Fame
September 30, 2007
Reviewed at the Theatre Royal , Newcastle
As the audience was on its feet, with the cast singing and dancing to the title track “Fame” (centre stage was the obligatory yellow cab) you could feel the energy across the footlights. Unfortunately it had taken over two and a half hours to get to this point.
The action takes place in the New York High School for Performing Arts between 1980 and 84. Initially we meet the pupils as they audition for the school and then follow their trials and tribulations. We have a few stereotypes thrown in for good measure, as well as a pupil who is a brilliant dancer but fails his English exam, a dancer who is over weight, two pupils who are destined to fall in love, but he will not accept the fact, and finally the drug addict.
This production is nearing the end of a very long tour that started in January and has only a week in Aberdeen after its stay in Newcastle and it shows. While all the singing is of a very high standard, the same could not be said for the dancing. The dancers were not together at times and gave the impression of going through the motions. The exception being Leanne Pinder as Iris Kelly who was excellent. Resident Director David Peyton-Bruhl (who plays Mr. Scheinkopf) has his work cut out to keep things together until the tour finishes.
However the solo singers were in a different class, each one giving their all, especially Debbralee Wells (Miss Sherman) and Sopha Nomvete (Mabel Washington). Unfortunately the orchestra constantly drowned out the ensemble singing throughout the production. Normally in this show (I have seen two previous productions of FAME) it is not so obvious which are the cast are the singers and which are dancers as they have talents that cover both areas, but here this is not the case.
While the whole production is an ensemble piece the one recognisable face is Abi Findley, who was a TV finalist in the search for Maria in the Sound of Music. While her performance was head and shoulders above a lot of the cast, it was interesting to note from the programme that she thanked Connie (Fisher) for winning, as it enabled her to play the lead in Blondel and then join this tour of FAME (rather than be leading lady at the world famous London Palladium in a long running hit show seems an odd choice).
The stage show is very different to both the original movie and the TV show Kids from Fame (I admit to having seen them live in Birmingham). But this is the first time in any version of FAME I did not care for any of the characters or what happened to them.
This production should be enjoyed for the high energy from a young talented cast unfortunately if it were not for the singers in the version there would not be a lot to enjoy.
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