David Cassidy in the News
'Blood' Keeps Them Pumping : David Cassidy and Petula Clark Still Intrigue as Actors
February 09, 1995
By Ann Conway
LA Times
She wasn't about to interrupt the post-performance festivities, but Cindy Harley would have loved to tell singer David Cassidy on Tuesday night about the saddest birthday party she ever attended.
"In fourth grade I had a girlfriend who was so fascinated by David that she told me he was coming to her birthday party," said Harley, during the cast party at Diva restaurant that followed the opening of "Blood Brothers" at the Orange County Performing Arts Center in Costa Mesa.
"She had all of us convinced--we waited and waited and waited--and he never showed up, of course."
Well, Cassidy showed up on Tuesday--radiant and thirsty--on the arm of '60s popsinger Petula Clark, his co-star in the Willy Russell musical about twin boys raised in different homes--one by his poor mother, the other by a rich neighbor.
"I'll have water," Cassidy told a center employee, as he stopped to pose for paparazzi.
Flashbulbs popped. Guests, mostly center donors, rhapsodized about the stars.
"Petula Clark--I never dreamed, back in those days in New Jersey, that I'd ever get to meet her," said Hal Harley, a member of the center's Performing Arts Fraternity support group. "I loved her recording of 'Downtown.' Of course, in New Jersey, downtown was a place you stayed away from."
Cassidy and Clark starred in the Broadway production of the musical, where Cassidy's "twin" was played by his brother, Sean Cassidy.
In the Segerstrom Hall show, Tif Luckenbill plays Sean Cassidy's role. "Sean couldn't go on the national tour because he's making a pilot for CBS," explained Cassidy, still looking every bit the '70s TV star who drove teeny-boppers wild on "The Partridge Family."
"With Tif, I have to work a lot harder because there isn't a natural connection," Cassidy said. "But we work at it, and, I have to say, I've enjoyed the national tour as much as I did the Broadway run."
Both stars raved about the center. "It's state of the art--as fine a theater as I've ever played in," Cassidy said.
Clark admired the warmth of Segerstrom Hall. "It's big and modern and that could be cold, but it's not at all," she said.
How does she keep that voice sounding just as it did 30 years ago? "I don't do anything special," Clark said. "When there was a flu thing going around a while back, I was coughing and sputtering a bit, but normally, I don't think about it at all. I'm lucky."
Both stars planned to make the most of their California run. "I'm doing the mall," Clark said. "Or, should I say the mall is doing me. I've only been here three days, and I've already done a lot of damage."
Cassidy plans to hang out with his family this weekend. "Sean's coming over, and that should be a lot of fun," he said.
