Donny Osmond Talks Having the 'Time of My Life' Back on Stage in Joseph — and Spending a Quiet Christmas Abroad (Exclusive)

Three years ago, Andrew Lloyd Webber appeared at Donny Osmond’s show in Las Vegas and came backstage afterwards with a question.

“He and my producer asked, ‘Would you ever consider playing a pharaoh Josip?’ ” Osmond, 67, recalls to PEOPLE. “And I said, ‘When the time is right, if it’s good, I’d take the idea.’ ”

Now is the time.

More than 30 years ago, Osmond won over theater audiences when he toured the country as the title character in Webber and Tim Rice’s Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat. And now he’s back, this time in the over-the-top, evil role of Pharaoh.

“When Andrew Lloyd Webber says ‘jump,’ you say ‘how high?’ ” says Osmond. “And I hope he doesn’t mind, but I’m taking this role to a whole other level.”

Donny Osmond in ‘Joseph’ in Scotland.

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Osmond’s show runs until December 29 at the Edinburgh Playhouse in Scotland, where he says the theatergoers have been “amazing” and the cast “entertainment every night”.

“They give me suggestions about crazy things to do,” he says. “I wonder, ‘What would Robin Williams do? What would Jerry Lewis do? What would Milton Berle do? What would all these amazing comedians do?’ And then I take my experiences in actually working with these people – and it works, the audience is just entertained.”

Osmond admits the viewing can be “quite bizarre”. Joseph, “hear someone else do the material you’ve been doing for six years, 2,000 shows and more.” (He even accidentally started singing Joseph’s line one recent evening!) But now he’s “good” with his evolution.

“Opening night it was like, ‘How is this going to be?’ And as soon as they put me on the chair on the stage and the lights came on and the applause and the standing ovation … it was absolutely amazing, and then when Joseph came out and [‘Poor Poor Joseph’] started, I looked at the audience and said, ‘Déjà vu!’ ”

However, what seems different this year is spending Christmas abroad, away from extended family.

Donny Osmond in ‘Joseph’ in Scotland.

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“It’s just Debbie and me,” he says of his wife of 45 years. “It will be an unusual Christmas with just the two of us – we won’t have all the grandchildren running around the house.”

He adds, however, that he has a great “giftedness” waiting for him: two more grandchildren, to be received in March and April, which will make the family 16 in total.

He won’t be away for long though; On February 11, Osmond returns to Las Vegas at Harrah’s Showroom for his first solo residency, in a performance that promises to be unlike anything audiences have ever seen.

Donny Osmond backstage at ‘Joseph’ in Scotland.

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“It’s extremely high-tech,” he teases, “and people will be like, ‘Oh my God, I have to see this.’ ”

With the streak open, Osmond is excited about the possibilities the future holds, whether it’s Vegas or American running Josip. Although he knows that one day it will be time to throw the cards.

“I’ve always said that if I can’t give 100 percent on stage like I do every night in Las Vegas or what I do here, if I can’t reach that bar that I set for myself, it’s time to stop,” he says.

But for now, he adds, “I’m just having the best time on stage.”

Categories: Trends
Source: HIS Education