Yvonne Elliman’s career includes Broadway, touring with Eric Clapton and a No. 1 hit. Courtesy photo

Fresh out of Oahu high school, 17-year-old Yvonne Elliman flew to London in 1969, hoping to launch a music career. Hired to sing at a small club where Queen and Lou Reed had performed, one night legendary composer Andrew Lloyd Webber was in the audience. Obviously impressed, Webber ran up to Elliman after her gig and excitedly announced, “You’re my Mary Magdalene.”

Subsequently starring on Broadway and in the film of “Jesus Christ Superstar,” Elliman will team with “Superstars” Ted Neeley, and Teri Bibb and Jim Price at a special “Broadway on Maui” benefit show on May 3 for the Wave of Harmony Foundation. The stars will be accompanied by students from Baldwin Theatre Guild, King Kekaulike Drama, and Seabury Hall Performing Arts.

With an extensive career that has also included being the first musician from Hawaii to score a number one record with “If I Can’t Have You,” from the “Saturday Night Fever” soundtrack,” touring and recording with Eric Clapton, recording with The Who’s Pete Townshend, hanging out with George Harrison, and time managed by Maui promoter Shep Gordon, Elliman’s music path began with Brown Bags to Stardom.

“The only thing I did well in school was music and art,” Elliman recalled. “I was a failing student. I was cutting out all the time, but I had a band called We Folk and we won the Brown Bags to Stardom one year. A British teacher heard my voice, and I was off to England. It was the land of the Beatles. That’s really why I wanted to go. It was a culture shock. I was wide eyed, barefoot. It was great, but it was cold and I was very homesick and I couldn’t see anything happening. I wanted to be a kick ass electric guitar player. I had that desire, and when I was chosen for Mary Magdalene, it threw all that into the trash can. I couldn’t take the time to really hone those skills and join a band.”

But she got a club gig. “I just did everything I knew and had the crowd really going, and afterwards, this guy comes running up to me and he goes, ‘You’re my Mary Magdalene.’ I’m like, ‘Well, good.’ But I didn’t know who that was. He said, ‘I’m doing this thing on ‘Jesus Christ Superstar,’ just rattling away. I wrote to my dad and mom all the time and I said this guy’s got this Jesus thing and I think I’m playing the Virgin Mary, the mother in my mind.”

Booked in a studio, she sang “I Don’t Know How to Love Him” in one take. “They said, ‘that’s it. We’ve got it.’ And I turned down the royalties.”

Paid 100 British pounds for singing “I Don’t Know How to Love Him,” by 1983, the “Superstar” album had sold over 7 million copies and Elliman’s version of the song was considered a high point.

“We thought we made out like bandits,” she continued. “Little did we know that a month later, it was hitting the United States, snowballing. I would have probably been very rich very quickly. I only signed on for six months on Broadway and then the movie came along and I got it.”

Moving to New York, she eventually ended up at a recording studio where Eric Clapton was working on his version of Bob Marley’s “I Shot the Sheriff.”

“He said, ‘We need some background vocals,’ and looked at me and said, ‘You sing, right?’ So I did ‘I Shot the Sheriff’ backgrounds, and they loved it. Then I was asked to do backups and many other things. I was very involved in that album (“461 Ocean Boulevard”) and was over the moon. This was my dream.”

The album included the funky song “Get Ready,” which Clapton composed with and shared lead vocals with Elliman.

“That’s the accomplishment I’m most proud of,” she said. “I got a phone call and

Eric said, ‘Would you like to be in my band?’ I said, yeah.”

She continued working with the British rock star on a bunch of his albums, from 1974 to 1977, including “No Reason to Cry” with Bob Dylan and The Band, and “Slowhand.”

On tour with Clapton she would be given a solo spot to sing Blind Faith’s “I Can’t Find My Way Home.” There’s a YouTube clip online of her singing it on a British TV show. It’s epic.

“It’s one of my favorite songs,” she said. “I loved it all my life. It became the song I did on stage where he’d go take a smoke break, and it would bring the house down. After a while, he didn’t want to take the smoke break. He wanted to harmonize with me. So we did it together on stage.”

A rocker at heart, she was unfortunately lumped into the disco genre after having a major hit with “If I Can’t Have You” in 1977.

Years later, she was managed for a while by Wailea resident Shep Gordon. “That was the best time I had was when he managed me,” she said. “He was the ray of light that brightened my hopes for being the kind of musician I wanted to be. He took me when I was beginning to become disillusioned and not really happy with my life because I was doing disco, which is not where my head was at. I sing good ballads, but that’s just not what my heart was. I was forced to leave Eric’s band because I had to go and promote my own stuff. He tried to change the direction by hooking me up with da kine people like Stevie Nicks and Bonnie Raitt, but of course, I still had to sing the hits, and it was impossible to divert the course already taken.”

Elliman last performed on Maui opening for Pablo Cruise in 2009. For the Wave of Harmony Foundation show she will sing “I Don’t Know How To Love Him” and “If I Can’t Have You.” And, “we’re doing a duet that Ted (Neeley) wrote many years ago. It’s absolutely lovely.”

The “Broadway on Maui” show will be presented at 6 p.m. May 3 at South Maui Gardens in Kihei. All proceeds benefit the Wave of Harmony Foundation, a nonprofit committed to making the arts accessible for all. Tickets and tables range from $45 to $2,400. More information at WaveOfHarmony.org.