I loved  “Donny & Marie” show at Flamingo.

That is a sentence I never thought I would write.

I am sure the show has not changed since I saw it last year, and so it must be me. Actually they do put on a stronger and tighter show than the last time I saw them. Also, Donny winning “Dancing with the Stars” has made the dance off at the end more relevant. But overall my first impression of them is that the show was exactly the show you would expect from Donny and Marie.  That was an injustice, because I think that awareness caused me to take for granted their extraordinary talents. Consider this item a mea culpa for my earlier review.

I strongly recommend  “Donny & Marie” for anyone who enjoys the sort of old school entertainment that Vegas used to have in great quantities before the invasion of the Canadian  behemoths(Cirque and Celin). When you consider how many famous stars come here to suck up a few bucks on the burning embers of nostalgia, that is not this show. There is a reason “Donny & Marie” has been such a success here. Both stars remain at the top of their game as entertainers. They are able to keep up with dancers decades younger than them, and they are fantastic singers and they are show business pros who effortlessly handle everything from television speed banter to old vaudeville humor.

“Donny & Marie,” except at “Puppy Love” moments, does not set out to make you feel a warm ember in your heart for the 70s. And, that was the best decision of all. Marie Osmond singing “Would I Lie to You” while doing complex choreography is more engaging than a run through old hits and television bits. The same is true of Donny Osmond’s Stevie Wonder medley where the only weak moment is video footage of Stevie Wonder. Osmond no longer needs that bump in his cred. “Donny & Marie” makes the point better than the tacit endorsement of old television footage. Though other video moments like the montage at the end of the many late and great who Donny and Marie have appeared with over the years does work beautifully. Still. “Donny & Marie” is not about the past. This is a show in which both stars really want you to enjoy their performances in 2010. They are putting on a performance to win over the people who are not Donny and Marie fans already. And, that is what makes the show such a pleasure. If you did not know who these two performers were you would be blown away by this show and instantly see retro acts like Matt Goss and Zowie Bowie in a new perspective. Not that Donny and Marie are trying to push any envelopes; this all comes naturally to them. Decades in the business means that they can still authentically offer entertainment that feels slightly recreated in the hands of others no matter how skilled.

Whereas Wayne Newton’s  show at Tropicana tests the patience of perhaps even the truest most hardcore of his fans, “Donny & Marie”  is able to deliver pleasure to a novice. Certainly someone new to Newton would be baffled why others were in the room suffering. But the less you know about Donny and Marie the more impressed you will be by “Donny & Marie.”  Like all veterans whose careers are measured in decades, Donny and Marie Osmond don’t have the ability to offer “the shock of the new.” Yet, give them for an instant a fresh look and you will be amazed. They are world class entertainers who for whatever reason have never had their skills seen as such. (Are either really ‘amateur’ celebrity dancers?) They are fantastic doing so many things on a theater stage, from their old songs like “Crazy Horses” to their well selected covers, the show has a near perfect pacing and balance.  Again, a tribute to years of knowing how to entertain an audience.  And, the band, complete with horns, is  first rate as are the dancers, the sets, the staging and choreography. From beginning to end you are in the hands of masters of the craft of show business while still engaged by performers with a  passion for their show.

I can’t go on like this or I fear a firewall may keep me off the Bob Dylan fan sites as punishment.

But when in Vegas do not scoff at “Donny & Marie.” Right now this is the best old school Vegas entertainment on the Strip. About the only difference: you will never see showgirls quite so covered in other shows. But there are still showgirls who look great and male dancers, ditto. The women still scream for Donny and I was sort of thinking Mare was looking really good when she told the audience she was single before delivering the punch line: “I have 8 children.”

To the title of this item. I interviewed Donny Osmond for Sunday’s Movable Buffet column before the show. The column comes out Valentine’s Day in Los Angeles Times. In the middle of the interview, Osmond asked me to guess what he does between his sheets in hotel rooms.

What does Donny Osmond do between his sheets? He works on his radio show. The sheets help the acoustic soundproofing when he is recording with his laptop. Osmond then told me there was an old musician truism that every song sounds funny with “between the sheets” added to the title. I had not heard that before, and Osmond seemed surprised.

So, Osmond asked for my favorite song to demonstrate this point. This is a vexed question for me on a good day when not caught off guard by Donny Osmond. I hate naming a favorite song and so whenever I do I refuse to be held to the answer for longer than it takes to give; but, at that moment, I offered as an honest choice “Desolation Row,” Dylan’s more than 10 minute chorus free masterpiece that is a meditation on art, ignominy and perspective all in a hallucinatory yet frighteningly realistic narrative, a truly perfect musical adventure.

And, gamely Donny Osmond. who did not react like he recognized the title at all, offered  up “‘Desolation Row Between the Sheets.’ See.”  I didn’t see (despite the encouragement of the famous white teeth of Donny Osmond’s smile). Dylan songs aren’t written for this sort of thing, I was thinking. Osmond caught that his point had not quite been made and  asked for another song title from me.  At this point, the publicist who has worked with me before, interrupted: “They are all going to be Bob Dylan songs. Try ‘Blowing in the Wind,’ Donny.”

So, Osmond focused on me and said with a solemn face: “Blowing in the Wind Between the Sheets.” And, yes, that was sort of funny. (Photo: Lanie Crossman)