December was supposed to be Donny Osmond’s downtime.
In the heart of the Las Vegas Strip, the 66-year-old entertainer has been taking fans on a whirlwind ride through his dynamic career five nights a week. He covers just about everything in his 90-minute production at Harrah’s — including his start in show business at the age of 5 singing “You are My Sunshine” on “The Andy Williams Show”; his rise to fame as a teen idol in the 1970s; his failed Broadway debut; his unexpected comeback with “Soldier of Love”; his role singing “I’ll Make a Man Out of You” in the Disney classic “Mulan”; and some of his newest music from his 2021 album “Start Again.”
It’s a lot. And by the end of the show, Osmond is drenched in sweat.
So after finishing his last show of the year in mid-November (there’s more to come next year), Osmond had initially planned on relaxing and enjoying the holidays with his family. He and his wife, Debbie, had blocked off the whole month of December, hoping to make the most of it together.
But then renowned Broadway composer Andrew Lloyd Webber made Osmond an offer he couldn’t refuse: the opportunity to return to “Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat,” a musical he starred in for more than 2,000 performances throughout the 1990s, and a role of his that is preserved in the 1999 film starring Joan Collins and Richard Attenborough, among others.
So now, Osmond is still looking forward to December — but for an entirely different reason.
The singer will spend Christmas — and his 67th birthday — in Scotland, where he is performing in a production of “Joseph” at Edinburgh Playhouse from Dec. 3-29.
And for Osmond, the best part of it all is that he’s leaving his coat of many colors behind.
How Donny Osmond returned to ‘Joseph ... as the Pharaoh
Osmond still has his multicolored coat from “Joseph” — in fact, it’s on display in the lobby outside his showroom at Harrah’s.
Although he hasn’t performed in “Joseph” for more than two decades, he’s embraced the musical over the years. At the start of the pandemic, he wore his dazzling coat of many colors in an online sing-along of “Any Dream Will Do,” as the Deseret News reported at the time. And a few months later, he officiated a Utah wedding in it.
But he won’t need the coat this time around because, in a flip of the script, Osmond is taking on another popular role in the musical: Pharaoh.
The idea came from Lloyd Webber, Osmond’s longtime friend and collaborator who has long praised the singer for his portrayal of Joseph.
The English composer, who brought “Joseph” to life along with Broadway juggernauts like “Phantom of the Opera” and “Cats,” first approached Osmond about the project roughly three years ago, when the singer was in London starring in the theatrical show “Pantoland” (a popular Christmastime tradition in England). Lloyd Webber visited Osmond’s dressing room to make his pitch.
Osmond’s initial response: “I’m not wearing that loincloth anymore.”
When Lloyd Webber told the singer he was considering having him take on the role of Pharaoh, Osmond was intrigued. And then a phone call a couple of years later made it a reality.
Now, with his family’s full support, Osmond is returning to “Joseph.” And he’s ready for it.
Donny Osmond on getting to play the Pharaoh
Returning to “Joseph” is somewhat of a full-circle moment for Osmond — in more ways than one.
It’s a return to a staple of his career, but playing Pharaoh, a jumpsuit-wearing character that pays tribute to Elvis, also hearkens back to Osmond’s early days in the music industry.
Elvis was the inspiration behind the rock ‘n’ roll jumpsuits Osmond and his brothers wore during The Osmonds era. Osmond was an impressionable teen when he saw the King of Rock ‘n’ Roll perform at the Hilton in Las Vegas in the early ‘70s — a show that left no doubt in Osmond’s mind that Elvis was the King.
The next night, Osmond was getting ready to take the same stage with his brothers when the unfathomable happened: About 10 minutes before the show, the King himself walked into their dressing room.
“Hi everybody, I’m Elvis Presley,” Osmond recently recalled the singer saying, deepening his voice and giving the statement his best “Thank you very much”-esque Elvis impression. The “Hound Dog” singer then went on to wish the Osmonds good luck on opening night.
That short lesson in humility Osmond got as a 14-year-old in Vegas left a lasting impression. And he’s told the story so often that his Elvis voice is pretty good. So putting on a jumpsuit and getting his Elvis impression ready for the crowd-pleasing “Song of the King (Seven Fat Cows),” where the Pharaoh recounts a troubling dream to Joseph with some rock ‘n’ roll flair, didn’t take too much effort.
But Osmond’s still been practicing.
He gets about 10 days to rehearse with the cast, but he really doesn’t want to overthink it. Portraying Joseph was a pillar of his career — a role he couldn’t afford to not take seriously. Now, with an additional 20 years of show business under his belt, he’s doing it to celebrate. With the Pharaoh, he just wants to have fun. And he can’t stop laughing as he talks about it.
“I’m going to be breaking the fourth wall every second I’m on stage,” he previously told the Deseret News. “I’m just going to come up with something every night, just break up the cast and the audience and just have the time of my life. … It’s going to be so fun.”
For now, Osmond’s debut as the Pharaoh is currently only scheduled for a run in Scotland. But he isn’t opposed to bringing it to the U.S. — though he quips he’s definitely not interested in doing it for another 2,000 performances.
But could fans elsewhere get a glimpse of what “Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat” looks like with Donny Osmond as the Pharaoh?
“It’s up to Andrew,” the singer said.