It’s ‘Puppy Love’ all the way from Donny Osmond fans at Brighton concert

DONNY OSMOND – BRIGHTON CENTRE 12.12.23

Right then Donny Osmond fans, we have a real treat for you! Not only is there the review below, but there is another different review to read with more photos available on the Sussex News website HERE.

A line from The Osmonds’ most famous hit ‘Crazy Horses’ runs “What a show.” On seeing Donny Osmond’s bravura performance in Brighton this week, the only possible conclusion is “what a showman”.

The man can sing beautifully in a variety of genres, dance like a man decades younger, plays the piano with finesse (he was, remember, the Osmonds’ keyboardist) and has a self-deprecatory, comedic and sometimes athletic (more of that later) rapport with the audience.

The ex 1970s teen idol turned showbusiness icon revealed shortly before the Brighton date that his Las Vegas solo residency show at Harrah’s has just won two coveted ‘Best of Las Vegas’ awards: best residence/headliner and best production show, ahead of superstar likes of Barry Manilow. This is no mere nostalgia show for diehard fans. Donny told the Brighton Centre audience he was “bringing Las Vegas to Brighton UK” which he literally did, as the singer and entertainer had shipped over the pond his entire Vegas supporting cast including his small but tight backing band plus singers and dancers (male and female, all young and glamorous) to recreate what he performs in Sin City. Now we could appreciate why Donny, celebrating an amazing 60 years in the business – he began at five – won those awards.

The Brighton Centre stage was set with a black and purple design scheme (fans will all know Donny’s favourite colour is purple) with two illuminated Donny signs either side of the stage. Production values were high from the start with dry ice, fireworks, light effects and background pictorial and video displays featuring at various points.

Donny, trim and looking youthful in purple trimmed baseball jacket, having, unbelievably, just celebrated his 66th birthday, bounded on stage with the energy of a teenager straight into his two opening numbers, ‘Soldier Of Love’ and ‘Sacred Emotion’. These were the songs in which he made a hit comeback as an adult-orientated performer in America in the late 80s after years in the wilderness and important to him for that reason. They were performed with aplomb but perhaps not the numbers dearest to UK fans’ hearts. Then it was onto ‘Who’, a number co-written by Donny himself for his latest album ‘Start Again’. This is a cracking, slightly suggestive song, “Who can keep it up all night”, funky and contemporary.

Next – and the number most fans were waiting for – was the song Donny admitted he will “always be remembered for” – the angst ridden teenage love ballad ‘Puppy Love’, written by Paul Anka. It reached number one for five weeks in the summer of 1972 (when Donny was 14) and melted the hearts of adolescent girls everywhere. Fifty years on, still waving their vintage Donny banners and wearing their purple velvet Donny caps, the now 60-ish female fans consisted of most (but not all) of the audience.

Donny, who has admitted that in the past he felt embarrassed by ‘Puppy Love’ and made fun of it, now performs it with love and respect, delivering lines such as “just because we are in our teens” admirably straight faced. He’s reinvented it as more of a smoky seductive slow-paced Michael Buble-esque ballad, singing not saying that famous refrain “someone, help me, help me please.” I’d personally like to see it still performed with the raw emotion of the orchestra-backed original but it was charming and the crowd loved it.

Nostalgia whetted by ‘Puppy Love’, Donny then looked back at his seven decade long career in a novel way: an ”auto-rap-ography” – a 12 minute long rhyming rap about his life and career. In the background quick fire video clips played of Donny, his brothers, sister and family from the age of five, starting with an “aah” inducing clip of tiny five year old Donny performing ‘You Are My Sunshine’ lounge lizard style on the Andy Williams show where he began his career alongside his older brothers who eventually became pop sensations The Osmonds.

One of Donny’s career highlights in the 1990s was playing Joseph – on stage and then on film – in Rice and Lloyd-Webber’s ‘Joseph And The Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat’ which he performed topless in a loincloth.. “I didn’t look bad then,”: he observed in the rap section. Next (though fully clothed) was one of his songs from the show, ‘Close Every Door’, a poignant ballad about loss delivered perfectly. A change of pace with the pugnacious ‘Let’s Get Down To Business’, which Donny sang on the animated Disney film ‘Mulan’ with Chinese inspired costumes and snappy dance moves along with his backing dancers and the film playing in the background. Then another mood change with Donny’s oh so smooth jazz rendition of ‘Breeze On By’, in which he added lyrics to George Benson’s ‘Breezin’’. This was a number 8 hit for Donny in the UK in 2004.

Next it was for many the highlight of the evening, the audience request section where Donny offered to sing any of the songs he has ever recorded (thanks to a computer online backing track link). Requests came in mainly for his romantic solo hits such as ‘The Twelfth Of Never’, ‘Too Young’ and ‘Why’ which Donny would serenade personally (and with respect) to certain lucky audience members, reduced to starry-eyed mush and the 13 years old they once were. Donny leapt athletically up into the seats in the gallery and around the back of the auditorium to ensure no one was left out. The Brighton Centre security staff did a good job here as this section has caused problems with over enthusiastic fans at previous venues.

Donny and four of his male dancers then dressed up in outfits incorporating the colours of the original Osmonds for a rendition of the Osmonds’ first hit from 1971, the still catchy ‘One Bad Apple’. A cute clip was shown of a modern London boy recreating the treble vocals and dance moves of the then 13 year old Donny.

To close the first half, a song that isn’t in the Vegas repertoire, a jolly version of the Osmonds’ ‘We’re Having A Party’ in which illuminated beach balls were thrown into the audience.

The Interval was next but what could follow that? The answer came in an emotive rendition of the Osmonds’ 1970s hit ‘Love Me For A Reason’, which Donny performed “with” his brothers in the shape of a video background of a live archive version at an anniversary concert in 2007. “That was the last time I appeared with all my brothers,” he said.

After another new song ‘Start Again’, Donny the showman launched into an upbeat medley celebrating his links with Las Vegas (where he previously performed with sister Marie for 11 years from 2008) with numbers such as ‘Luck Be A Lady’ and of course ‘Viva Las Vegas’. Kudos to the backing dancers (usually clad in trademark purple) with whom Donny more than matched the moves. The band was also excellent too.

One of Donny’s chief influences was the late crooner Andy Williams where he and his brothers performed for several years on his TV show. Paying homage with clips of a vintage Andy in his heyday in the background, Donny delivered a lovely version of Andy’s trademark ballad ‘Moon River’. Then he paid tribute to sister Marie with a montage of clips from the ‘Donny & Marie’ show they presented in the later 1970s, while Donny sang the Beatles ‘In My Life’.

All too soon for most of Donny’s admirers, new and old, the show was drawing to a close, but not before Donny promised the audience – and there were some men then as well as younger people – that he would return to the UK to perform again one day, to cheers. The self-explanatory ‘Let’s All Dance’ had the audience up on their feet joining in but Donny returned for an encore solo at the piano for a heartfelt version of the Billy Preston song ‘I’m Never Going to Say Goodbye’, The audience was certainly hoping not.

Donny’s had his setbacks but he has continued to re-invent himself in various mediums and is regarded as a respected performer. The ‘Puppy Love’ star – whom I first saw in concert as a child in 1972 when the audience screams blocked out most of the songs – has matured like fine wine into a class international act. He also seems a thoroughly nice person. Those of us who idolised him first time round and got mocked for it as kids were on to something. Now, I just have to explain to my husband about the Donny 2024 pin up calendar I somehow ended up buying….

Donny’s UK tour ends at the Eventim Apollo on December 14. No support act.

Donny Osmond setlist:
(Act 1):
‘Soldier Of Love’
‘Sacred Emotion’
‘Who’
‘Puppy Love’ (Paul Anka cover)
‘Auto-rap-ography’
‘Close Every Door’ (Andrew Lloyd Webber cover)
‘I’ll Make A Man Out Of You’
‘Breeze On By’
“Audience Request Segment”
‘One Bad Apple’ (The Osmonds tune)
‘We’re Having A Party’ (The Osmonds tune)
(Act 2):
‘Love Me For A Reason’ (The Osmonds tune)
‘Start Again’
“Las Vegas Tribute” (‘Donny’s Back In Town’ / ‘Come Rain Or Come Shine’ / ‘Viva Las Vegas’ / ‘Luck Be A Lady’)
‘Moon River’ (Henry Mancini cover)
‘In My Life’ (Donny and Marie tribute) (The Beatles cover)
‘Let’s All Dance’
(encore)
‘Never Going To Say Goodbye’

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