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MARIE OSMOND PONDERS THIRD CAREER IN MUSICALS.(LIFE & LEISURE)

Albany Times Union (Albany, NY) February 8, 1994 Byline: DAVID PLOTNIKOFF – Knight-Ridder If she had just played along, if she had just mellowed out and gone with the smiley faced hedonism of the times, things would have worked out differently for Marie Osmond.

She’d probably be the answer to a ’70s schlock-culture trivia question by now — another piece of celebrity fallout from the bell-bottom-and-puka-shell era. But it seems Osmond was always looking one step ahead of the game.

Back when much of teen America was gorging on a bacchanalian diet of recreational drugs and zipless sex, she remained as straight as a stretch of Utah desert highway. Ten years later, when other former teen idols started turning up by the dozens on daytime talk shows to wax pathetic about drug woes and career crashes, Osmond wasn’t around to say, “I told you so.” By then she was already well into a second career as a country singer — just as the country wave was about to break.

Now, Osmond is taking the first exploratory step into what could be her third show-business career in as many decades. Her first attempt at live theater, a new touring production of the venerable Rodgers and Hammerstein musical “The Sound of Music,” has opened in San Francisco. The production, directed by Oscar Hammerstein II’s son James, features Osmond in the Maria role made famous by Julie Andrews and Mary Martin a generation ago. see here marie osmond wedding

During a brief stopover at San Francisco International Airport last week, Osmond talked about her family, her public image and her three decades in show business. At 34, she is a strikingly good-looking, outspoken and eminentlylikable person — a far cry from the saccharine princess she often appeared to be on the small screen.

Osmond and her passel of singing siblings were about two decades ahead of their time when it came to promoting clean-and-sober, family-comes-first values. The squeaky-clean act is no act at all for the Osmonds. And after thousands of interviews, this is one topic that still gets her flapping like a bat out of heck.

“Squeaky clean?” she says, eyes widening as she leans across the boardroom table toward her interrogator. “In general I am what people perceive me to be. But this is what I say when you say ‘squeaky clean': I have worked very hard in my life. I learned a very strong work ethic very young. In the ’70s when everybody was doing drugs and getting drunk and burning out, I believed strongly in taking care of yourself. So now in the ’90s, I guess I would be considered really cool.” Osmond was working at a 200-show-a-year pace on the country circuit, playing amphitheaters and county fairs opening for middle-of-the-road country acts, when the producers of “The Sound of Music” pitched the venture to her last fall. Although the show’s been on the road through five cities in the past eight weeks, Osmond says it’s just now settling into its stride after a shotgun start.

Osmond says the biggest challenge in making the transition from country music to musical theater was adjusting her vocal style. “This is a different way of articulating for me, and I studied with a voice coach to get my diaphragm in shape. The singing style is very different. Rodgers and Hammerstein created a very pure sound.” Osmond is unconcerned about the possibility her work may be measured against previous performances by Martin and Andrews. this web site marie osmond wedding

“When I asked the producers if I should watch the movie again, they said, ‘No, let’s just do it how you feel Maria should be.’ Hopefully, everybody brings their own personality to the role. I’m not Mary Martin or Julie Andrews.” Osmond’s career began at age 3 on Andy Williams’ TV variety show. Full-time stardom came eight years later when her first country recording, “Paper Roses,” went to No. 1 on the Billboard country singles chart.

Millions of people around the world will probably always think of her as the ever-smiling, often dippy teen who ruled Friday night television alongside her equally dippy brother through most of the mid-70s.

“We played everything — every musical style, every imaginable character. It was a lot of 18-hour days six days a week, and some weeks when they’d tape two shows, it’d mean memorizing 700 pages of script. . . . It was very hard to grow up on national television.” Osmond’s four children travel with her most of the time. Her eldest son, 10-year-old Stephen, plays one of the Von Trapp kids in “The Sound of Music.” CAPTION(S):

PHOTO MARIE OSMOND is in a tour production of the musical “The Sound of Music,” which has opened in San Francisco.