Tuesday, February 18, 2025
OoOoOoOoOoO! Donny is really good. Really entertaining. Really talented. Wow. Keith said he thought it was the best produced show he’s ever seen. I heartily agree. His dancers were fabulous. His video was incredible. Everything worked. He started the show like a show – singing a song with dancers, singing another song, welcoming us. Then he told us he was going to include all 60+ years of his career – starting with his auto-rap-ography. Yes, he was going to do a 4-minute rap of his career – and it was AMAZING. There was video (or still photography) for everything from 5 years old at Disneyland, then on the Andy Williams show, Osmond cartoons, heart-throb times, Donny and Marie show, opening and closing on Broadway in one night, failing for a while, getting back, touring the world, Joseph (over 2000 performances), talk show, winning Dancing with the Stars, being the first Masked Singer, playing Vegas, and putting out 65 albums. I knew most of it, without even realizing I would know most of it, and I am sure I smiled hard through the whole thing.
He did his big Joseph song, followed by Mulan, and I could have gone home happy – but there was lots more. He said he was going to take requests from any of his albums – songs were scrolling on the screens to give ideas – and people were shouting out lots of things. A lady right down front requested Gabriella – and he stopped and looked at her and asked, “Which song?” She repeated, the said which album it was from. The tracks of the album came up on the screen and there it was: Gabrielle. He stood and looked at it and laughed and said he had no memory of this song. None. But he was game to try – he told the band to start it up. He listened to the intro and just stood and laughed when he was supposed to come in. Nuthin’. The band was really laughing, and he couldn’t do it – he did not know the song. He did at least a dozen more tunes from a dozen different albums. When someone asked for Puppy Love, he was ready. There was a video from 1971 of him recording it at 14 years old. It was really cool to see – and then got cooler when that Donny took a break our Donny talked to him, and he talked back. It was a funny interaction between the young and the old, and they did the song as a duet. Excellent technology. One lady requested When I Fall in Love and he came out in the audience to her, sang it to her, and danced with her.
There was so, so much more. Like I said, it was a truly well-produced 90 minutes. He is really a good singer. Keith was so impressed he could pick notes out of thin air from songs from 40 years ago and the accompaniment would start, and he was right on. The show has already been extended (aren’t we lucky it was here!?!) and is supposed to run through June of 2025. You should come out and see it. It is so good.
Side note: It was requested that phones not be used during the show, and I saw none. It was SO GOOD! I loved not seeing them, I loved not using mine. I was just living the show. Our cheap seats were in the back, and they were fantastic as the room was small. We were at a table and could have ordered drinks or whatever, but I got to rest my arms on the short wall separating us from the section a few feet down from us and sat with my chin resting on my hands through a lot of it. So good.
We got to Harrah’s early and ate at PizzaCake by Buddy Valastro. The Cake Boss has a pizza restaurant in the casino. We got two slices and a soda for $22, so it might be the best deal in all of Las Vegas. The crust was realllly good – as I guess I expected from a baker. We got a $9 slice of cake from the cake vending machine. It was very tasty. Take a look at the picture. There is no frosting between two of the layers. How did they forget to put frosting in there? It was not noticeable in taste, only in looking.
The evening was beautiful. I didn’t even need my sweater when we went out walking after the show. We went over to the Bellagio to watch the fountains and then in to see the Lunar New Year display in the Conservatory.
We wandered by the check in desk to look at the ceiling – always gorgeous – then out the front door and on to watch the fountains do a different routine from a different direction.
I took a bunch of pictures of the Strip. Everything is so pretty and shiny.
This last one is in honor of the show Hacks, which we like very much. The Palazzo stands in for the Palmetto. Hi, Debra!
I’m a fan of both Donny and the Cake Boss and beautiful weather, so many good things in one day. And I have questions:
Did Donny roller skate? I remember the opening numbers from the Donny and Marie show with both roller skating. My memory says he was solid and helpful to Marie, who looked a bit like Bambi when the show began, but kept improving.
How did the Cake Boss figure out how to make good cake vending machine-able? He was my old television go to when staying at a hotel. That’s a big deal since we still don’t have cable and there were always enough programming choices to make our heads hurt.
Donny didn’t roller skate (he did tap dance) but he did tell a story about Andy Williams “making” them learn to ice skate. I do think there was roller skating in the Donny and Marie montage. There were definitely a lot of crazy costumes!
I think the secret to vending machine cake is a lot of turnover. The cake definitely felt very fresh, but I bet they only cup up one cake of each kind at a time. There were carrot cake, red velvet, birthday/sprinkles, chocolate, and the colorful one.