For more than five decades, Donny Osmond has been part of the pop culture fabric ― at least the cleanest portion of it.
Now at age 66, he has become a staple in Las Vegas ― likely the least sinful part of it.
The entertainer with the clean-cut image, a long marriage, five kids and 15 grandchildren has now spent more than 15 years as a regular act in Las Vegas, first with his sister Marie Osmond, then solo.
“But not everyone can come to Vegas,” he told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution in a recent phone interview from his home in Provo, Utah. So the empty nester is hitting the road for the first time in years including his first stop in Atlanta in nearly 20 years at Cobb Energy Performing Arts Centre June 25. (Tickets start at $39.50 via Ticketmaster.)
And against the advice of his business manager, he is bringing his entire Vegas apparatus with him: the props, the set pieces, eight backup dancers, the works. “It’s very expensive but I don’t want to pare it down,” Osmond said. “I want people to see why we won all these awards.” (His show at Harrah’s has won several Best of Vegas awards.)
His Vegas show is limited to 90 minutes, but he has no restrictions for his road show. “It’s not overproduced,” he said. “We’ll probably end up at two hours.”
Credit: LEE CHERRY
Credit: LEE CHERRY
By finding a niche in Vegas, Osmond managed to turn the idea of “Sin City” on its head. “Las Vegas may be called Sin City but it’s about all kinds of entertainment. Look at all the sports franchises coming there. At the Formula One race, I sang the national anthem,” he said.
He knew he was taking a risk with his sister Marie when they started a residency at the Flamingo in 2008. But it worked. “Our brand was strong,” he said. “And the show was a big hit. It’s like that Kevin Costner line, if you build it, they will come.”
After 11 years and hundreds of shows, Marie in 2019 decided to step back. “It was a mutual decision,” he said. “We wanted to leave on top and I wanted to do my own thing. I took what we did as Donny and Marie and have taken it to a whole new level.”
He covers his days as part of the Osmonds, his 1970s variety show with his sister, his hits from his 1989 surprise comeback album, his 1990s Broadway run on “Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat,” his 2009 “Dancing With the Stars” win and his 2019 appearance on “The Masked Singer.”
In fact, he was a bit of a guinea pig on the very first season of “The Masked Singer,” coming in second behind Atlanta’s T-Pain as the Peacock. The show is now in its 11th season on Fox. “I saw the potential in that show immediately,” he said. “They gave me the choice of playing the Peacock, the Alien or the Monster. I chose the Peacock.”
Osmond’s stage show features an all-request segment where fans can ask him to do any song from his extensive discography, no matter how obscure. And if he doesn’t really know it? “I fake it,” he said.
He also created a “Hamilton”-style rap about his entire career that goes for several minutes and took months to memorize. “I refuse to use a prompter,” he said. “I can’t stand it when artists do that.”
And he recently added special beach balls thrown into the audience that blink with colors to his 1974 Osmonds U.K. hit song “Having a Party.”
“I saw this effect Coldplay did on tour a couple of years ago,” he said. “I called the company who did them and wanted them to synchronize the lights to what’s going on on stage. It’s such a great moment.”
But the balls are rentals so he makes sure he gets them back. “They are not my balls,” he said, cracking as close to an off-color joke as an Osmond can pull off.
IF YOU GO
Donny Osmond
8 p.m. Tuesday, June 25. $39.50-$129.50. Cobb Energy Performing Arts Centre, 2800 Cobb Galleria Parkway, Atlanta. ticketmaster.com.
