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It's a name still remembered
Fame
Grand Theatre, Wolverhampton
*** IT SEEMS Fame might just go on to live
forever with this Bill Kenwright production the latest incarnation of
the hit musical which is the handiwork of David De Silva, who was also
the man behind the original, the 1980 film directed by Alan Parker. Despite some updating from the film, particularly
with celeb names, it is still a musical of its time with storylines
which can be viewed as universal or hackneyed depending upon your point
of view. We have Tyrone Jackson, played with convincing
arrogance and swagger by Alex Thomas, the poor African American kid
hiding the secret of illiteracy and with not so much a chip as a whole
bag of spuds on his shoulder about being black. Then to keep the minority theme going we have
another angry, disadvantaged teenager in Hispanic Carmen Diaz, a feisty
performance from Jodie Steele, who wants it all and wants it now. While all the students at the New York City High
School are lured by the dream of fame and their moment in the
spotlights, she is the only one tempted to follow
the
lights now following an agent, or at least he said he was, and a promise
of celebrity in LA, her inevitable end is nicely done, utilising
Diego Pitarch’s clever set, imaginatively lit by Tim Oliver. On the other side of the tracks there is Iris, the classy ballet dancer played by Sasi Strallen, tagged as a rich kid, but in reality as poor as the rest, apart from Schlomo, played sympathetically by Harry Blumenau, whose father is a famous concert violinist, or Nick, played with adolescent intensity by Alex Jordan- Mills. He is a kid who has been a performer since the age of three and has national TV commercials to his credit.
He wants to be a proper actor though and has no
time for a love interest with a lovesick Serena, played with a doleful
air by Sarah Harlington, which labels him as gay. She gives a lovely
rendition of Think of Meryl Streep as well as the soulful,
teenager in love ballad Let’s Play a Love Scene together,
reprised with Nick Obviously not gay is Joe Vegas, a Bronx boy with
attitude, played by Joseph Giacone, who makes no secret of his
erectilability (is there such a word? Ed.) in Can’t Keep it Down. Keeping discipline is Miss Sherman, played by
Landi Oshinowo, the English teacher, who doesn’t let talent trump
grades, which is the downfall of Tyrone, who gets by in English by
copying Iris’s work to hide the fact he can’t read. He is set to fail which leads to a battle on two
fronts for Miss Sherman, first with Hermione Lynch as Miss Bell, the
dance teacher who sees Tyrone’s dance abilities more important than his
academic grades, or in this case, lack of them, and then another clash
with Tyrone. The clash between these two shows the teacher as
first harsh and then caring, trying to drag Tyrone out of a the dead end
life he is destined to live as an illiterate black kid. She is trying to
do the best for her students as people not just as artists with a
powerful rendition of These are My Children. She and Tyrone come
to an arrangement. One day he might well be a dancer, but not if the
only thing he can read or write is his name on a contract. He doesn’t need words though for his touching pas
de deux with Iris as that pair also work out their differences. One of the musical highlights comes fromthe
Mabel’s Prayer sung by, well Mabel. Mabel is the . . . well
upholstered Mabel Washington, played by Molly Stewart, who can really
belt out a song. The lively Mabel has a
love of food greater than her love of dance so rather than lose weight,
she loses dance and majors in acting. The musical was written by Jose Fernandez with
Lyrics by Jacques Levy and music by Steve Margoshes all in collaboration
with De Silva, which is a pretty classy pedigree and Pitarch’s split
level design with two huge stage blocks to create classroom, stage,
dance studio and locker room with a few pushes below a sort of mezzanine
is a clever one.
The upper level, apart from an extra stage, is
also home for an excellent five piece band under musical director Andy
Ralls. Perhaps though the sound balance needed to be
worked on, always a potential problem with opening nights in new
theatres. Vocals tended to be a little lost, or somewhat woolly, which
meant words were lost in songs such as Carmen’s moving anthem of
heartbreak, In LA. The end, a typical US High School graduation,
gowns and all, did have a hint of a Billy Graham evangelical revival
meeting about it, slick as it might have been, but it all ended on a
lively note in an encore with the return of Carmen for a curtain call
and a wall shaking, roof lifting, floor rumbling audience participation
of the iconic Fame – written incidentally by Dean Pitchford and
Michael Gore from the original film and winner of the Oscar for best
original song. This is an enthusiastic and lively production,
well choreographed and directed by Gary Lloyd, with half a dozen back
tales to maintain an interest but through no fault of cast or
production, ultimately we never really get to know any of the characters
which leaves us with a sense of 80’s nostalgia – at least those old
enough to have lived through the 80s . . . and the 70s and 60s, and . .
. I’ll stop there. With a cast of 20 and a band of five it is a big
production with a largely young and hungry cast – as it should be, after
all it is what the musical is about, and they don’t disappoint. Roger Clarke
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