review: DINNER AT FIVE at Indian Wells Theatre
by Stan Jenson Feb. 1, 2018

Dinner At Five “Writer Lloyd J. Schwarz, a veteran of such television comedies has scripted a new stage comedy titled Dinner at Five starring four familiar faces from the 70’s & 80’s TV era. Kathy Garver (Family Affair), Christoper Knight (The Brady Bunch), Caryn Richman (The New Gidget), and Larry Thomas (The Soup Nazi Guy-Seinfeld series). The ladies cooked up a plot to swap husbands, and become swinging seniors. Much like television land, it takes us back to a gentler time, and provides an enjoyable evening out. The strength of the plot is that all four are super troopers. They make it creditable, funny and warmly enjoyable”.

(Read the entire Review at the Broadway World website)

Filed Under: Reviews Tagged With: Caryn Richman, Christopher Knight, Family Affair, Kathy Garver, Larry Thomas, Lloyd J. Schwartz, Palm Desert, Seinfeld, The Brady Bunch, The New Gidget, The Soup Nazi

Time to change—The Bradys’ Chris Knight, 60, turns ‘swinging senior’ in new role

November 16, 2017 By Tom

Time to change—The Bradys’ Chris Knight, 60, turns ‘swinging senior’ in new role

November 15, 2017

The Villager | In: Arts & Entertainment, News, Opinion | By Peter Jones

The Brady Bunch

Here’s the story: Top row, Maureen McCormick, Florence Henderson, Barry Williams and Christopher Knight. Bottom row, Eve Plumb, Mike Lookinland, Robert Reed and Cindy Olson.

By Peter Jones Maybe it was just a matter of decades before The Brady Bunch would create something just as risqué as that sitcom was clean-scrubbed.

“If you think about the show itself, it was already in ’69 a fish out of water,” said Christopher Knight, the 60-year-old actor who once played pubescent Peter on the iconic family comedy. “It was already a show whose time had come and gone. Hell, I missed being drafted by two years. We were in the middle of fricking Vietnam.”

Lloyd Schwartz, who helped create the series with his father Sherwood, was always an older-brother figure to Knight who would help coach the young actor through some of the show’s more demanding dialogue—like the time middle-brother Peter tried to create a more engaging personality by impersonating screen legend Humphrey Bogart.

In that episode, Peter famously announces the family’s dinner menu with a Bogart-esque “pork chops and applesauce,” a line that has lived in infamy in Brady Bunch lore.

“I don’t know what we’ve learned about humanity, but something about that moment clicked with all kinds of people,” Knight said with a laugh. “But as a result, I’m asked to say ‘pork chops and applesauce’ for the rest of my life. Of course, I didn’t know who Humphrey Bogart was at that time, so I was doing an impersonation of Lloyd impersonating Humphrey Bogart.”

Thousands of reruns later, Knight and Schwartz are working together on a project the clean-cut Bradys could not have imagined. This week, Knight is co-starring in the Schwartz-written Dinner at Five, through Sunday, Nov. 19, at PACE center in Parker. The play, which imagines a bored quartet of seniors mulling the benefits of wife-swapping also stars Family Affair’s Kathy Garver as Knight’s wife.

My interview with Garver appeared in last week’s Villager, though Knight’s phone call came too late to join her. As anyone can tell you, I never get enough classic television. [Back around 1989, I interviewed then-Denver resident Ann B. Davis (The Brady Bunch’s Alice) on my then-radio show, not to mention George “Goober” Lindsey and others.]

Christopher Knight, 60, best known as Peter on The Brady Bunch, co-stars in Dinner at Five at PACE center in Parker through Nov. 19. For tickets, visit parkerarts.org or call 303-805-6800. Courtesy of Fivers Inc.

Chris Knight From my standpoint, who better to cast in a senior-citizen twist on Bob, Carl, Ted and Alice than an aging foursome of clean-cut TV stars? The other couple is Fred Grandy [Gofer on Love Boat] and Caryn Richman [The New Gidget].

When Schwartz sent the script to Knight, the actor was initially taken aback by the decidedly non-Brady nature of the play and its semi-autobiographical origins.

“As I’m reading this, I’m realizing this is Lloyd,” Knight laughed. “This is leaping out of his mind. This is him. These are his thoughts—and I’ve known Lloyd my whole life!”

The Brady’s, of course, were much subtler in their implicit sexuality, though when parents Mike and Carol kissed goodnight at episode’s end, I always had the sense that the two had a … well, healthy relationship. The revelation that actor Robert Reed was gay could never have been predicted by the screen couple’s bedtime playfulness.

“He was a great actor,” Knight explained, “and [Florence Henderson] was just this magnetic personality. She oozed charm. She had a fun sensual side. Florence always had sort of a wink and a nod. She was nasty in a wholesome way.”

Knight says he was more frustrated by his own role on the show.

“As much as I had consternation about playing somebody so squeaky clean, who was unlike anybody I knew, as I became a teenager and wanted to be cool, nothing about the show was cool. As much as I rebelled through my hair, it looked ridiculous. Nobody could talk any sense into me,” Knight said.

Although the idea of a blended family was a distinctly modern construct in the early 1970s, The Brady Bunch was unequivocally lacking any realistic or contemporary edge.

“We truly didn’t act toward one another, as I’m certain blended families do from time to time. There’s always that recognition that ‘You’re not my sister, you’re not my mom.’ We never dealt with that whatsoever,” Knight said. “The show didn’t really deal with the world outside the home. Looking back on it, that’s the reason the show continues to work.”

Among Knight’s most traumatic “episodes,” so to speak, was when the Brady kids became a musical group and the young actor was forced to confront his lack of musical talent. When adolescent Peter’s voice-squeaking became the crux of drama surrounding a big record date, Knight took the script personally.

“It was an absolute psychological disaster for me. I was 12 or 13,” he said. “I can’t sing. I don’t want to sing. I thought that episode was them all making fun. Let’s give Chris something to do.”

Although Dinner at Five wades into more mature waters, in some ways the play is like old times for Knight, especially when Schwartz is around to coach him.

“It’s like working with an older brother, all the joys and pitfalls,” he said. “It’s a fun fluff piece about an outrageous idea that is apparently gifted on us all by Dr. Phil. Empty-nesters do what empty-nesters do. It’s fun. It’s a sitcom on stage.”

To read this review in its original format, click the link below:

Time to change—The Bradys’ Chris Knight, 60, turns ‘swinging senior’ in new role

Filed Under: Reviews Tagged With: Caryn Richman, Chris Knight, Christopher Knight, Dinnere At Five, Dr. Phil, empty-nesters, Florence Henderson, Fred Grandy, Kathy Garver, Lloyd Schwartz, Peter Brady, Peter Jones, The Brady Bunch

A Delicious Classic TV
“Dinner at 5”

November 10, 2017 By Tom

A Delicious Classic TV “Dinner at 5”

Wednesday, November 08, 2017

By Herbie J. Pilato

 

Dinner At Five-poster There is something tremendous about seeing classic TV legends Kathy Garver (Family Affair), Fred Grandy (The Love Boat), Caryn Richman (The New Gidget) and Christopher Knight (The Brady Bunch) on stage performing live and together in the new play, “Dinner at 5,” written and directed by Lloyd J. Schwartz (Gilligan’s Island/The Brady Bunch).

The cast’s combined years of experience in film, on television and in the theatre becomes immediately and abundantly clear as each performer proves their comedic flair with this delightful “Dinner.”

One-liners, zingers, a raised eyebrow here and there, and surprises galore are presented with entertaining ease by this repertoire of pros who recite with both rapid and at times perfectly timed reserved repore both the prose and poetry of Schwartz’s clever words.

The talent from on and behind the stage, along with the charming nostalgia of just seeing these actors live, combined with the added mix of a contemporary twist, makes “Dinner at 5” a feast for the eyes and ears.

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“Dinner at 5” is playing at the Parker Pace Center in Denver, Colorado from November 14th through November 19th, and from January 17th-20th, January 24-27, and January 31 to February 2 at the Indian Wells Theatre in Palm Desert, California. For more information, please visit www.dinnerat5.com.

Review is courtesy of the Classic Television Preservation Society blog: ClassicTVPS.

Filed Under: Reviews Tagged With: Caryn Richman, Christopher Knight, Classic Television Preservation Society, ClassicTVPS, Family Affair, Fred Grandy, Herbie J. Pilato, Kathy Garver, The Brady Bunch, The Love Boat, The New Gidget

Dinner At Five Rocks The Theater
With Great Writing And A Hilarious Iconic Cast

September 26, 2017 By Tom

Lonnie Chapman Theatre Marquee

The Life Box Media’s Thoughts And Review

At The Lonny Chapman Theater The Writing And Performance Brought The Crowd Alive

In A Show Filled With Some Of Television’s Most Iconic Figure’s Kathy Garver “Cissy” From Family Affair, Fred Grandy “Gopher” From The Love Boat, Caryn Richman “Giget” From The New Giget, And Christopher Knight “Peter Brady” From The Brady Bunch

Written By An Already Well Known Lloyd J. Schwartz Who Has A Classic Sitcom Television And Writing Skill In His Veins Being The Son Of Legendary Television Visionary Sherwood Schwartz Of The Brady Bunch Fame As Well As Gilligan’s Island And Many More Hit Television Shows

Lloyd J. Schwartz Does Not Disappoint And Neither Does His Cast

As In Many Times Before Mr Lloyd J Schwartz Stands On His Own Merits As A Creative Mind With Talent

Without Giving Everything Away This Sitcom Type Show Is Live And In Your Face With A Real Thoughts Of Some Of Any Age But These Being Played By Almost Seniors As In Age Not In High School ” An Extremely Respectful Compliment”

The Thoughts Of Swinging As In Couples “Switching Partners” Is A Thought That Has Rolled Through Many Minds Of Some But Now It Is The Talk Of This Cast Of Four Well Known Goody Goody Known Stars And Man It Does Not Disappoint

Every Moment From The First Talk Of The Plot I Will Not Give Away To Who Starts This To The Very Part They Declare Themselves As “SWENIORS” This Will Knock You On Your Behind With Laughter

When You Take Kathy Garver Think Of Sweet Cissy And You Throw This Out The Window With Her Smart And Dry Humor And Lines That Make You Think Of A Combination Of The Look Of Cissy With A Touch Of Bea Arthur And Betty White All In One Great And Snarky Very Well Delivered Makes You Laugh Harder

Caryn Richman The Former Giget Throws A Sassy Sexy And Comedic Mix In This With This Area Of Edgy That Makes It More Believable And With Her Great Mix With Kathy For The Woman’s Side Of Things That Gel’s So Very Well As The Plot Thickens

Fred Grandy Has More Than Gopher To Bring To The Act With His Well Delivered Lines And His Few Area’s He Just Breaks You Up Even With A Few Well Delivered Ad Libs Make You Fall Right On In The Show

As For Christopher Knight He Delivers A Funny But Kind Of Serious Guy Who Makes You Feel Like You Could Be Him But Then Turns It In The Next Gear Not Your Peter Brady Here

He Has The Charm And The Looks In A Grown Up Addition With Real Life Adventure As In Adult Adventures A Well Played Roll
Christopher Has Some Great Lines That Have The Crowd Rolling In Laughter

As I Spoke To The Creator And Writer Mr Schwartz, I Asked Him If This Was Looking At Being A Television Project And He Said Not As This Time He Was Taking This On The Road Like A Broadway Show

Well Let Me Tell You Something Mr Schwartz I Have Seen Hundred’s Of Broadway Shows And Even More Television Shows And Motion Picture Film’s, This Will Tour Wonderful With This Cast And Would Make A Hit Television Show

As A Media Company Owner Host Of A Red Carpet Style Show And A Sometimes Actor I Have Not Had So Much Fun At A Reading Of A Show Or A Broadway Show In I Do Not Remember When

The Chemistry Is Awesome Funny And Works With All Of The Actors Just Hitting Hard And Solid With A Relaxed Funniness That Has A Build Up You Do Not See On Shows Very Many Times Today

You Can See Your Youth And Your Right Now All In One With These Actor’s And This Show

The Cast Is All Grown Up And Shows It With Real Grown Up Situations And Brother They Can Deliver

We Here At The Life Box Media Could Not Have Enjoyed This Live Show Any More Than We Did Hats Off To This Very Funny Show And Here’s To Many More
Happy Dinners At Five

A Special Thank You To Scott Travis Telling Me About The Show And To He And Ms Kathy Garver For The invitation

Thank You To Mr. Lloyd J Schwartz For Taking A Few Moments To Give Us His Idea And Plan Of This Very Funny Show 5 Thumbs Up

Please Follow All Of These Stars On Social Media Including Facebook And Twitter If You Can Not Find Them Please Ask

Char Richards, President And Directors And Owner Of The Life Box Media Group

The Owner And Host Of The Life Box Media Group Media Channel Co Hosted By Max Bahmani

Please See And Subscribe To Our Celebrity Interviews On The Life Box Media Channel On YouTube

THANK YOU

P S

There Is A Reason For No Periods And No Ending’s To This Style Of Writing And It Starts Up High So You Will Not Skim If You Would Like To Know The Reason Please Ask But Yes We Do Know What We Are Doing Thank You For Reading

You Are Appreciated

Review is courtesy of the Life Box Media Group. To read the full review with accompanying photos, see the blog post at: Dinner At Five Rocks The Theater… .

Filed Under: Reviews Tagged With: C. Richards, Caryn Richman, Christopher Knight, Family Affair, Fred Grandy, Giget, Kathy Garver, Lloyd J. Schwartz, Lloyd Schwartz, Lonny Chapman Theater, Max Bahmani, Peter Brady, The Brady Bunch, The Life Box Media, The Love Boat, The New Giget

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