Olivia Newton-John, Live at the Soaring Eagle Casino
by Erin Conkle,
I enjoyed the Olivia Newton-John concert in Mt. Pleasant, MI at the Soaring Eagle Casino very much!! The were no words to express how I felt when she came out of the left side of the stage. It was a great concert, she sang some new stuff from her latest album, (Back With a Heart, and she really was!!) and she played some awesome classics.
Her opening number was "Magic," from Xanadu, it was fantastic. Her voice hasn't changed at all! The second number was the title song from Xanadu, and let me tell you, she still looks the same since the first time I saw that movie.
The venue looked sold out to me! The only one complaint that I had of the audience was I wished they got into it a little more, don't get me wrong they were clapping and everything, but who can't resist standing up and dancing during "Physical!" Some of the songs she performed were: the new version of "I Honestly Love You," "Sam," "Jolene," "You're the One that I Want," "Hopelessly Devoted to You," "Precious Love," "Have you Never Been Mellow." The audience really went crazy when she came out in, not tight, but snug red dress and put a leather coat on (ala GREASE) and sang two songs from that. The audience was so aged mixed, you could tell that she was still attracting new generations of fans. From older folks to young kids, six and seven years old. There was a slight intermission of sorts, one of her back up singers (Lisa Edwards) took over and sang "Love The One You're With" while Olivia changed her costume. She had three different outfits the whole night. I only had one little complaint about the song choices- I wish she would have sang such 80's classic pop tunes like "Heart Attack," and my personal favorite "Make a Move on Me." So for anyone who is even a slight ONJ fan try to get out and see her at least once!!!
Erin Conkle, Grand Rapids, MI
Review: Newton-John sings older hits, pleases casino crowd
Jon Bream / Minneapolis Star Tribune
Olivia Newton-John was the Doris Day of her day. Whether she was doing country, disco or a movie musical, Newton-John was always that too-cheery, blue-eyed blonde stuck in the middle of the road with a smile on her face. A good 15 years past her heyday, she still seemed hopelessly cheery Thursday night at the sold-out Mystic Lake Casino Celebrity Palace Theater in Prior Lake.
And, at 50, Newton-John still looks the same -- those clear blue eyes and those straight blonde locks sculpted in a helmet around her shining face. Her voice hasn't changed, either. It's breathy and thin but emotive, with a piercing, effective high end. Even though she hasn't often toured during her career (she is doing only two weeks in the United States this year), she performed with a striking confidence that never came across when she played the big arenas back in the 1970s and early '80s. The 2,200 casinogoers seemed very pleased. Newton-John had recorded most of the material in her two-hour set between 1971 and 1981, but she also offered tunes from her '90s comeback albums, "Gaia" and last year's country effort "Back with a Heart."
Although she was friendly, she wasn't expansive about her life. She mentioned her health problems (although did not specify that it was breast cancer) and confirmed that she's fine now. She also mentioned her 12-year-old daughter, and how the singer had done her first U.S. tour with Minneapolis musicians, but didn't mention her now-defunct kid's-clothing business, Koala Blue (there was one in the defunct Conservatory in downtown Minneapolis).
Newton-John, who grew up in Melbourne, Australia, was always kind of prim and proper (until she recorded the enticing aerobics anthem "Physical" in 1981). Her perky, middle-of-the-road charm worked onstage Thursday. She showed off her early country roots, doing Dolly Parton's "Jolene" and the gospelly "Banks of the Ohio" and offered a slightly jazzy treatment of "Over the Rainbow" and a nicely understated "Don't Cry for Me Argentina." And the new "Love Is a Gift" was a potential divalike big ballad, prudently rendered small to fit her voice.
Such Newton-John hits as "Have You Never Been Mellow," "Hopelessly Devoted To You" and "I Honestly Love You" sounded like mushy period pieces. When she tried to sound contemporary, she seemed out of character. The Latin-styled "I'm Not Gonna Give Into It" was Gloria Estefan with a white-bread voice, and a song about preserving trees (and long-term relationships) was tuneless and self-serious.
But when she teamed up with singer Lindsay Field for "Suddenly" (her hit duet with Cliff Richard) and Joe Creighton (in matching leather jackets) for "You're the One That I Want" (her "Grease" hit with John Travolta), Newton-John positively sparkled, singing into their eyes, radiating desire, devotion and delight that couldn't be denied.
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