Being The Osmonds (2003 UK Documentary Featuring The Osmond Brothers)

This is a very interesting documentary featuring the Osmond brothers.  Marie did not participate.  The brothers talk of growing up in a family with high pressure to not only perform, but to perform perfectly.  This includes some exploration of the progression of the family entertainment business, which left the older Osmond Brothers behind, being replaced as lead singer, and in fact preventing their pursuit of a rock band career.  This was a cathartic exercise for the brothers, and let them air things maybe they would not have otherwise.  It appeared to be a healing process.  There were not only jealousies over careers, but also over women.  It appears Donny Osmond married a woman who had previously dated Jay.  The oldest performed, Alan, now has M.S. and talked of his struggles with this.  I really enjoyed this look at inside the Osmonds as they were coming back together to perform in Branson.  This was produced for BBC television.
 

Final Osmond Family Concert (2008)

This concert was presented at the Conference Center in Salt Lake, and included the orchestra and Temple Square and the Mormon Tabernacle Choir.  It is overall very good.  Marie seemed to have technical issues a few times, and tried to control the volume by moving the mic which was bothersome.  However this is a good concert.  The two oldest brothers join them for the last two numbers, and their use of sign added to the vocal is very nice.

Music Reviews: Donny Osmond ****"This is the Moment," ****^"The Best of Andrew Lloyd Weber"

These CDs we have in our personal library as they are downloaded to Itunes.  The first, for the most part, This is an album of Donny Osmond singing songs from musicals.  Because he is putting them in the context of pop music rather than in the musical setting, they at times lack the emotion that goes with the song.  A couple cases in point would be "This is the Moment" the title song.  It just doesn't have the same flavor as when Dr Jekyll is considering consuming his own substance he has created to test it.  Also his version of "Anythng's Possible" lacks the dancing fish the version of Caleb on You Tube from when he was in Suessical.  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Da1l8CSeEAA
However his other song from Seussical, "Solla Sollew" is very well done.  Listening to Donny Osmond and Vanessa Williams sing, "Not While I'm Around" is just beautiful.  He ventures out of the musical realm and sings "You've Got  Friend in Me" From Toy Story.  He also provides some musical theater history singing George M. Cohan's "Give my Regards to Broadway."

The Donny Osmond song I like the best however, is from the other album, "Best of Andrew Lloyd Weber" "Close Every Door."  Donny singing with the children's choir is just perfection.  This album also offers excerpts from "Phantom of the Opera."  I has Sarah Brightman singing "Piu Jesu." A couple other highlights are Michael Ball singing "Love Changes Everything" and Mandy Patikin and Patty Lupone singing "High Flying Adored."  Mandy Patikin is exquisite in this rendition.  I am also partial to this as this is the cast I saw in New York.  Another perfect song is Glen Close singing "With one Look."  There are a couple songs that I don't enjoy.  One is "Jesus Christ Superstar"  Combining Christ and rock music doesn't work for me.

Movie Night: ***Joseph, King of Dreams

I watched this on Instant Netflix.  This is a Dreamworks animated film.  As I watched there were a couple things that struck me, first is I really didn't enjoy the art.  They tried many times, especially with the dreams, to give it a Van Gogh flavor.  The people were all long and angular, mostly skinny and tall (except the bread maker who was killed.)  The other thing I kept saying to myself is, I prefer the music from Andrew Lloyd Webber's version more.  (Donnie Osmond singing "Close Every Door to Me" gives me goosebumps.)  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PVWpgmiIbas&feature=fvsr
However, this movie did get to me in the end.  I think that is because of the story of forgiveness and family.  These win out over Joseph's anger towards his brothers.  This is a story that is timeless.

I had an interesting religious experience at the end of this movie.  Joseph was a true prophet, and was prepared to save his family.  Israel, his father, likewise was a patriarch and a true religious man.