Wednesday, May. 07, 2008

Osmond woos Tri-City fans

By Jeremy Dutton

As if there weren't enough Osmonds in the world already, Marie Osmond made thousands more feel like they were part of the family Dec. 20 at Toyota Center in Kennewick.

In her Tri-City stop on the "Magic of Christmas" tour, there wasn't much the show lacked. She did nearly every Christmas song in the book, put on a musical walk-through of her career and even sat down and narrated a slideshow showing intimate holiday moments of her clan. This doesn't even include the laughs.

But all of this was secondary to the most surprising part of the show -- her voice. The only thing getting airtime for Osmond lately are clips of A Little Bit Country played on snarky retrospectives like I Love the '70s on VH1. But after belting out a Christmas medley of faves including We Need a Little Christmas, Winter Wonderland and White Christmas, she did a version of Boogie Woogie Bugle Boy that made Bette Midler's seem pedestrian.

A taste of her years on Broadway was the highlight of the show displaying her vocal versatility (and pretty good British accent) on songs from The King & I and The Sound of Music. She then stepped back for an iTunes version of the greatest hits in her country days and time with Donny Osmond singing Morning Side of the Mountain, Paper Roses, It Takes Two and Deep Purple, among others. She also made sure to let everyone know that she doesn't tour with Osmond brothers, "They tour with me."

She also had a couple of surprises in store -- make that six of them when she brought out all but two of her eight kids to sing with her onstage. Stephen sang a couple solo tunes (probably the low point of the show) and a duet with Marie. Then one by one (in descending age) Rachel, Matthew, Patricia, Brandon, Brianna and Abigail followed. In one of the funnier moments in the show, one of the younger boys did his best Elvis impression singing Grandma Got Run Over by a Reindeer, then made a grand exit telling the crowd he'd be signing autographs in the lobby.

It certainly wasn't a typical concert with fan interactivity taken to a rare level. Near the end of the show, she hopped off the stage weaving through the crowd, shaking hands and indulging in an odd fetish of kissing every bald guy she could find. This revealed another oddity in fandom. A tween (which was only one of a handful of people under 40 there on their own volition) decked out in a Donny and Marie T-shirt started shrieking and trembling the closer Marie got. Remember American Idol contestant Sanjaya's teary-eyed pigtail fan? This girl was on par and it was almost heartbreaking when Marie got maybe 5 feet away, then stopped short to turn around.

There were a few gaffs mainly with microphone distortion briefly marring a few songs, but by and large this was a great show from a performer who's been doing it for more than 30 years and who clearly enjoys sharing the spotlight now that it's finally back on her.

- Jeremy Dutton: 582-1525; jdutton@tricityherald.com