The Once and Future David Cassidy
Las Vegas Showbiz Weekly January 21 - 27, 2001
Cassidy is great
By Richard Abowitz
David Cassidy's little dachshund is licking my hand, but I am afraid to sneeze because, sitting on the sofa next to us, the dog's master is saying how terrified he is of catching a cold.
"You can't get sick, and you can't sprain your ankle. I don't ride my horses or do any of that stuff. You have to build that into your life," Cassidy says.
Don't worry, the former teen idol has not moved to Las Vegas to transform into Howard Hughes. But as the producer of "At the Copa," which has seven performances a week at the Rio, Cassidy knows full well that the public will not accept an understudy replacing the show's star, one David Cassidy. It makes for a busy life.
"I am producing two shows and performing six nights a week. There's a lot of responsibility that goes with that. I'm on the phone, doing faxes, having marketing meetings, approving everything, rehearsing people and dealing with the problems that come up every single day with these projects. I don't have a day off anymore. Then at night, after I've done my job all day, I get to go do my job. It's really difficult."
Cassidy conducts business from a building behind his Las Vegas home. At first glance it looks more like a ski lodge than an office. It is quiet and clean and decorated with furniture so comfortable that it envelops you. There are many pillows. On a desk in back, a woman works silently at a computer and then with a quick "good-bye," slides out into the late afternoon twilight. Cassidy, obviously tired, makes himself some tea. He seems used to being the last one in the office, and it's probably a good bet that he is first to arrive each morning, too.
"I've been accused by my intimate family of being a workaholic," Cassidy admits. I tell him that even though I just met him, I agree with his family. Cassidy offers up a weary half-laugh and wan smile.
He doesn't exactly pace himself, either. Just two hours after our conversation, Cassidy is onstage as Johnny Flamingo and holding nothing back. "If you're going to do it, you do it one hundred percent and you go out on the stage and give everything you got," he says.
By the end of "At the Copa," Cassidy is covered in sweat--having spent the past 90 minutes singing, dancing, changing costumes, playing a couple of characters and even racing through the appreciative audience. "I want to have it all," Cassidy says.
Though "At The Copa" opened only a year ago, it has been like this--more or less--for the past four years. That was when Cassidy arrived in Las Vegas to star in a troubled "EFX" at the MGM Grand.
"That show took a long time to rework. We did the first big hunk of it in like three weeks, you know, 15 and 16 hour days. Then when we got it on its feet, we worked on it for a year and a half. 'At the Copa' has been the same kind of experience. We put it up on its feet and then started working on it--reworking it and changing it. Fortunately, audiences are loving it now."
Between the two shows, Cassidy co-produced and wrote "The Rat Pack Is Back," which still runs on the Strip. He came to Las Vegas a star and, as improbable as it sounds, Cassidy has now also become an impresario.
"I love my work. I love the job. I love being here. It's afforded me such a great opportunity to be in one place."
Cassidy appreciates that because he has been on the move for as long as he's been famous, which, by the way, has been for so long that he probably doesn't even remember anything else. After all, even before he became the ubiquitous heartthrob of the early '70s as the son of actor Jack Cassidy, he was not exactly anonymous.
So when Cassidy talks, he speaks with practiced care. Make a rude comment around him and he'll say, laughing, "You said it, not me." The tone may convey agreement, but the words are chosen to offer nothing of the sort. Cassidy is well experienced with the crafty ways of the media. Even exhausted, he remains alert to every word he says.
"A friend called this weekend and said, 'The weirdest thing happened. I was watching cable and you weren't on. Aren't you on every night on three different channels?' I've had a lot of exposure in that respect."
Cassidy was just out of his teens in 1970 when the television show he starred in, "The Partridge Family," made him a superstar. By the end of that year, the show produced the radio hit "I Think I Love You," with Cassidy singing, and it paved the road for him to become a bigger recording star than even Keith Partridge. It was as David Cassidy that he appeared on the cover of Rolling Stone.
"When you learn you have a bigger fan club than the Beatles and Elvis, you know that you arrived. I don't say that egotistically. It's just that I wasn't dumb, so I knew that there were a large number of people out there and I was having a significant impact on their lives," he says.
It was mostly an audience of young girls, for whom David Cassidy was the Backstreet Boys and 'N Sync all rolled into one. It is an audience that still comes out to see him in "At the Copa," and he still manages to provoke a scream or two out of them. Of course, these days, thanks to syndication, Cassidy fans come from many generations.
"It's interesting because it's gone on and on and on. The next thing you know it has another life. I learned this a long time ago about nostalgia, movies, art and television shows: if it was any good in the first place, if it was quality in the first place, it will always come back. Things go away and become passé, but then they have another life."
Cassidy has had a few lives. After "The Partridge Family" left television, Cassidy had some lean years. "There were years when the phone didn't ring at all," he remembers. Cassidy, however, not only came back as an actor in films and television, he also established himself as a talent and draw in musical theater. Even his recording career has continued to have the occasional success. In 1985, he had a hit in England with "The Last Kiss," which featured backing vocals from George Michael. Five years later, the single "Lyin' to Myself," off an album on the punk label Enigma, put him back on the U.S. charts. Cassidy produced his most recent album, Old Trick New Dog, in May 1997, shortly after his arrival in Las Vegas.
"I'm still writing and working on music. I would like to do another record and I have three movie scripts that I am considering right now. But I'm not cloned. I'll be honest with you. I just don't know if it's possible to do 'At the Copa' and do other things. I need time to recharge my creative batteries. Fortunately, I am about to go on my first vacation in many months."
A few weeks after our meeting, Cassidy has decided to make some changes in his life. He holds a press conference at the Rio to announce that he is closing "At the Copa" and will instead be performing 30 or so concerts at Harrah's properties around the country. The goal, Cassidy says, is to allow himself more time for his family. But old habits die hard and he also discusses a range of projects, including plans for a film and a double-disc release.
It could not have been an easy decision. Cassidy's departure means an end for "At the Copa," a show that he first conceived in 1995, authored, and dedicated the past year to performing seven times over six nights each week. It also means disbanding the talented cast that includes an 18-piece band and Grammy award-winning singer Sheena Easton.
"This is the best group of people I've ever worked with, and they've given everything to this," he says of the cast, band and crew. But at least the show is going out on top. "The fact that it has become a big hit is a wonderful thing and I think we are doing something that isn't done anymore--since it is performance-oriented as opposed to spectacle or novelty."
The final performance of "At the Copa" is January 21, and it's a sure bet that, as he has every night since the show opened, Cassidy will put his all into it.
"I really love doing it, and it doesn't matter how I feel--as soon as I hear that band go--I go 'Yeah!!!'" He snaps his fingers and this time, the smile spreads across his entire face.
David Cassidy
Where: Rio
When: Jan 21
Cost: $60
Information: 252-777
