Fame

A warm welcome greeted us at the Arts Centre, firstly on Friday evening and again on Saturday afternoon.  My return on Saturday was brought about by an unfortunate incident during the interval on Friday, which meant the second act had to be abandoned.  This report is on the Saturday matinee performance with one exception which I will come to later.

Based on the film and popular television series of the same name, Fame follows an intake of students at the New York City’s High School of Performing Arts and takes us through their journey to achieve their dreams of becoming great actors, musicians and dancers.  An ideal show for a society with an abundance of talented young people, as was the case here.  Director Sue Webber certainly brought out the best in every one of them.

The show has some great songs and under the direction of Karen Chinery the cast produced a high standard of vocal achievement, including some lovely harmonies.

Everyone looked as though they were enjoying themselves and all the principals gave delightful performances.

Mia Mason shone as Carmen Diaz whose determination to become a star eventually takes her down the road to destruction. Her rendition of the title song and her duet of Bring on Tomorrow with Schlomo played by Baron Firat, himself an accomplished performer, were terrific.       

Seren Firat as Serena and Isaac Raz as Nick sang their duet, Let’s Play a Love Scene, beautifully. They were a joy to watch throughout the show as were Emily Fox as Iris and Wes Ruthven as Jack, two dancers struggling with their insecurities. Charlotte Scammerton was terrific as Mabel.  Very well done.

Well done also to Harry Malone as Joe Vegas, an acting student who acts the clown and sometimes the bad boy. He performed the hilarious and somewhat risqué song Can’t Keep it Down to great comic effect.

At this point I must mention Callum Friel whose final performance as Joe abruptly came to an end half way through Friday evening.  This roll was absolutely made for him and he played it to great effect, reveling in his solo to the delight of the audience.

Daisy Robson-Baillie, Chris Griffey and Reece Hannigan completed the line-up of music students.  Well done, especially to those who played, acted and sang!

There was also good confident acting from the teachers. Victoria Harvey as Greta Bell, Cian Harriss as Mr. Myers, Daniel Pitts as Mr. Sheinkoph and Charlotte Kowalski as Ester Sherman. Her beautifully sung solo These Are My Children was a real tear jerker.

The costumes were pretty much of the era although I do believe I saw one or two pairs of jeggings!

The scenery was simple but very effective, the scene changes slick and the lighting just right.

Congratulations Centre Stage on an excellent production and thank you for inviting me.  I left singing the songs and I haven’t stopped since!

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