FAME

“I’m gonna live forever, I’m gonna learn how to fly, high!”

A review by Tanya Howard

It’s now been six months since I truly immersed myself into, and subsequently took over The Live Review and in that time I have seen a lot of shows. This week I saw Fame The Musical and it fully cemented itself into top spot as being the best show I’ve covered so far.

Since the release of the original movie in 1980 Fame has taken over, with several television series, stage musicals and even a remake of the film being made. Whether you’re a Fame fanatic or the hysteria has completely flown over your head, everyone seems to know the title song which personally has me always fighting the urge to put on leg warmers and dance till I drop.

Fame The Musical, currently on its 30th anniversary tour, follows the lives of students at New York’s High School For The Performing Arts as they navigate their way through the highs and lows, the romances and the heartbreaks and the ultimate elation of life. This bittersweet but uplifting triumph of a show explores the issues that confront many young people today: prejudice, identity, pride, literacy, sexuality, substance abuse and perseverance.

I was really impressed with the entire cast and the passion and effort they put into portraying their characters. Jamal Kane Crawford plays Tyrone, the athletic dancer with all the attitude but actually trying to hide the fact that he struggles with dyslexia. Hayley Johnston was great as the character of Mabel, though they could have done with getting a slightly bigger actress as her struggle is that she is “the world’s fattest dancer” and is pretty much the same size and every other girl on the stage. Clearly this is not an issue of Johnston’s and she shines in the role, giving me all the soul sister vibes when she begs to know why she can’t say no to food and forever wants to eat. I feel you girl!

The ultimate stars of the show for me though were Stephanie Rojas, in the character of Carmen, and Mica Paris as Miss Sherman. Their vocals are off the charts incredible, and their finale performance of Fame was incredible. The entire audience were on their feet, giving a well deserved standing ovation to the cast, whilst singing at the top of our lungs (or was that just me?!). Stephanie tackles a dark storyline of drug addiction, falling in with the wrong crowd and not knowing when to ask for help. Her rendition of In L.A. was both beautiful and heart wrenching as you could just feel her pain pouring off the stage.

Nick Winston’s choreography was energetic and the cast executed the routines beautifully and without fault. Not only does the show have some talented singers and dancers but a number of the cast play instruments and it was really impressive to see them stood on stage holding their own as the character and a musician. The only thing that was a tad lost on me was the backdrop which had blown up headshots that light up differently during the songs, I kept wondering if it was supposed to spell something.