Craig Fones interviews Eve Plumb.
Congratulations on Grease, getting the part of Mrs. Murdock. How did that role come about for you?
I auditioned for the role, always auditioning as an Actor and sometimes you get things and sometimes you don’t and this time I got it.
Was it a long audition process?
I first did a self tape, where I taped myself doing the scene and sent that to them digitally and then I auditioned for the Director, Thomas Kail, when he came out to New York, and that’s when I sang and also did the scene.
How has the rehearsal process been?
I’m not out there yet, the show is being done in Los Angeles and I live in New York. I fly out this week. They’ve been rehearsing already and I’ll be out there for 6 weeks total.
How do you like living on the East coast compared with Los Angeles?
It’s great, I grew up in Los Angeles and I just wanted to live someplace else and try that you know. I’ve lived here about 5 years and really like it.
Do you know if the production is going to be more like the movie, or the Broadway Musical version, or a combination of both?
I think it’s going to be a combination of both, and I think it will probably make fans of both of the versions happy.
So are they going to have a song for you to sing in the show?
I’m not sure how much singing I will do in the show, but I did have to sing for the audition.
Who is producing the show?
The Producers are Mark Platt, who is a Broadway producer and Thomas Kail, who directed Hamilton and In the Heights. We have two Director’s one is doing the stage direction, Thomas, and then Alex Rudzinski, who works on Dancing with the Stars for the live Television part.
Are you excited about the live show?
Oh sure, it’s sort of a blend of doing a Broadway show and doing a TV show. Knowing it’s live will add that tightwire/tightrope aspect to it.
With all your theater experience and background, do you enjoy doing Theater more or Television more?
Well they are just so different from each other, Theater is a longer process and depending on the show requires a lot of stamina. Television is great because it’s immediate and it’s fast. So there’s such a difference to say you like more one than the other.
I saw on your website you paintings, I really love your Film Noir paintings. Do you have an art gallery that you display your paintings in?
Thank you. Yes, you see on the website www.eveplub.tv I have a few galleries that I’m represented in. The Noir’s are currently in a gallery, but I just had a show in Chattanooga, TN which was very successful and had about 6 paintings there and I’m looking towards one possibly in Atlanta in May.
I really enjoy your Western paintings as well, I’m from Arizona, so I’m partial to Westerns. I also saw that you just finished a film called Monsoon, Did you film that out in Arizona?
Thank you yes I did. I was out there for 4 or 5 days out in Phoenix.
Living in Tucson, AZ I lived through many monsoons, is it actually about a Monsoon with flooding and all of that?
I think that’s part of it, but I think it refers to and emotional monsoon, it’s a love story between two people and I play the cranky Grandma.
Best of luck with Grease, and I can’t wait to see it, with the success of The Wiz it seems that they are trying to bring Broadway more to the main stream it looks like?
Right, and that’s great because I’ve seen so many wonderful Broadway shows and they come and go and a lot of times they will film for Lincoln center archives, but for everybody to get to see them is great.
Congratulations once again for the role of Mrs. Murdock and Grease, and I just wanted to see where you are in embracing The Brady Bunch, it’s probably cyclical for you I’m sure?
It’s always going to be a part of my life, and it’s always a lovely part because people have such great memories of the show and that’s always a nice little thing.
Eve Plumb started her acting career at age 6 performing in many television and commercials. She is well remembered for her portrayal of “Jan” on “The Brady Bunch”, as well as, TV movies such as “Dawn: Portrait of a Teenage Runaway” and “Little Women”. Eve studied improv comedy at The Groundlings School in Los Angeles. Stage credits include off-Broadway, Nora Ephron and Delia Ephron’s Love, Loss, and What I Wore and Miss Abigail’s Guide to Dating, Mating & Marriage, and regional theatre work throughout the United States. Eve has proudly been part of two “Broadway Backwards” performances for Broadway Cares Equity Fights Aids. Recent credits include “Law and Order: SVU”, “Army Wives” and the film Blue Ruin(Winner Cannes Directors’ Fortnight, Sundance Spotlight Festival, Independent Spirit nominee). She is currently filming the feature Monsoon. Eve is also an accomplished painter.
