David Cassidy in the News
EGOS & IDS; Ain't Heavy, He's My Co-Star
August 29, 1993
By Degen Pener
New York Times
NAMES: David Cassidy, 43, and Shaun Cassidy, 34.
IDENTITIES: Singers. Actors. Former teen idols. Half-brothers. Sons of the late Jack Cassidy, the actor.
CURRENT ACTIVITY: Appearing as twins, who are separated at birth, in Willy Russell's "Blood Brothers" at the Music Box Theater. The musical, which they joined on Aug. 16, also stars Petula Clark.
DAVID'S CREDITS: "The Partridge Family" on television, "Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat" on Broadway.
SHAUN'S CREDITS: "The Hardy Boys Mysteries" on television, "Bus Stop" in London's West End, "Strays," a 1991 movie that he wrote for the USA network and described as "sort of 'Arachnophobia' with cats."
THE SHIRLEY JONES CONNECTION: Shaun's mother; David's stepmother, who played his mother on "The Partridge Family."
Q. So whose plan was it to cast both of you in the same show?
DAVID (in dark shirt): It was my idea, but to be fair, I heard that the producers had already asked around if he and I got along well. I called him and said, "I've never said this to you before, but this is an opportunity for you and I to do something that, forget about acting, on a personal level for the rest of our lives we can say we did this experience together." He came and saw it, and the rest, I guess, is history.
Q. You two had never worked together before?
SHAUN: No. We are very new at being a duo. An interviewer asks you a question and I'm not used to being, like, "Oh, Tom Smothers is going to answer. I have to wait for Dick."
Q. Are you two like twins in any way?
DAVID: Next to the sarcasm, probably I would say certainly we both have insight in terms of not only ourselves but the world and the planet around us. Generosity, sensitivity, creativity, humility.
Q. One of you must have a bigger ego.
SHAUN: He does.
DAVID: We don't get into egos. I love when he is good and great and I cheer for him. I'm not in competition.
Q. How much do you think you've transcended your images as teen idols?
DAVID: I have a lot. I don't know about him. I've done so much work at doing it.
Q. What kind of work?
DAVID: So much publicity, public relations stuff, press stuff, talking about it, blowing myself up. I've worked very hard at satirizing myself, the former self, my incarnation from television. In the 90's, it was almost like the curse had been lifted and almost overnight, I went from being yesterday's news to like a cutting-edge sort of kitsch hip.
SHAUN: I don't have any scars from it. The last song I made was in 1981, and then I got immersed in the theater and my kids and started writing and I haven't looked back.
Q. Did you guys ever keep any posters or other memorabilia that had your faces on it?
DAVID: The only thing I ever saved purposefully were six lunch boxes that were given to me in 1972 or '73, and they are still in their original box.
SHAUN: I have one lunch box, which I think my stepdaughter took to school for a while, which was a little surreal. How many kids take their parents to school on their lunch box?
