The hit rock musical comedy that entertained sold-out houses in L.A. for over four months arrives in San Diego this September. Get ready for the Divas of Domesticity! Corinne Dekker, Jamey Hood and Jayme Lake ("Megawatt performances" - Coast to Coast Newspapers) reprise their roles as The Housewives, three young homemakers who form a band for their PTA talent show - then go on to become bigger than Brillo with their hilarious brand of "domestic" rock 'n roll. The limited 4-week engagement opens September 4 at the Tenth Avenue Theatre in San Diego.
The 19 uproarious songs at the heart of the show - with titles like "In Sink And At Your Disposal," "Ironing Bored," "I've Been Defrosting All Day" and the "Reynolds Rap" - are the brainchild of two-time Grammy award-winning guitarist Laurence Juber (former lead guitarist for Paul McCartney's Wings) and his Emmy-nominated wife, television writer Hope Juber. Soon after they were married, Hope wanted to combine her comedy writing with Laurence's rock and roll music. She became inspired while caring for the first of their two babies, and the songs they created about vacuum cleaners ("It Sucks"), child care ("Be My Babysitter") and daily household duties ("Pledge or Behold") went on to cook up a storm on Entertainment Tonight, Hard Copy, John and Leeza, The Home Show and Oprah.
"I was sitting in a dark theater watching Jersey Boys when it dawned on me how much fun it would be to give these songs a back story," Hope explains.
So she teamed up with writer Ellen Guylas (Full House, Phil of the Future) to develop the songs into a full-fledged book musical. Memorably choreographed by Kay Cole and costumed by Sherell Martin, It's the Housewives! played to SRO houses in the fall of 2008, then re-opened at the same Los Angeles theater in 2009 due to unprecedented ticket demand.
"Ellen and I had a blast creating the three young moms and documenting their 'journey to stardom' - the words just flew off the computer screen," she laughs.
The three dynamo leads from that world premiere production (Dekker, Hood and Lake) will be traveling to San Diego along with original cast members Tony Cicchetti, Daniel Gordon and Andy Lurie. Rounding out the cast at the Tenth Avenue Theatre are Lisa Cicchetti and San Diego's own O.P. Hadlock.
Daily Variety called It's the Housewives! "infectious and hilarious... the songs are as musically rewarding as they are lyrically inventive." "A show that you will want to see over and over again! It is definitely our 'Critic's Pick'," agreed the American Radio Network. The Los Angeles Times announced, "All wacky on the domestic front... the songs are genuinely clever [with] the best harmonies since 'The Marvelous Wonderettes.' "
Composer/Lyricist/Musical Director Laurence Juber was lead guitarist for Paul McCartney's band, Wings, during which time he won a Best Rock Instrumental Grammy for the track 'Rockestra' from the album "Back To The Egg." After Wings disbanded in 1981, Juber embarked on a career as a solo artist, composer and arranger. He soon developed a reputation as a world-class guitar virtuoso and was voted #1 by Fingerstyle Guitar magazine. He has released 14 critically acclaimed solo albums, including "LJ Plays the Beatles," "I've Got The World On 6 Strings" and his latest "PCH." His DVD "Guitar Noir" was DVD Etc. magazine's Top Pick for surround-sound 5.1 audio and earned a 2005 CEA "Demmy" award for sonic excellence. His solo guitar arrangement of 'The Pink Panther Theme' is featured on the Best Pop Instrumental Grammy-winning album "Henry Mancini-Pink Guitar." Folios and DVDs of his compositions and arrangements are published by Alfred Publications. The venerable C.F. Martin Company currently offers an 'LJ' Signature model guitar.
The daughter of The Brady Bunch (and Gilligan's Island) creator Sherwood Schwartz, Hope Juber's first professional entertainment experience was playing Rachel, Greg Brady's girlfriend, on the television show. After college, she joined her father as a writer and quickly became a story editor at Paramount working on situation comedies and penning episodes for The New Munsters, an animated series called Little Shop and material for Elvira, Mistress of the Dark. In recent years, Hope has focused on writing musicals, penning four for Storybook Theater of Los Angeles, two of which - Mother Goose The Musical and The Princess and The Frog - won the ADA (Artistic Director Achievement) Award for Best Original Children's Musical. With Laurence she then wrote the score to popular, often produced Gilligan's Island-The Musical, which is currently touring nationally. She and her brother Lloyd co-wrote the third Brady Bunch movie, The Brady Bunch in The White House, and she received an Emmy nomination for the TV Land special Still Brady After All These Years. Most recently, Hope, Laurence and Lloyd teamed to write A Very Brady Musical, which ran to rave reviews at Theatre West in Hollywood.
