REVIEW
The Osmonds: A New Musical
Grand Opera House
Until Saturday April 16
WHAT makes a good musical? Good music, and The Osmonds: A New Musical, which opened this week at the Grand Opera House, has some of the best.
Numbers like It Takes Two and Long Haired Lover (from Liverpool) transformed the theatre's stalls and circle into a teen pop concert with now mainly matronly fans grooving along.
Jay Osmond's rather good show is in fact a cross between an Osmonds tribute gig, energetically performed by the cast and well directed by Shaun Kerrison, and a slice of fascinating autobiography.
When I interviewed Jay, he said he wanted to get everything accurate. It certainly rings true from when the pint-sized Osmonds started their career fundraising for two older brothers battling deafness.
Their parents, comforting Olive (Nicola Bryan) and stern-to-very-strict ex-Army Sergeant George (Charlie Allen) launched them towards mega stardom after a missed audition in Tinseltown.
As luck - and maybe faith, for this is after all a Mormon family - had it they eventually sang for Mr Walt Disney. Touchingly, Jay our narrator (played very well by engaging Alex Lodge) reveals, the great man drew Mickey Mouse for him, "but I lost the drawing by the end of the day".
The young guys playing the young Osmonds were talented and seriously cute in the Andy Williams Show era. It was tough, though, with long hours, and the demands of the red 'on air' light.
You might have thought the family who inherited musicality and impressive teeth were too squeaky clean for a commercial show. Not so.
There were musical and personal disagreements, with divisions during the Donny and Marie years. Georgia Lennon was good here.
Plus in 1980, after 100 million record sales and more gold and platinum records than the great Elvis (who was a fan), they reached meltdown.
The two elder brothers Alan and Merrill started what turned into a vanity project, the vast Osmond Studios in Utah. They lost all the family's money. A two-year world tour got it all back but the brothers and sister didn't perform together for a long time.
The rest of the second act was a greatest hits extravaganza. Donny became even cuter with a wig and did a slightly self-parodying Puppy Love. We got one of my favourite Osmond outings, Love Me For A Reason; we heard those fabulous hankering intervals rising under the main tune, and yes, your reviewer sang along. A woman in front turned and said, "Where did all those years go?"
Jane Hardy
