David Cassidy on the Web
Inside with David Cassidy
December 24, 2005
http://insider.tv.yahoo.com
In the early 1970s, David Cassidy was worshiped and adored by millions, thanks to a little TV series known as "The Partridge Family."
Now, the former teen heartthrob finds himself playing another idol -- legendary singer Bobby Darin -- in the stage show The Rat Pack Is Back!, an homage to a bygone era when Frank Sinatra, Sammy Davis Jr., Dean Martin and Joey Bishop ruled Sin City.
"The show, what is presented here, is really the authentic show that was, what made Las Vegas," David tells our Kathie Lee Gifford about the production. "Las Vegas was put on the map because of their persona."
Having originally debuted in Vegas in 1999, The Rat Pack Is Back! is currently being performed at The Supper Club in New York City. Directed and co-written by David, the show centers on a fictional night (Sinatra's birthday in 1961) during which the foursome perform and celebrate on stage in Las Vegas. They are later joined by their friend Darin, who sings some of his signature songs like "Mack the Knife" and "Beyond the Sea."
The project stems from David's own trip to Vegas in 1961 when he was just 11 years old. "I got a backstage pass to what Las Vegas and what The Rat Pack Is Back! was inspired by," explains David. "That weekend, when I saw Frank and Dean ... I got to see what that world was that no longer exists."
The same can be said for the world that David himself, at the height of his fame, once lived in -- where he could barely go anywhere without being mobbed by screaming fans.
And while David became a household name, his father, stage and television actor Jack Cassidy, watched in frustration from the sidelines.
"His difficulty was that I was really successful and famous and he wasn't, and his wife, Shirley Jones, was an Academy Award winner," says David. "He was bi-polar, he was alcoholic and he had one foot in and one foot out of reality."
Unfortunately, his father's lifestyle eventually caught up with him and he died tragically in 1976. "He lived being a swinger ... he died drunk, in a fire, because he was smoking, he died of smoke inhalation," recalls David. "It was something, I think, if you look back upon it, could see how he spun out so badly."
But despite the painful times, David has come to terms with the past and his often tumultuous relationship with his dad. "It's a healing process that I've gone through," says David. "Is the wound still there? Yeah. But does it hurt? Not like it did. I've forgiven him."
And David admits that his father "would have loved this," referring to The Rat Pack Is Back!. As does David. "I just love doing it and, frankly, if I had a choice of any job, I'd be doing this job, which is why I'm doing it."
 |
 |
| David appears as singer Bobby Darin in the New York stage production of The Rat Pack Is Back. | Kathy Lee rubs shoulders with former teen heartthrob David Cassidy |
