The Osmonds: A New Musical does exactly what it says on the tin – it allows the audience to relive the career of one of the world’s biggest boy bands’, made up of five brothers from Utah.
Alex Lodge, who gave a spectacular performance as the show’s writer, Jay Osmond, first entered the stage before the show’s opening. Out of character, Alex informed the audience that the cast has had a nightmare of a day; an illness had travelled through the majority of the company, with lead actors down to stagehands out of action for the performance.
They considered cancelling the Welsh premiere but wanted to push through and do the best they could. And by god, they really did their best.
If Alex hadn’t warned us at the beginning, I don’t think I would’ve even noticed that lots of roles were played by the same member of ensemble as they did such a good job, and the understudies who stepped up were fantastic.
The only noticeable omission was the lack of Alun Osmond, played by Jamie Chatterton, in dance sequences – choreographed by Olivier Award winning Bill Deamer- as he had just that night been cleared by his physiotherapist following an injury.
A special shout out goes to Matthew Ives, the onstage swing (back-up for all roles) who stepped up massively to play approximately 6 roles in the ensemble, all of which he did outstandingly.
With all the greatest hits from Crazy Horses to Love Me For A Reason and Let Me In, the story of the famous family started with their appearances on The Andy Williams Show. Their first number one One Bad Apple, to the Donny and Marie Show and the eventual financial troubles they faced.
The show was led by narrator Jay Osmond and jumped between scenes of each of the boys as children and how that reflected in their adulthood. The children who played the young Osmonds, Nicholas Teixeira, Oliver Forde, Jack Sherman, Louis Stow, Lyle Wren and Lonan Johnson, were fantastic and raised smiles and cheers every time they appeared on stage.
With engaging staging and outfits reflecting the iconic eras 60s, 70s and 80s, the whole performance deserves a round of applause. And the audience last night went one further, singing, clapping and waving along each time The Osmonds took to the stage.
By the end of the performance, which recreated part of their iconic 2007 reunion show, the audience were shouting out song suggestions and singing to their hearts content – I think most forgot that it was a show and that they weren’t the real Osmonds reunited once more!
The party atmosphere continued right through the finale, with a standing ovation from everyone in the theatre.
If you want to get involved and dance the night away, there’s still time to get tickets for the remainder of this week. Click here to find out more and book online.
Tickets start from £15, with matinees available on select days.
