The Osmonds The Musical Review

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Picture this… It’s 1973 and The Osmonds have just landed in Heathrow. They’re the biggest thing since The Beatles and the crowd of teenage girls in attendance to greet them is ten thousand strong. A little too much for the building they were in as a wall collapsed, slightly injuring 18 girls. Amongst all of the hysteria it was hard for emergency teams to determine who was actually injured through all of the screams, tears and fainting. That was what we now know as Osmond-mania.

It’s thanks to the Osmonds that the term ‘teenybopper’ came about, and the audience at the Regent Theatre in Stoke On Trent was full of women who probably take a huge amount of pride in the fact that they had once called themselves that, some bragging that they’d actually seen the Osmonds perform in their youth. They still know all of the words of every song and some had even made their own custom T-shirts. Of the few men in attendance, there were some that were actually fans but there were also some that you could tell had been dragged along kicking and screaming by their wives. But there was a particular enthusiasm in the room that I’d not seen for some time, and you could feel the joy in the atmosphere even before the show had begun.

My Mum Christine is partial to the Osmonds, and I’ve had to endure having Donny Osmond’s “Puppy Love” played at every family get together I’ve ever been to. And as much as I hate to admit it, “Love Me For A Reason” has always been a guilty pleasure of mine. I’ve always considered The Osmonds a little too cheesy for my liking, but if I’m honest this brand new musical introduced me to the group formally, and having seen their back story, and having heard more of their hits, I have to say that I was actually impressed.

As boy bands go, when you look into the detail The Osmonds were actually very good. They had a lot of unique qualities that similar boy bands of the time just couldn’t emulate. They all played numerous instruments, they all had incredible voices and they were all good looking lads! They could all be solo acts in their own right, they could pull off a duo as Donny & Marie did, and they could all be a novelty act too, even having their own cartoon made for Saturday mornings. The possibilities were endless, and the producers they dealt with could all see this. To quote the show itself, they were “five boys singing from the heart & soul to the heavens, not the gutter.”

But all of these qualities were also a major factor in the band's decline. In the space of three years, the Osmonds had switched  between bubblegum pop, hard rock, and easy listening, and Donny's solo career as a cover artist muddied the waters even more.

Written by Jay Osmond himself, and bringing in the theatrical talents of Julian Bigg & Shaun Kerrison, the story is a standard juke box musical with all of the songs pieced together to tell a story. But the fact that the story revolved around the true to life story as told in Jay’s memoirs, also makes it really quite moving in places.

Their father George was a military man, and he brought his children up alongside his wife Olive. In fact, with 9 children and 55 grandchildren, you could be forgiven for thinking that George was attempting to establish his own army at home. It taught them all discipline but it also caused them to rebel later in life.

There was certainly a lot of tension behind those huge smiles that were on every pin up. In this production we got to witness Merrill’s struggles, Wayne’s depression, their military upbringing and the time that the whole family almost fell into bankruptcy. But we also get to see the best of times right from when they started out as a young barbershop quartet.

The cast were superb with some amazing voices to be heard, and the children that played the younger Osmonds definitely stole the show with some truly heart warming performances. With three different teams of children filling the role, it’s an amazing chance for these youngsters to establish themselves as young actors. Our team that night consisted of Jack Jones, Alfie Jones, Alfie Murray, Tom Walsh, Osian Salter, Fraser Fowkes and they well and truly smashed the ball out of the park.

I didn’t think I would like it as much as I did. As a brand new musical, I wouldn’t have missed it out of sheer curiosity, but I didn’t have high hopes. I’m happy to say that I was wrong and I thoroughly enjoyed it.

You’ll hear hits like “Crazy Horses”, “Love Me For A Reason”, “One Bad Apple”, “Puppy Love” and loads more, all performed by a live band on stage. It’s a colourful, heart warming musical that will have you dancing in the aisles. And if you weren’t a fan of the Osmonds before this, you soon will be.

My Verdict: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

It's playing at the Regent Theatre NOW up until and including Saturday 9th April. Tickets are on sale and are available from the Box Office, by calling 0844 871 7649 or visiting www.atgtickets.com/stoke

See below for a sneak peek of what to expect!