The Osmonds Musical - UK Tour

Yes I did enjoy what I saw ( my first sentence confirms) and I fully expect the same or worse will happen again sooner or later.C'est la vie. 


In my view The Osmonds Musical is the best new show of its kind since Jersey Boys and I hope positive word of mouth, social media and ideally some TV exposure will build audiences - Oxford was about 60% full last night.

An excellent show, packed full with good music and performed with enthusiasm.

This is very much Jay Osmond's story of his family and how he perceived them. He comes across very much as the sensible member of the group.

Jay was also watching from the box at Woking last night and got a very enthusiastic response from the (mostly older and female) audience.

It was an interesting audience. On the way in, I heard some people talking who I'm sure were expecting to see the original Osmonds, not a musical. There were people sat behind me who had managed to watch the entire first half of the musical talking about the family, then found out more information from Wikipedia and seemed surprised at the information that had already been presented. I do think some people tune out of the dialogue and only want the music.

I was sat in the middle of the front row, so a perfect view, although the tears of the cast members really do get to you, especially Ryan Anderson's struggles as Merill. All five leads were excellent and Alex Lodge, who has made a career out of playing Mormons, really shined in the central role as Jay.

Running time, 2 hours and 40 minutes. The audience was really enthusiastic for the mega-mix at the end.

This isn't as dynamic as many other musicals of the type, but the Osmonds certainly had an interesting career, much of which I wasn't aware of. You certainly got the sense of the Osmonds having been a music making machine. Definitely more than just a tribute show and I think this would do very well in the West End.

Saw this last night in Dublin, with maybe 1/5th of the tickets sold (and that might be being a bit generous). All upper levels closed and my €15 seats became €48 seats (not a bad trade-off). Jay was sitting about two rows behind me from the interval onwards so he's still keeping a close eye on the show.

The cast were all great with the mentions above by other commentators being very much warranted. It's probably the closest they'll ever get to feeling like famous boyband members. Puppy In Love in particular got a very *strong* reaction from the women in the crowd. As above though, a very well behaved audience everything taken into consideration.

I don't know how much longer this will continue to run though if sales on the other legs are as bad as Dublin's, then again The Osmonds weren't massive in Ireland, so it could just be the wrong crowd to sell it to idk.

I also agree that the show takes a lot of inspiration from Jersey Boys (haven't seen The Drifters Girl yet) but not in a way that negatively affects it, I just found it amusing.

Also I'm wondering if the mega mix at the end has been chopped? It was only about 7 minutes last night (it seemed) and consisted of Love Me For A Reason, Crazy Horses and some other song I forget.

Overall 7.8/10 - would recommend to pretty much anyone looking for an easy-to-digest musical especially if you get a big seat upgrade

It’s a way off yet but Manchester has sold very little so far.

It’s a shame if it gets pulled. Yes it’s a long time since we had Osmond-mania but they were huge and given the fans are now only in their 50’s or 60’s you’d think it had a reasonable chance of pulling in an audience.

I wonder if there is/was a plan to take this to the US?

Strange and a shame as it's worth seeing and was well-attended at the Woking matinee I saw. Also it was clear that a lot of the audience members were original fans, whereas I wasn't, though I was very familiar with the group's work. I wonder now whether it was better marketed there, or whether that particular venue has more of a regular audience who will book for most things, but looking at bookings for other touring shows there, that theory isn't borne out and indeed I too have hesitated to book for poorly-sold shows both due to likely lack of atmosphere and the risk that the performance will be cancelled.

So maybe it's the show itself, as sph suggests? Certainly Waitress at the same venue was even busier when I saw that a few weeks earlier.

Saw this yesterday. What a great show.- And I must admit to never being an Osmonds fan. Terrific cast. Wasn't their dad a b*****d!

I am probably the person this show is aimed at, Donny Osmond / The Osmonds were my teen crushes. I was that 13 year old fan in 1972, I've read Donny's books, Marie's books, Merrill's book and Jay's book,detailing the rise, fall and rise again of The Osmonds, this show held no surprises for me. Jay's book has a lot of "I remember" which is the pivot of this show, and the show - for me - is OK, the songs are performed well, the actors, especially the youngsters, are good. Costumes are firmly 70's nightmares. I did find it a bit disjointed though - not light enough for a jukebox musical, no hero v bad guy in the story for a strong bit of musical theatre. That said, the friends I was with at the matinee in Northampton enjoyed it a lot.

I knew what sort of a night it was going to be when I slid into my single aisle seat and the lady in the next seat to me said “Oright our kid, we thought you weren’t comin’ for a minute y’oright?”
I had to double take because I thought she must know me but no, she was just one of those friendly, open people who was a bit excited about the night to come. It was 10 minutes late starting so we had a few words and she offered me a Opal Fruit (no, she didn’t call them Starburst).
The first ovation came during that ten minute delay as a ripple of excitement went around the theatre, quickly turning into shouts and squeals. People were out of their seats applauding and waving, pointing cameras at a box where Jay Osmond had appeared. 

That set the tone. There is obviously a very strong connection between The Osmonds, their music and their core fan base of sixty-ish year old women and it was very plain to see tonight. The Palace was full, albeit they’ve been discounting it to death, mainly women, I don’t think I saw another man on my row or the one in front. 

It zips along nicely, the youngsters playing the group as kids are cute, the father stern but it’s tough love, mother portrayed as a wimp who doesn’t get much to say. When they brought a very small boy on as our first experience of Donny the impact was akin to what I imagine happens when the real Dalmation puppy comes on at the OAT. He sang a very sassy version of You Are My Sunshine on the Bing Crosby Show and killed it so well done young man. 

Act one closer is Let Me In and Our Kid immediately went into some sort of sobbing seizure. Literally full on crying all the way through. It continued into the interval and she caught me glancing at her concerned so explained through the sobs that it was “her song” as a 13 year old and told me a bit about why. Trying to lighten the mood I quipped “I’m worried about what happens when Puppy Love comes on” and she cackled and told me not to worry. Throughout this exchange she actually had her hand on my thigh which was somewhat disconcerting but she did realise what she was doing and apologised for being “ familiar”. I said it was fine (but filed a complaint with FOH after the show 🙂). 

Act 2, several standing ovations. Puppy Love was pretty incredible. Our kid roared her eyes out at Puppy Love despite earlier assurances. A group in the side stalls waved silk “WE ❤️ LOVE THE OSMONDS” scarves above their Donny baker boy caps until a cease and desist by FOH. Donny milked this to the max, I swear you’d think we were watching the real band back in 1974. 

When Jay came on for the finale it really popped off (sis). 

Massive fun ⭐️⭐️⭐️ for the show but ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ for Our Kid and her sisters. I’m not going to put this in the bad behaviour thread because it wasn’t bad behaviour. It was a group of people making a connection with each other and their memories and nobody should be allowed to take that away from them. 

ETA came down at 10.25 including 10 min delayed start. 

The theatres often have a say in a certain percentage of seats being allowed to be discounted/comped. I guess in their view it’s better to have those seats filled with possible bar takings than them lying empty?

For anyone whose seen this on previous tour stops, is superfan Wendy played as a character from whatever city you’re in? Also is Jay turning up for every performance?

She was from Manchester in Wolverhampton early in the tour