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The last time Shaun Cassidy performed in Hawaii was in 1978 when he was at the peak of his popularity as a teen idol. He was flown by helicopter from the airport to Diamond Head and remembers looking down as he was passing over Waikiki and seeing fans on the beach spelling out his name with their bodies. He remembers the concert at the Blaisdell Arena as a “scream-fest.”
When Cassidy returns to the Aloha State this week for two nights at Blue Note Hawaii, he won’t be arriving by helicopter and he doesn’t expect anyone to be spelling out his name on the beach. The biggest difference, though, is one that Cassidy is looking forward to: He’ll be able to talk with the audience during the show.
“It’s a strange career trajectory I’ve had but it’s a good one,” Cassidy said Monday. “I don’t know too many people who sort of stopped doing one job at 21 and then picked it up again at 60, but that’s kind of what I did. I’ve been really blessed that I’ve had another great job as a writer, producer and television (actor). I didn’t think I’d go back to performing, but in the last few years I missed that connection with an audience.”
The show, “The Magic of a Midnight Sky” is Cassidy’s one-man retrospective on his life and multiple careers. While he talks about his own experiences, he also focuses on making a connection with the audience. He said he wants to get a sense of their lives, and in particular with young people who might have faced similar challenges as he did as a teen. Cassidy’s hits from the 1970s, and other personal favorites, are the soundtrack.
Among the stories Cassidy shares during the show are his youthful encounters with entertainers whose songs are part of his repertoire. There’s “Teen Age Idol,” first a hit for Rick Nelson, a teen idol of the late 1950s. Nelson didn’t write the song, but it seemed to be speaking for him in 1962.
Cassidy could relate to Nelson’s experiences. They met in the late 1970s when Nelson was a guest on “The Hardy Boys,” the ABC television show starring Cassidy as Joe Hardy and Parker Stevenson as Joe’s brother, Frank Hardy.
“He had gone through obviously a similar experience to my own 20 years prior,” Cassidy recalled. “He was kind of grappling with transitioning, wanting to be taken seriously as an artist. Rick was a great artist.”
Cassidy also had a memorable encounter with Eric Carmen after he recorded “That’s Rock ’n’ Roll,” a song Carmen had written and first recorded. Cassidy’s remake in 1977 was his second consecutive million-seller “gold single.”
“(Carmen) called me and he said, ‘If you like that song, I got another great one for you.’ He happened to be in L.A. at the time when I was living there. … He asked if I wanted to come hear his new album and said he had a demo of a song called ‘Hey Deanie’ he wanted to play for me. He did and I loved the song and recorded it and it became my next (million-seller).”
Another early career milestone in 1977 came when Cassidy’s record label, Warner Bros., decided to shoot a video version of his chart-topping remake of the Crystals’ hit, “Da Doo Ron Ron.”
“This was pre-MTV when (Warner Bros.) would make these one-minute kind of commercials for songs that they would actually sell to regular TV. They made this ‘Hard Day’s Night’ (style) video with kids chasing me around on the Santa Monica Pier. A limousine pulls up, somebody says, ‘Get in, get in,’ and I hop in the limousine and there’s Phil Spector. Spector looks at the camera and says, ‘Who is this kid?’ ”
Spector had co-written the song and produced the Crystals’ original hit. Cassidy recalls the shoot as “an 11-hour marathon. … It was a bit scary. He was a brilliant artist, but obviously very disturbed.”
Did Spector like that way that Cassidy and Warner Bros. producer Michael Lloyd remade his classic?
“He was thrilled,” Cassidy said. “And I think he was mostly thrilled because he was getting very good royalties (from our recording).”
After his teen idol fame, Cassidy, who is the son of actor Jack Cassidy and actress Shirley Jones, transitioned seamlessly into successful careers as an actor, writer and producer. His television credits as a producer and writer include “American Gothic” and “Roar.” He also co-starred onstage with his older stepbrother, David Cassidy, in the original Broadway production of “Blood Brothers” in the early 1990s. Most recently, Cassidy served as an executive producer and writer on the NBC drama “New Amsterdam.”
Now, Cassidy is back on the concert stage with “The Magic of a Midnight Sky.”
“The show originated because people over the years have asked me to write a memoir or autobiography and every time I sat down, to even think about doing that, I realized that I was more interested in talking to people and sharing my story and kind of getting a sense of theirs because the first act of my career was so big, and that can be a challenge for a lot of young people. And, again, I’m really fortunate that I not only was able to survive that first act, but I thrived.”
“I started writing kind of a survival story. How did I get here? How did that kid in satin pants jumping through hoops become a writer and get shows on the air and not go crazy? I wasn’t sure myself but I did. I’m grateful I did.”
Looking long term, Cassidy has set himself another goal.
“I want to write a Broadway musical. We’re doing five nights (this summer) at a place called 54 Below in New York, which is like sort of an inside theater district place where a lot of Broadway people perform. That’s the other epiphany I had about this show — it’s actually more of a theater piece, honestly. So my dream would be to end up doing some version of the show on Broadway.”
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Shaun Cassidy
“The Magic of a Midnight Sky”
>> Where: Blue Note Hawaii, Outrigger Waikiki Beach Resort, 2335 Kalakaua Ave.
>> When: 6:30 p.m. Friday and Saturday; doors open at 5 p.m.
>> Cost: $45 and $55; $10 food/drink minimum
>> Info: bluenotehawaii.com or 808-777-4890
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