Fame- The Musical

From the moment I walked into the Royalty Theatre, Sunderland I could feel the excitement from the audience who were excitingly waiting to take their seats to see Sunderland Theatre Company perform their latest performance “Fame the Musical”. This high energy show set at the New York City High School for the performing Arts follows the story of a group of talented students as they embark on their training in the performing arts industry. Under the Direction of Brian Leach who has built up a reputation and an eye for detail and vision produced a show stopping performance demonstrating his experience and talent as he drew great performances by arguably some of the North East’s best talented individuals. In terms of the choreography I could have written a full report on this alone there were some excellent high energy imaginative and impressive routines and choreographed individual performances created and designed by Helen Wilson, and it was obvious from the cast’s performance and delivery that an enormous amount of work had been put in from the production team to deliver this standard of work, which to me were good enough in my estimation for any professional stage.  Music was in the capable hands of the musical director Jonny Winter and his chosen band, cleverly concealed at the back of the stage these talented musicians delivered. a solid sound ensuring the principals and chorus were well supported. Lighting was excellent which I come to expect from Sunderland Theatre Company, Brian has a passion to create different moods through lighting and in this show there were some clever use of lighting to create the different atmospheres. Whilst this was an easy show to costume, the choice of clothing was appropriate and added to the individual characters. The set was minimal and well designed to make use of the limited space and I particularly liked the taxi designed by Angela Crooks and the projection at the start of the show which I thought was outstanding and set the scene for the rest of the performance.

This vibrant cast brought energy to the production and I felt exhausted watching the thirteen minute opening number “Hard Work” which introduced the individual characters. The teachers all delivered outstanding performances Lynn Huntley as Miss Sherman was outstanding she oozed authority and had a superior stage presence her solo musical number “”These are My Children” was outstanding and vocal well delivered a very emotional moment, Linda Fowler delivered a confident Ms Bell excellent characterisation displaying a passion for dance and gave her character depth typical of the  archetypal ballet teacher and I loved the sing off musical number “The Teachers Argument” between Miss Sherman and Ms Bell it delivered a great battle of wits and was well delivered, Derek Crooks was excellent as Mr Myers the passionate drama teacher who delivered some excellent lines with great timing and concluding the teachers was Luke Sheinkopf  who maintained his confident European accent throughout the show and had good stage presence.

The actors were creatively played by Mathew Clarke as Nick Piazza, Mathew delivered a powerful performance, he clearly understood the strength of his character and delivered this with ease and confidence, great stage presence and vocally I loved his musical number “I Want To Make Magic” which was beautifully sang and heartfelt as was his duet with Serena “Let’s Play a Love Scene” which I though was a stand out performance. Helen Smurthwaite who played Serena Katz was excellent, perfectly cast and a confident actress with vocals that simply took your breath away I loved her musical number “Think of Meryl Streep”. Finally in this section, Michael Brabs who played Joe Vegas, this young man certainly can act dance and sing and he delivered his character wonderfully his comic timing was excellent and brought this wonderful character to life on the stage and the audience certainly enjoyed his musical number “Can’t Keep It Down” which was very entertaining.

In the dancing cast Gabrielle Smith took the role of Carmen Diaz and for me this young lady brought to the stage a fantastic performance for such a young age. She had the ability to act out some heart rendering scenes as she portrayed the character who was determined to became a star at whatever cost which unfortunately led her on the road to destruction, great acting and stage presence and outstanding vocals especially in the title song”There she Goes/Fame” as well as “In LA” which was very moving and her duet of “Bring on Tomorrow “with Schlomo which I thought was outstanding. New to Sunderland Theatre Company was Yahya Amoi who played Tyrone Jackson this is a hard character to portray as you need to ensure that you can get the anger of the character over to the audience as well as to have the ability to sing and dance and Yahya certainly demonstrated this, especially in his musical numbers ”Tyrone’s Rap” and “Dancing on the Sidewalk” playing opposite Tyrone was Shauna Lebihan who played Iris Kelly the elegant ballet dancer, lovely acting skills coming through and some great dancing especially the in the “Romeo and Juliet Ballet” number lovely pointe work and what was nice to see was their relationship looked believable on stage, Samantha Kennedy delivered a great rendition of the ever hungry Mabel Washington this was a great character to play and Samantha certainly delivered excellent comic timing and had great stage presence and what a voice I loved how her musical number   “Mabel’s Prayer” was delivered the gospel choir formation worked really well and sounded fantastic.

The musicians were equally well played, Aaron Hastings delivered a sterling performance as Schlomo Metzenbaum the quiet, saintly classical violinist who is living in his famous father’s footsteps again new to Sunderland Aaron looked equally at home with his fellow cast members, great performance and he delivered his script well especially the monologue towards the end which was well-acted and emotional I also liked the musical number “The Music Room” support by his fellow musicians. Samantha Hancock played Grace “Lambshops” Lamb again great chemistry between herself and the cast and remarkable stage presence as the funky rock chick character and finally Kristan Bailey as Goodman “Goody” King, Kristan has certainly developed his confidence over the past few shows he looked at ease on the stage and delivered his character well.

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