Christmas doesn’t get any more wholesome than ‘The Osmonds’ Magical Christmas on Ice’

Tuesday, Dec. 14, 1999 | 8:47 a.m.

What: "The Osmonds' Magical Christmas on Ice."

When: 9 p.m. today through Sunday.

Where: Hollywood Theater at the MGM Grand hotel-casino.

Cost: $35.75.

Information: Call 891-7777.

They're just so damn nice.

You want to hate them, but you can't.

They're charming. They're polite. They're successful. They have perfect teeth.

And they have talent to spare.

For more than 40 years six Osmond brothers and a sister have been singing to middle America.

Tonight through Sunday, four members of the Osmond family -- minus Donny and Marie, and retired brother Alan -- will bring their harmonizing to the Hollywood Theater at the MGM Grand hotel-casino for six performances of a holiday special they call "The Osmonds' Magical Christmas on Ice."

The Osmond music is vanilla while the entertainment world is obsessed with pistachio.

They unabashedly praise God and family and wholesome living. There isn't a sour note in any of their paeans.

"We've just been very blessed," Jimmy Osmond said from Branson, Mo., where, for the past eight years, he has owned the Osmond Family Theater.

During a season that lasts roughly from April through mid-December, four of the brothers play more than 300 shows a year at the theater, which is in the mid-West mecca of family entertainment.

They perform two shows per day, six days per week, entertaining an estimated two million people per year. Many of them arrive by bus.

"Branson has been rated the No. 1 coach destination in the country," Osmond said.

The intense schedule is gradually coming to an end for Jimmy, Jay, Merrill and Wayne Osmond, who will perform together in Las Vegas.

"Next season probably will be our last full season together," 36-year-old Jimmy Osmond, the youngest of the quartet, said. "This is the fall of our career as a group."

Not that they're disbanding. They just won't spend as much time performing with each other, which they have done since first appearing on a Walt Disney television special called "Disneyland after Dark" and then being launched into a career by Andy Williams.

"We're a family and this is what we do as a profession. We will always keep going," Jimmy Osmond said..

But they all have personal interests they want to spend more time pursuing.

Jimmy, in addition to running the Osmond Family Theater in Branson, has a real estate company in Utah and writes children's books based on a Christian theme.

Jay, 44, wants to finish college.

Merrill, 46, wants to get back into producing, a career he curtailed while devoting much of his energy to the Branson theater.

Wayne, 48, who had brain cancer in 1994, wants to begin flying again. Following two operations doctors have declared him cancer free. During his treatment, he was unable to pursue his favorite pastime, but now he can return to the air.

Brother Alan, 50, who is battling multiple sclerosis, retired from entertaining three years ago but manages the singing careers of his eight sons.

Donny and Marie have their own television show.

"Just before Las Vegas we're taping a special Christmas edition of their show in Los Angeles," Jimmy Osmond said.

They were co-hosts with Griffin for the sixth annual "Christmas Tree Lane Holiday Benefit" for the Young Musicians' Foundation at Griffin's Beverly Hilton Hotel on Monday.

That brought them to Las Vegas for their Christmas show, bringing with them a recently-released Christmas album and a new gospel album. A pop album will be released in the near future.

The show will include skating, magic, humor and, of course, the Osmond flavor of music. "Las Vegas has changed so much," Jimmy Osmond said. "But we love it. We used to live and play there all the time. It's a very fun, nostalgic engagement."

They were in Las Vegas in November to perform at the Riviera, but this time will set up shop at the MGM.

"To play the MGM is real exciting," he said. "Donny, Marie and I played at the old MGM. We have a lot of fun memories."

Osmond said that their brand of clean, family humor will always be popular and appears to be making a comeback among the masses, which accounts for the success of the shows at Branson.

"There is a real demand for family entertainment," he said.

Despite the hard rock groups popular around Las Vegas today, Osmond said that they have their own loyal following.

"I think our show still plays well here. Christmas is a fun, magical time anyway. We should do well," he said, adding that it's no longer hip to have a racy show.

"It's more about real entertainment. The expectation level has risen. It has become very challenging," he said. "We've tried to keep up with that in our own way."

When they finish with their Las Vegas show, the Osmond family returns to Branson for a Christmas show and to get ready for a 21-hour millennium Show. The main headliners in that city, which boasts about 40 theaters, are pooling their talents for a New Year's Eve spectacular.

Jimmy Osmond recently built a home in Branson three doors down from Andy Williams, who has his own theater there. Williams gave the Osmonds the exposure that launched their careers in the '50s and then, eight years ago, convinced them that Branson would be another good career move.

"Branson is touted as the live country music show capital of the country, but I think there are only three country acts here now," Osmond said.

At one time, about 20 years ago, Branson was a rube village with two or three theaters where the music was hillbilly and the comedy was hick schtick.

Today, Branson receives about seven million visitors a year.

"We're beginning to get more international tourists as well. Nothing like Vegas, but we're becoming well-known," Osmond said, noting that visitors expect a lot more now than in years past.

"They are pretty demanding of high production values," he said.

His decision to take William's advice and move to Branson was a good one. "This is the most rewarding deal that I have ever done in my life," he said. "To be around the people you love is wonderful."

Reflecting on a lifetime in show business, Jimmy Osmond said that it has been a wonderful life.

"I have lived such a cool, fun, clean experience," he said. "I was trained by the best. I am humbled."