Patrick Cassidy describes his mother’s career as the Cinderella story of all Cinderella stories, “no question about it.”
The year is 1952. An 18-year-old girl from Pittsburgh, named after Shirley Temple, visits a friend in New York on her way to starting veterinary school. Within a day, Shirley Mae Jones is singing at her first-ever professional audition, before a private audience of Richard Rodgers, Oscar Hammerstein and a full orchestra.
Within three weeks, she’s performing in the Broadway chorus of “South Pacific.” Within a year, she’s starring in the film version of “Oklahoma.”
She’s then signed to a five-year personal contract. “And I was the one and only, the first and last, ever to be under contract to Rodgers and Hammerstein,” Jones said last week on a phone call joined by her son.
Imagine: If not for R&H, millions of teenage boys never would fall in love with the matriarch of “The Partridge Family.”
“That’s how it all began,” she says. “I wouldn’t have a career except for them.”
Jones and Cassidy come to the Pikes Peak Center in Colorado Springs on Saturday and Sept. 7 to perform “My Favorite Things: A Tribute to Rodgers and Hammerstein,” to headline the fifth Colorado Festival of World Theatre. For Jones, it will be a trip down memory lane.
She starred in the film version of “Carousel.” The Broadway musical “Me and Juliet.” Countless R&H tours.
“It was an interwoven part of my life,” says Jones, who is particularly grateful for the European tour of “Oklahoma,” in which she starred opposite Jack Cassidy as Curly.
“That’s where I met my knight in shining armor, my prince on a white horse, Mr. Cassidy,” she says, to which her son interjects, “Thank you, Mom.”
And why not? It was the union that produced Patrick and Shaun, and made her “Partridge Family” son, David, her real-life stepson.
A car drove partnership
In 2004, Jones and Patrick Cassidy became the first mother-son team to star together on a Broadway show, in a revival of “42nd Street.” Earlier this summer, at ages 72 and 46, they paired up on “The Music Man” at a regional theater in Hartford, Conn. For Jones, making Broadway history with her son was a joy.
“But it wasn’t just doing the show together every night,” Cassidy added. “It was getting to actually live together in New York City together. At our ages, that was a wonderful experience for a mother and son to go through.”
It wasn’t always quite so wonderful. When Patrick was 15 1/2, Jones remembers him as a nice boy and a great athlete, but also hyper. “He was an absolutely off-the-wall kid,” she says with a laugh. “You couldn’t stop him for a second, and he’s still that way.”
Uh-oh. That hyper 15 1/2-year- old? “I was also hell-bent on getting a car when I turned 16.”
Mom said fine, as long as he could afford to pay for half of it. “I thought, ‘Great, how am I going to earn that working at Swenson’s Ice Cream Store?’ ” Patrick says, causing his mother to laugh. “There’s no way.”
Mom was doing a touring summer production of “The Sound of Music,” and offered Patrick the role of Rolf. He thought that sounded a lot cooler than the coolest ice cream — though hardly lucrative.
“I had dreams of a Lamborghini,” he says with a sigh, “but I ended up with a Celica.”
“And I think it was second- hand,” Jones says.
“Exactly,” he adds.
Television and “that song”
R&H may have formed the skeleton of Jones’ career but, ironically, it was her work beyond R&H that made her the star she remains today: The Oscar-winning role as a prostitute in “Elmer Gantry.” The starring role as Marian the Librarian in the film version of Meredith Willson’s “The Music Man.”
And, of course, the role as mama and keyboardist in the insanely popular 1970-74 TV series, “The Partridge Family.”
“Well, really, David — and that song (‘I Think I Love You’) — was the beginning of a whole new career for everybody,” she says. “It’s amazing that it still means something to people.”
Not as surprising is how much the music of R&H still means to Jones and her son. Asked what R&H songs are most personally meaningful to each, Cassidy cites, “You’ve Got to Be Taught (to Hate)” from “South Pacific.”
“I sing that song in ‘My Favorite Things,’ and every time, I’m knocked out,” he says. “I mean, here’s this song about racism, and it’s saying it’s not something we’re born with; that you have to be taught to hate. And they wrote that in the late ’40s? Wow. That to me is just incredible.”
Asking the same question of Jones causes her to break into song and her son to break into laughter. She loves “You’ll Never Walk Alone,” but she spontaneously sings “What’s the Use of Wond’rin’?” both from “Carousel.”
“Oh, what’s the use of wondering if he’s good or if he’s bad? He’s your feller and you love him. That’s all there is to that.”
Patrick says it’s her theme song because of the two men she married — Jack Cassidy (they were divorced in 1974) and Marty Ingalls.
“We call it the song of denial,” Patrick said. “My brothers and I say, ‘You know, Mom, if ever there was a signature tune — that’s your song.’ ”
Ask Jones to elaborate on the song, and Patrick offers the perfect segue — “You know, John, if you just come and see ‘My Favorite Things,’ you’ll hear all these stories.”
Stories like meeting R&H at 18 and being asked by Hammerstein if she knew the songs in “Oklahoma.” She said, “Well I think I know the music, but I don’t know the words — and of course, here I was — talking to the lyricist,” she says with a laugh.
Jones remembers Rodgers as “a little bit of a lecherous guy who chased all the pretty girls around the room,” and Hammerstein as “the decision-maker” — and a man of great generosity.
It was Colorado Springs’ Lonnie Price, Cassidy’s director in a Washington production of Pat Conroy’s “Conrack” 20 years before, who suggested the creation of “My Favorite Things,” as a follow-up to last year’s festival tribute to Stephen Sondheim.
A long, loving look back
For Jones, it’s as much a retrospective on her own career. The two are joined by Broadway big shots Marin Mazzie and Jason Danieley, an unheard-of 40-piece orchestra, more than 100 local choral singers and two featured singers from the area — Jessica Gisin and Halee Towne, winners of a talent contest. Cassidy hopes he and his mom can eventually perform “My Favorite Things” with local symphonies around the world.
“It’s got a good script, and God knows it’s got incredible music,” he said.
That starts with the men who pioneered the Golden Age of the American musical.
“They set the bar, Cassidy said, “and they kept raising that bar. … Maybe theater has changed, but that kind of artistry never dies.”
They don’t write music quite like R&H anymore, Jones agrees: “But it will be here long after we’re all gone.
“Little kids come up to me all the time and say, ‘I saw you in “Oklahoma” on TV.’ Every high school is still doing this show.
“It’s the kind of music that will be with us forever.”
John Moore: 303-954-1056 or jmoore@denverpost.com
Listen to with Shirley Jones and Patrick Cassidy
Listen to the audio of John Moore’s full conversation with and her son, who will perform “My Favorite Things,” a tribute to Rodgers and Hammerstein, at the Colorado Festival of World Theatre in Colorado Springs. Run time: 21 minutes.
Colorado Festival of World Theatre
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The festival, now in its fifth year, alternates every other year between offering large and small programming lineups. This is one of the “rest years,” with just two major offerings:
“My Favorite Things,” a tribute to Rodgers and Hammerstein, starring Shirley Jones and Patrick Cassidy with Marin Mazzie and Jason Danieley. They will be backed by a 30-piece orchestra and a chorus of more than 100 children and adults from the Colorado Springs Children’s Chorale, Colorado Springs Conservatory and local youth groups.
8 p.m. Sept. 6, 4 p.m. Sept. 7 at the Pikes Peak Center, 190 S. Cascade Ave, $20-$67
“Sweet William, a one-man show about Shakespeare written and performed by Michael Pennington (pictured above) 7:30 p.m. Sept. 8-9 at Cornerstone Arts Building, Colorado College. Also 7:30 p.m. Sept. 12 at the University of Denver.
Tickets: All TicketsWest outlets, Pikes Peak Center box office, , 719-576-2626 or 866-464-2626
