Liz Smith - New York Post - May 9th
BACK on B'Way

The following article by columnist Liz Smith was printed in both.
The New York Post and Newsday
For those of you who were unable to obtain a copy here is her article word for word.

Mothers! What do they want? Well, there is one who didn't know that she wanted to co-star
with her handsome son, until the day this mom, known to us as Shirley Jones, said to him,
"They've asked me to play the diva Dorothy Brock in the wonderful production
of '42nd Street' at the Ford Center on 42nd Street."

"That's funny Mom" answered son Patrick, as in Cassidy, "because they asked me
to play Julian Marsh, the tyrannical director in the same production."
"Well," smiled Shirley, "do you want to?"
"I'll do it if you'll do it" he flirted back.

And so for the first time in nearly 40 years, Jones returns to her roots in New York
theatre and, for the first time, a mother and son star together on Broadway.
And this weekend they opened in this classic.
 

Over a chicken salad in Sardi's, before running off to rehearsals, Shirley
recalled when we both knew her adorable agent, Gus Schirmer Jr.
"He started everything for  me" she remembered. His tiny house in Watermill
where he barbecued endlessly, and nothing came out at the same time.
He was special" Jones made her Broadway debut in the original "South Pacific",
and co-starred with her late husband Jack Cassidy, in "Maggie Flynn".
She went on the win an Oscar for the movie "Elmer Gantry"
(playing sensationally against type as a hooker) and made such memorable
films as "Oklahoma!," "Carousel" and "The Music Man." Later she became
one of TV's quintessential moms as the matriarch of "The Partridge Family"
and watched her stepson, David Cassidy, become a huge teen idol.
Her son Shaun also had his moment as a pop sensation.
 

"You know,  my entire family hangs on the back wall in this restaurant," she said.
We left our sandwiches and went to inspect all the Cassidys - Patrick, David,
Shaun and their father Jack. "I hope I get one of my own, so I can hang out
with them as last," sighed Jones.

Shirley celebrated a big birthday in March and her husband, Marty Ingels,
gave her a surprise party. (Shirley and Marty have an enduring,
if sometimes wacky, volatile marriage) He shipped just about everyone
she had ever known to California. "It was grand, but I missed Gus she mused.

Welcome back to Broadway, Shirley. We've missed you.

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