Fame Review: The Shows Must Go On

Credit: https://www.instagram.com/famemusicaluk/

I mentioned in my Before/After review that it has been a stagey week. After a brief hiatus, The Shows Must Go On has come back with a new line up of shows and concerts! Yay!! And without further ado theatre streaming No.3 of this week is a stage adaptation of a cult musical film: Fame. Specifically the 30th Anniversary production filmed at the Peacock Theatre in the West End last year. 

This is one that I wouldn't normally go and see... as, well.... I don't like the film. I tried it and it really wasn't for me. Plus I remember it being performed at my high school, and apparently one girl who was in it admitted that nothing really happens in Fame. But after one of the girls in the WhatsApp group I'm in told me that the stage adaptation was completly different than the film, I thought it would be fair to give this show another chance. 

The result.... eh, it was ok... better than the film...?

Credit: https://www.instagram.com/famemusicaluk/

As everyone knows, it follows a group of high school students at a New York Performing Arts school: actors, dancers and musicians full of wide eyed hope and dreams of success... and well, fame. But they also realise that it comes with a lot of hard work. 

I'm going to get the biggest problem out of the way: which is the book. Because there are so many characters to follow out of the many students at the school, it doesn't really give any time to flesh them out, with the exception of perhaps Carmen Diaz (played by Stephanie Rojas). 

As a result, it doesn't allow chemistry to build between the couples like Nick and Serena, or Tyrone and Iris; which was a shame coming from back of Romantics Anonymous and Before/After which both really took their time developing these characters.

Another example I am going to give is the case of the homeroom teacher Miss Sherman, played by soul singer Mica Paris. She's the kind of teacher who offers realistic tough love. But she does this because she has a deep love for her students, almost like they're her children, as she isn't able to have any of her own. 

She has this incredible song These Are My Children in the 2nd act where she expresses this after a difficult confrontation with Tyrone (played by Jamal Crawford); but after that, she completely disappears until the finale, so we don't see the resolution between her and Tyrone - or even worse, left to wonder if it even happened. It's a shame as it was going so well... and then she's completely forgotten about. 

Credit: https://www.instagram.com/famemusicaluk/

You see the problem. And it means that this cast has almost little to nothing to work with, even if they are trying their best.   

Thankfully though, I have the worst part out of the way. 

And people do not usually watch Fame for the story. From the worst to the best - which is 100% the choreography. 

This was directed and choreographed by Nick Winston, who has been on fire recently for helping to bring both Fanny & Stella and Pippin to the Eagle in London recently. The way that he has managed to choregraph so many styles together into one thing is amazing. You have classic MT, you have jazz, you have ballet, you have everything else from street to flamenco! It's all in there! 

Perhaps this is like CATS in that it's a show for a dancer more than an actor? 

With that in mind though, the big dance numbers are definitely the highlights of the show, and are performed incredibly by the cast. Yes the script doesn't offer much but they took what they had and ran with it. 

Credit: https://www.instagram.com/famemusicaluk/

The other thing you go and see Fame for is the numbers everyone knows... except the only one you will know is the title track made famous by Irene Cara. Everything else was written by Steve Margoshes and Jaques Levy. The songs are not bad on their own, but they don't really get stuck in your head. I know it's hard with "REMEMBER MY NAME!" but you would hope that one of them would stand out. 

*Side note: I know there is Out Here On My Own, but it doesn't appear in every production, and in this one, we had In LA instead* 

If you want to give this a shot before it dissapears from YouTube on Sunday, then you can do so by clicking here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RYEEZ04lbDg&ab_channel=TheShowsMustGoOn%21

I'm glad I at least tried it, but I don't think Fame is one that I will be rushing to go and see if it opens again - at least I got to try it out for free.....