Shirley Jones Concert Closes Week Early at Arts
Veteran Hollywood and Broadway leading lady Shirley Jones’ UK stage debut was long overdue – but sadly, it was also short-lived. Jones, who was dubbed “the first lady of American song” by Bob Hope, opened in concert last Monday 22 March 2010 at the West End’s Arts Theatre and has now finished a week early.
Originally billed as a solo show, Jones’ son Patrick Cassidy, brother to his more famous siblings David (who appeared with Jones in TV’s The Partridge Family) and Shaun, was added to the bill for Shirley Jones & Patrick Cassidy in Concert. The show had been scheduled to run for a fortnight until 3 April 2010, but producers decided to curtail it after just six performances due to “unforeseen circumstances”. This past Saturday, 28 March, was the final showing.
Jones first found fame in 1955 when she was cast as Laurie in the movie version of Rodgers and Hammerstein’s Oklahoma!. She followed this up with the films of The Music Man and Carousel, before winning the 1960 Academy Award for Elmer Gantry. On TV, she was the matriarch of The Partridge Family, and her Broadway credits include South Pacific, Maggie Flynn and 42nd Street.
