Donny Osmond’s first-ever solo residency show at Harrah’s Las Vegas has been a smash hit from opening night, revisiting screen and stage performances through various eras and celebrating his music and Vegas-style entertainment in general. He connects with his most dedicated fans by singing songs that made him famous as a child, then captivates the audience with a rap tracing through different decades of Donny. There’s nothing he can’t and won’t do to entertain, and his band, dancers and crew are all on the same page.

First off, congratulations on the new show and the early extension you’ve secured to stay onstage through 2022. It seemed like this one would be a winner right off the bat, but you never know, right?

I’ve been doing this a long time, and, yes, you never know. Did you like the part in my rap where I said we opened and closed in the very same night on Broadway? I wanted to put that in there to show that the successes are even sweeter when you have the failures and, boy, was that a failure. I love the part where I say, “I know what will save me: A guest spot on The Love Boat!

I definitely wanted to talk about that “auto-rap-ography” portion of the show. The preparation for that must have been intense.

It was huge. The memorization of that took a long time. When I came up with the idea, I called my director and asked, because we are trying to put six decades into 90 minutes, what do you think about me doing a rap? He started laughing and thought it was brilliant. My music director Keith Harrison assembled it all together. It’s almost 10 minutes long and gets faster and faster as we go.

It’s sort of the core of the show because, like you said, you’re packing a lot of material and stories and music into this show, and finding ways to appeal to different generations of fans.

There’s a lot that’s gone into this. And I get some interesting reactions because some people, for example, had no idea I was the (singing) voice for Captain Li Shang in Mulan. And for others, that’s how they know me, and they have no idea about “Puppy Love,” or that I’m the peacock (from The Masked Singer).

You also include a lot of new music from your latest album, Start Again, which sounds a lot like what we’re hearing on the radio right now.

I set out to do a record that was relevant and I surrounded myself with a lot of amazing musicians and writers. The lyrical content of this album is really deep when you drill down to what I’m saying and the pictures I’m painting, but the music, I wanted it to be very relevant. I worked with people in circles with Bruno Mars to get that R&B feel, and I did this duet on the record with Charlie Wilson on the song I close the show with, “Let’s All Dance.”

How different does this production feel from what you did for so long at the Flamingo?

It’s different in the way that it’s everything I’ve done, and to me, it’s a celebration more than a show. I’ve had to reinvent myself so many different times, and with those reinventions comes new territory and mountains to climb. Opening with “Soldier of Love,” that was one of the biggest records at one of the most important times of my life, because that’s what got me back on the charts. Then we come back and do “Puppy Love,” which I’ll probably be known for, for the rest of my life. So it’s more than just a show, it’s like This Is Your Life, and it’s to relive it every night.

Harrah’s, 800.745.3000 Ticketmaster

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