Shaun Cassidy is bringing his holiday show “Unwrapped” to Hoyt Sherman Place in Des Moines on Nov. 22, marking a return to a city and venue he has said he loves. The 8 p.m. show pairs Cassidy's music with stories about growing up in a famous entertainment family and the one he has built since.
Cassidy, son of actor Jack Cassidy and Academy Award winner Shirley Jones, rose to fame in the 1970s with the No. 1 hit “Da Doo Ron Ron” and the television series “The Hardy Boys Mysteries,” according to Axios. He later became a writer and producer of shows including “American Gothic” and “New Amsterdam,” and Hoyt Sherman Place notes he spent five years as an executive producer and writer on the NBC/Netflix series “New Amsterdam.”
The venue describes him as the son of a Tony Award-winning actor and an Academy Award-winning actress, and it lists reserved seating for the Nov. 22 show at $54.50, $64.50 and $124.50, with a limited number of VIP packages also available. Des Moines Cityview, however, reported that tickets for the concert start at $66 and are available through Ticketmaster, a discrepancy the available information does not explain.
A Return Trip He Still Calls Magical
Cassidy played Hoyt Sherman Place in June 2022, and in the run-up to this year's show he described that visit as a magical 24 hours, according to Axios. He told the outlet he loved the venue and the city and had not visited Des Moines for a very long time before that, probably since the late 1970s.
Audiences at the Nov. 22 show can expect Cassidy to share his holiday experiences with his birth family and the family he has built over the years, per Axios. Des Moines Cityview reports that much of the concert weaves storytelling into the performance, with Cassidy talking about growing up in a famous family.
Cassidy also told Axios that fans still scream at his shows, but their voices are deeper now and the screaming sounds different than it once did. He said he had a lot of responsibility at a very young age, and that he considers himself a storyteller who found his true calling in his late 20s. Everything, he told the outlet, is more fun at his current age than it was at 20.
From a Four-Decade Break to a 2025 Comeback Tour
Cassidy's path back to the stage took decades. He told PEOPLE that after leaving touring at 21, he did not perform another concert until 2020, 40 years later. From 2020 through 2024, per Hoyt Sherman Place, Cassidy took his self-penned music and storytelling show, “The Magic of a Midnight Sky,” to the stage.
That run built into what PEOPLE described as his biggest tour yet, with the outlet reporting he toured 57 cities across North America in 2025; Des Moines Cityview put the figure at 60 cities played that year. PEOPLE reported that Cassidy announced the 2026 Unwrapped Holiday Tour on July 21, with the tour set to run from early November through mid-December. He told PEOPLE he wrote two new songs for the holiday tour.
The current stop follows a 2022 Hoyt Sherman Place appearance where tickets started at $35, according to the Des Moines Register, which had reported Cassidy was scheduled to play the venue that June.
Writing Projects Keep Pace With Touring
Off stage, Cassidy is juggling multiple writing projects alongside the tour. Per Axios, he is working on a new pilot and a Broadway show, and he plans to keep writing the Broadway production while touring on the bus. Hoyt Sherman Place similarly notes that he is currently writing the book for a forthcoming Broadway musical.
Cassidy also hosts a SiriusXM radio show called “This Side of Sunset,” according to Axios. Between the new songs, the writing projects and a stage show built around family memories, the Nov. 22 date gives Des Moines audiences another chance to see the performer the venue once hosted for what he called a magical visit back in 2022.
