Entertainment royalty Donny Osmond returns to his electrifying residency

By Matt Kelemen

AS A TEENAGER , Donny Osmond had the surreal experience of playing Yahtzee against his younger brother Jimmy in Elvis Presley’s suite at the Hilton. Presley famously headlined the Hilton, now Westgate Las Vegas, and the youthful pop star was welcome at the King of Rock ‘n’ Roll’s court. Osmond is the headliner now, paying tribute to Presley as well as Vegas itself at his red-hot self-titled residency at Harrah’s.

Harrah’s, coincidentally, is illuminated in purple by the time of Osmond’s 8 p.m. shows. Fans that grew up on his music know the royal pigment was his professed favorite color in the ’70s as he went from pop singer to pin-up idol to superstar to superhero. That’s right, in a recurring series of skits on ABC variety series Donny & Marie, Osmond fought for justice as Captain Purple.

Whether he still sports purple socks is a revelation only known to those who have experienced his solo residency, which began the same month as the release of his latest album, Start Again, in September 2021. New songs such as snappy, optimistic R&B smoothie “Don’t Stop” and “On & On” were woven into sets that related Osmond’s autobiography through his music.

Audience members were invited to make requests from various points in Osmond’s recording history. Practically born to sing, he joined his brothers’ barbershop quartet after they were discovered at Disneyland and became regular performers on The Andy Williams Show in the ’60s. The Osmonds scored their first hit with “One Bad Apple” in 1971 and Donny quickly became a focal point for the teen idol industry.

Osmond branched off as a solo artist with “Go Away Little Girl” and a cover of Paul Anka’s “Puppy Love.” Teaming with his sister in 1976 for a variety show resulted in huge ratings, making Donny & Marie must-see television on Friday nights. He sang medleys of rock hits in his matured voice, harmonized with his brothers and demonstrated his keyboard chops.

Culture in the ’80s reacted against everything in the ’60s and ’70s, and Osmond struggled. His work ethic and family were his salvations, though, and he returned to the charts in 1989 with “Soldier of Love.” He achieved success onstage in the lead of Andrew Lloyd Webber’s Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat and in 2006 won over Broadway critics as Gaston in Disney’s Beauty and the Beast.

The confidence that Osmond cultivated from musicals showed when he took the stage with Marie for the first time at the Flamingo in 2008. A sixweek engagement stretched into 11 years. The siblings literally became the faces of Vegas entertainment when portraits were rendered many stories high on the Flamingo’s Strip-side exterior.

Osmond’s current electrifying residency is a collaborative effort of A-listers such as director Raj Kapoor and choreographers Nappytabs. The combination of dazzling dancers and live musicians with the ambitions of quite possibly the most seasoned entertainer on the Strip make Captain Purple a worthy successor to The King.

Co-headliners

Gojira and Mastodon share space at the pinnacle of neoprogressive rock

By Matt Kelemen

Mastodon teaming up with Gojira for a co-headlining tour has all the impact of King Kong vs. Godzilla or Michael Jordan playing on the same basketball team with Larry Byrd. Just the thought of the progressive hard rock excellence promised by the Mega-Monsters Tour (with special guest Lorna Shore) is enough to whet the appetites of metal-minded music fans hungry for the passion and aggression both bands deliver like none of their peers on the concert circuit.

Mastodon last toured on the strength of their ninth studio album, Hushed and Grim, which is to their catalog what Physical Graffiti was to Led Zeppelin’s. The sprawling 2021 double album was produced by David Bottrill, who made his bones working with Rush and Peter Gabriel. Boundary-bending fretwork from Brent Hinds and Bill Kelliher is enhanced lineup that’s been together since 1998, grinding away to critical acclaim until 2005’s From Mars to Sirius put them at the top of an extreme music hierarchy that already included Mastodon. The bands toured together in 2014, by which time both acts’ authenticity, complex song structures and willingness to evolve and innovate had invigorated the metal community. with guest soloing from Soundgarden’s Kim Thayil and blues guitarist Marcus King.

Hushed and Grim earned the Atlanta quartet a sixth Grammy nomination, with “Pushing the Tides” included in the Best Metal Performance category at the 64th edition of the awards show. They won at the 60th Annual Grammy Awards for “Sultan’s Curse” from 2017’s Emperor of Sand but lost the 2021 Best Metal Performance award to Dream Theater, as did fellow nominee Gojira.

“Amazonia” from 2021 album Fortitude was the fourth nomination for France’s extreme-metal music export. Bonded by blood due to the deep-rooted partnership of the brothers Duplantier,

Gojira’s audio alloy blends elements of death, groove and thrash metal with goth overtones and socially conscious lyrics. Frontman Joe Duplantier channels his humanist view of the world into songwriting salvos and crushing guitar riffs while Mario Duplantier found early inspiration in the approach of Metallica’s Lars Ulrich to the drum kit and is a on a superhuman level when it comes to blast beats.

7 p.m. April 23, starting at $45 plus tax and fee. axs.com

Mastodon’s multiple lead singers, including drummer Brann Dailor, create vocals that soar like magic carpets above a landscape of intricate riffing. The band made a big splash in 2004 with second album Leviathan, an epic inspired by Herman Melville’s Moby-Dick Where Ronnie James Dio fought a dragon onstage, Mastodon draws on myths and monsters to create metaphors and allegories that are powerful enough to deliver live without props. Only time will tell how much further Gojira and Mastodon can push it in terms of technique, composition and performance. They both draw from endless wells of inspiration, channel negative themes into positive messages and have stable lineups.

Guitarist Christian Andreu and bassist Jean-Michel Labadie round out a

The Mega-Monsters Tour brings the co-headliners together in their prime and at the top of their game to make what is in effect heavy metal history.

KING TUT’S DEATH MASK stares benevolently across the Atrium level of Luxor, crossing sightlines with an image of Carrot Top on the showroom marquee opposite Tut’s new home. While the actual mummified remains of the boy king are not on site, Imagine Exhibitions’ archeological exhibit Discovering King Tut’s Tomb—The Experience has been millenniums in the making. From artifacts re-created by skilled artisans to a reproduction of the tomb itself, visitors can experience the sense of wonder Egyptologist Howard Carter felt in 1922 as he first peered into the burial place of Tutankhamun.

The pharaoh from the 18th Dynasty of Egypt did not have a long life, succumbing to ailments at age 19 after ruling for a decade. Carter’s e orts ensured Tut’s immortality. King Tut’s discovery became a commercialized craze, culminating in classic 1932 Universal Pictures horror film The Mummy. A short introductory film kicks o Discovering King Tut’s Tomb as well, establishing the atmosphere before a sliding wall reveals a passage to the past.

A memorabilia shrine paying homage to Carter precedes the series of chambers dedicated to Tut, with sound design conveying the spirit of the British archeologist via voiceover. Placards adhered to walls throughout the exhibit

By Matt Kelemen

relate historical details about the unsung indigenous workers and the initial breakthrough into the tomb’s antechamber.

Egyptian culture is put into context as well. Social hierarchies, the importance of bread and beer, and the significance of papyrus are related before the journey takes a spiritual turn.

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The first relics chamber contains figurines and statuettes of gods and goddesses. It’s here that deities such as Amun-Ra and Thoth, whose legend would inform the Mummy film franchises, are physically represented. The process of mummification is related as well, and a decoder for the hieroglyphics included on placards can be found attached to a wall in this area. Artifacts that were buried with Tut are found in the next stage, from sandals imbued with supernatural powers to the iconographic crook and flail. One display screen is dedicated to the ailments of the doomed monarch, from a cleft palate and a deformed spine to the malaria that is credited with causing his demise.

Another constant was gold. Glittering treasures were placed in Tut’s tomb, which provide the highlight of the journey. Re-creations of Tut’s shrine and gold nesting co n await at the climax of the discovery of “wonderful things,” as Carter described the objects unearthed a century ago.

Those can be experienced virtually near the conclusion of the exhibit, with a guided tour made possible by immersive eyewear. Processing the material o erings of Tut’s Tomb may make further exploration unnecessary though. One would have to travel to Egypt to get a more comprehensive presentation of Tutankhamun’s final resting place, and there would be no landmarks featuring Carrot Top to help orient budding Egyptologists toward the entrance.