Review: Shaun Cassidy's THE MAGIC OF A MIDNIGHT SKY at 54 Below Magic Indeed

Look at this photo and tell me what you see:

Actually, you don’t have to tell me, because I’m going to tell what you’re looking at.  That is Shaun Cassidy, during the final moments of his new show at 54 Below when, after eighty minutes of entertaining, he was taking his bows, and one of the 54 Below patrons threw their hand up into the air, making the universal sign language symbol for “I Love You.”  And they did love Shaun Cassidy.  Every single person in the room at that June 21st opening night loved him.  And he earned it.

It has been a long time, Mr. Cassidy confessed during his conversation with his audience, since he had done something like this.  A star of epic proportion during the Seventies, Cassidy left the spotlight of performing to write and produce television, only occasionally returning to work in front of an audience.  Now, the one time teen idol has brought his cabaret show THE MAGIC OF A MIDNIGHT SKY to New York City and Broadway’s Living Room for a week of performances, performances that have, for months, been listed as SOLD OUT on the 54 Below website (the status recently changed, so there are seats available - and they are worth getting HERE).

The Magic Of A Midnight Sky is a right and proper cabaret show.  This isn’t a rock concert, the like of which Mr. Cassidy performed when he was playing out with the songs on his then-current albums.  There is music from those albums in this show, to be sure, and there is electric guitar, rockin’ out, and a lot of nostalgia, by way of the music and the reminiscences.  But this is a cabaret show.  Shaun Cassidy has crafted a great script for this show, and why not, he has already proven he’s a wonderful writer with his television programs… but writing a cabaret script is a different breed of animal, one where the stories should segue seamlessly into the songs being performed, whether those songs are Top 40 hits from 1977 being sung for a nostalgic audience, or Broadway tunes that relate to one’s mother, father, brother, or self.  The script for Magic of a Midnight Sky is beautifully crafted, with a great deal of humor, an abundance of frankness, and a generous amount of honesty (frankness and honesty should not be confused with one another - they are two different things, something that matters, in this context).  Shaun Cassidy wrote this script with skill and then learned it so that he could temper it with the right balance of the rehearsed and the spontaneous.  Thanks to that balance, the audience goes home feeling like they know a little more about him, about his life and his family, about what shaped him and gave him his sense of humor and love of music - this is what good cabaret does: it sends the audience home feeling like they know the artist.  Shaun Cassidy’s ability as a storyteller is showing, in every moment that he stands on the stage.

And then there is the music, the music from his career, his life, and, honestly, our lives, too.

While there were some audience members under the age of forty, it would not be inappropriate to say that the average age of the people at the Shaun Cassidy show was sixty - give or take a decade on either side.  We were all there when The Hardy Boys was the big hit on TV, most of us had the poster with the blue satin jacket on our wall, and we all had the albums (many of the patrons brought their albums with them and were waving them in the air, as can be seen in photos below).  We loved this man, and we loved his music, and that is why, when 54 Below announced the Shaun Cassidy show, it sold out so fast.  This event is special.  We haven’t seen this man, this entertainer, in live concert for four decades, and we want to.  We never stopped wanting to.  So we all went.  And the voice is still there.  The voice is still powerful.  The voice is still full of emotion, texture, color, and technique.  Mr. Cassidy chooses, judiciously, when he will apportion out his high notes, and he has made some artistic choices with harmonies and melodies, so that he doesn’t have to live in the vocal stratosphere for an entire number - and it all works.  Every song is well sung, expertly played on a variety of guitars and keyboards, and magnificently backed up by a crackerjack band featuring killer vocals from some of the musicians.  There might even be a new Shaun Cassidy song to hear, mixed in among the big hits and occasional show tunes.  Will the die-hards get to hear their favorite cuts from the eponymous album, Born Late, or one of the others?  Maybe.  This writer and fan isn’t telling… though I will say that, for me, it was about fifty-fifty.  I got to hear some of my go-tos live, but had to pull up one or two of my personal favorites on Spotify on the trip home.  It’s ok, though, because the setlist Cassidy has hung on the structure of his script is the right setlist for the story being told.  And the story is being told in exactly the way it should be told - not one moment of The Magic of a Midnight Sky should be changed.  This show is a dream, just as it is, teen or otherwise.  Shaun Cassidy, welcome home.  We missed you and are so happy to have you back.

Worth.  Catching.

Shaun Cassidy The Magic of a Midnight Sky will play June 22, 23, 24, and 25 at 7 pm.  Make reservations HERE.

Shaun Cassidy has a website HERE.

The Magic of a Midnight Sky band is Cole Cassidy on Guitar, Francisco Centeno on Bass, Clint de Ganon on Drums, Kathleen Sieck on Keyboard, and Musical Director Lon Hoyt on Piano.

The Magic of a Midnight Sky producer is Louis Hobson.

Photos by Stephen Mosher; Visit the Stephen Mosher website HERE.

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