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Friday, June 26, 1998 Last modified at 12:43 a.m. on Friday, June 26, 1998
Ex-teen idol Osmond provides voice of Shang
Knight-Ridder
Donny Osmond wears his well-earned title of pop icon like a worn purple coat that's a few sizes too small.
It fit the teen-age idol who smiled that toothy grin with his sister on the "Donny and Marie" variety show of the '70s, but it's a bit confining for a 40-year-old father of five who just wants to act and sing.
"I guess I just grew up," Osmond saidrenr.
When Osmond stepped in the studio to perform the singing voice for Shang, the male lead in the new animated Disney musical "Mulan," he was careful to leave the pop star at home.
"You have to sing it as straight as you can because the way you sing isn't as important as the emotions you're singing with and the lyrics," Osmond said. "When you see the movie, it's not Donny Osmond on the screen. It's Shang."
Osmond learned this lesson through painful trial and error. During his Broadway debut in the title role of "Little Johnny Jones" in 1982, he said he was still trying to be a pop star.
nsOver time, his musical-theater style evolved and shed the pop stylings.
Osmond was attracted to Disney because he sees it as one of the few avenues in film for musical theater.
"I auditioned for `Hercules' but they said my voice was too deep for what they were looking for. I was bummed out. I really wanted to do a Disney film."
When the Disney producers said they'd consider him for their next project, it wasn't just a line. They cast B.D. Wong ("Seven Years in Tibet") for the speaking voice of Shang in "Mulan" and knew Osmond's singing voice would fit in perfectly for Shang.
"They said there was no audition necessary," Osmond said.
Osmond studied Wong's dialogue tapes and tried to match his inflections and personality in "I'll Make a Man Out of You," a song performed as Shang trains his troops for battle.
"One of the things I really hate about some musicals is how characters break into song," Osmond said. "It's like, oh, no, the plot's slowing down, time for another gratuitous song now. But `Mulan' isn't like that. The songs really fit."
