Donny and Marie sign up for new show

Donny and Marie Osmond will perform in a variety show at the Flamingo Las Vegas hotel-casino on the Las Vegas Strip beginning in September, it was announced tonight.

The brother and sister duo, who starred in the 'Donny & Marie' television variety show in 1976, will play Tuesday-Saturday shows for 26 weeks spread over eight months at the Flamingo Showroom, a hotel official said.

The 90-minute show, beginning on September 9, will be presented by Danny Gans and Chip Lightman, of GansLight Entertainment. It is being billed as a greatest-hits multimedia spectacle on a custom stage with multiple video screens and a cast of dancers.

“My version of a variety show has been what Vegas has known thus far,” said Mr Gans, an impressionist and comedian who has long played in Las Vegas.

“What we have now is a true variety show which conveys the real essence of America and the country’s love of homegrown talent.”

Tickets, which are priced between 85 dollars and 115 dollars, go on sale on Monday.

In the 1970s, Donny and Marie’s musical family, The Osmonds, shared the marquee at the old International hotel with Elvis Presley. The International is now the Las Vegas Hilton.

“Donny and Marie are timeless entertainers and cultural icons,” said Don Marrandino, president of Flamingo Las Vegas. Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed.

The Flamingo Showroom has been dark most of this month after Toni Braxton was admitted to hospital on April 7 with chest pains.

Braxton’s Las Vegas act, Toni Braxton: Revealed, is in a two-year run which ends in August at the Flamingo. Braxton is due to resume her show on May 6 after cancelling several shows and taking a previously scheduled two-week break.