Jimmy Osmond talks about his role in the musical Chicago
May 22 2009 by Diane Parkes, Birmingham Mail
AS one of the cleanest living performers in showbusiness it may seem strange that Jimmy Osmond is cast as the wheeler dealer lawyer Billy Flynn in the musical Chicago.
But the singer, the youngest member of the musical family The Osmonds, says he is a good deal more devious than we may think.
“In a weird way I am in a similar place to Billy,” he says at Birmingham Hippodrome where he is holding a series of interviews to promote the show which comes to the theatre next month.
“Most people know I am a singer but they don’t realise that I also do a lot of representing of other performers so I have to do a lot of handling people, just like Billy does. People think I am all smiles and teeth but I can actually be quite aggressive.”
That seems hard to believe of the ultra polite and courteous Jimmy. At 46 he has spent his whole life in the public arena and has yet to slip up. As a devout Mormon he does not drink or smoke, he is a family man married to Michelle, who sits in on the interview, and dad to four children.
But he says he is not above his own bit of chicanery when necessary.
“Billy knows how to play the media and it can be easy with the media when you know what they are looking for,” he says. “You know when you need to create spin and I have actually sat in those meetings when we have looked at ways of gaining publicity for a new artist and have said ‘let’s get him arrested’.”
Which brings us back to Chicago, where Billy is the lawyer who represents double murderess Velma Kelly and nightclub singer Roxie Hart, who is in prison for shooting her lover. When the press is on the case, the local prison becomes a cause celebre and Billy is aiming to be the one in the spotlight.
Jimmy, who famously topped the chart as a child in the seventies with Long Haired Lover From Liverpool, says he knows only too well the changing tides of fame.
“It all goes with the territory – that is showbusiness,” he says. “And if you can’t handle it then perhaps you should be looking for another job.
“In the years I have worked in showbusiness I have had my highs and my lows. I have been number one and I have been the person that everyone makes fun of. But you need to believe in yourself.”
And Jimmy has certainly done that. With The Osmonds still a going concern and having sold more than 100 million records he could be happily sitting on his laurels back in Utah but instead he likes to have a go at new opportunities.
This has included him taking part in the 2005 series of I’m a Celebrity...Get Me Out of Here.
He first dipped his toe in musical theatre with Boogie Nights before gaining a role in the West End in Grease and now touring the UK with Chicago, where he shares the stage with Emma Barton, of EastEnders fame.
“Acting is so much fun,” Jimmy says, smiling. “I am thrilled that I have had these opportunities.”
