‘Claim to Fame’ Showed a Frustrating Lack of Musical Theatre Knowledge

Claim to Fame brings together a group of contestants who are all related to celebrities in some way or another. They’re all trying to figure out who the others are and there are games that give clues to who is who. This second season, we had the niece of Tom Hanks kick things off with a bang by having her furious that she got figured out that quickly. Carly Reeves is the niece of Rita Wilson, Hanks’ longtime wife, and Reeves went on the show using Hanks as her claim to fame, despite her having very little knowledge of his acting career, and embarrassing herself by flubbing on clues provided for his iconic role in Forrest Gump. It seems as if those left in the house have absolutely no knowledge of musical theatre. To be fair, there are other contestants on the show who also have very obvious famous relatives, and they are safe because no one is thinking past what they already thought was true about each player. For one man, named Chris Osmond, his relative has become very obvious through the past few weeks. Labeled as a “teen icon” from the 70s, he thought singing a song at the start of the season would give him away because he sounds like his relative. It has continued to evolve into the show thinking he is everyone but who he obviously is related to.

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Look-a-like

For someone like Osmond, he looks absolutely identical to his celebrity relative. That is, if you know who he is related to. After his singing, it was sort of obvious who he was. Then the other contestants guessed both Elvis Presley and later Elton John, despite his clue card saying that his relative was born in Utah. Yes, President Jimmy Carter‘s grandson Hugo Wentzel thought that John was born in Utah and was eliminated from the show for not knowing who Osmond’s real relative was. Most recently, they thought he was related to Billy Idol, another British performer. It got Robert Lamar Stafford, Jr. (or J.R.) voted off and his celebrity relative of Lil Nas X being revealed. At this point, Osmond believed to take their constant guesses on him personally.

The more you look at Osmond, the more you can see his father. Not that it is so obvious but when you think about teen idols of the 70s, Osmond’s father and his sister Marie Osmond were two of the biggest stars in the world. While the show itself is a bunch of celebrity kids and relatives all trying to figure each other out (meaning that they’re not the most knowledgeable), there is still some level of fame that comes with both of the Osmonds that you’d think someone might know his name.

Outside of him looking just like his father, there were other clues that made it very obvious who Osmond’s connection was and yet everyone is so close to getting it, but it doesn’t seem likely that they’ll figure it out. Mainly because they all said it and then laughed and carried on thinking he was related to the Rocket Man himself.

Referencing His Most Famous Theatre Work

With the last challenge, each of the players had to work as pairs so that they could put fact sheets together about each player. On Osmond’s sheet, it said that his relative was from Utah but also said that he is famous for a coat of many colors. If you didn’t already know who Osmond’s relative was, that pretty much makes it obvious. What was shocking was when they all got back to the house to talk about it and no one seemed to even pick up on the fact that the coat reference was literally about a musical.

It is why they thought John at the jump. He wears bright colors, so it wasn’t out of left field, but Utah should have given them pause. Instead, they all believed that he wasn’t British. The part that is truly shocking and would have been the moment if anyone knew who Osmond was would have figured it out came from Gabriel. Many figured out who Gabriel is based on the most recent clue for him, but it seemed as if Osmond had no idea what it meant. Gabriel though makes a joke in the room with everyone, saying that Joseph from the bible has a coat of many colors.

For a brief moment, it felt like someone was going to figure this out. Then that hope was quickly dashed because they all laughed at Gabriel and thought he was referring to the actual bible (which Gabriel seemed to be) and they moved on with saying he was related to a British musician that got popular in the late 60s and 70s. But was never a teen icon. The reference to the coat of many colors is about Joseph but not just in the way that Gabriel and the rest of the contestants thought.

It is a call to Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat. The Andrew Lloyd Webber musical has featured many a teen icon including David Cassidy and even Andy Gibb. But the performance that many think of when they reference the musical, mainly because of the movie version of it, is Donny Osmond. Famous for singing with his sister and going on to sing the iconic song “I’ll Make a Man Out Of You” from the Disney movie Mulan, Osmond is a name that even younger generations still know. Except for the cast of Claim to Fame.

The reference to Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat isn’t enough to give it away to Osmond but it was that paired with the teen idol and the 70s that should have easily clued in the contestants on the show. Instead, they all thought it was the bible Joseph and moved on relatively quickly. That doesn’t bode well for them figuring out who he is in the future, given how the most obviously clue didn’t even seem to help them, and so it will be interesting to see how the show continues on and either or not he will make it to the end just based on their lack of knowledge about the Osmond siblings.