Fame The Musical

Fame the Musical follows the lives of a diverse group of fame-seeking young students at New York’s High School for the Performing Arts from their first year in 1980 to their graduation in 1984. It tells of the highs, lows, romance and heartbreaks that they encounter along the way. Emily May Corner was excellent as the sexy, over confident and bubbly Carmen Diaz who is obsessed with finding fame only to find that it doesn’t come easy. After leaving the course to follow her dream she returns and her singing of ‘In LA’ was just outstanding. Rob Chilton was ideally suited to the role of Schlomo Metzenbaum; he played the role perfectly and his duet with Carmen ‘Bring on Tomorrow’ was sublime. Another fine performance came from Natalie Brown as Serena Katz. Her rendition of ‘Let’s Play a Love Scene’ was sung with such emotion and the delightful on/off relationship with the very serious, ambitious and classical actor, Nick Piazza, was wonderfully played by Harvey Latter. Amy Parker was great as the rather outspoken and over weight Mabel Washington, and what an amazing singing voice she has as was heard in the belting out of ‘Mabel’s Prayer’. Jack Woolley was in his element as the loud mouthed, brash but very funny and ‘naughty’ Joe Vegas he certainly made the most of the comedic script. A terrific portrayal came from Jake Truman as Tyrone Jackson, the talented, later to be discovered dyslexic, who has such low self esteem but tries not to show it with his swaggering nature. His singing of ‘Tyrone’s Rap’ and ‘Dancing on the Sidewalk’ were delivered with such energy. He might not be the best ‘ballet’ dancer in the world but his efforts when dancing with super ‘ballerina’ Iris Kelly were most commendable. Iris was splendidly played by Lydia Thacker. Alex Taverner was excellent as Miss Sherman a strict disciplinarian English teacher, who despite this really cares about the students as comes to light with her willingness to eventually help Tyrone with his problems. Her singing of ‘These Are My Children’ was truly exceptional as was the duet ‘The Teacher’s Argument’ with Ms Bell, a dance teacher, another fine performance by Emma Collins. Excellent support came from Adam Guest as Mr. Sheinkoff, the music teacher (what a super German accent he had) and Simon Parker as Mr. Myers, the drama teacher. Other named characters were well played by Louise Seel, Ellie Simmonds, Tom Phipps, Molly Parkinson, Jenny Ashworth, Erin Hill and Katie Macdonald. A good set, super lighting and sound, a terrific band, great imaginative choreography excellently executed, together with such an amazingly talented, enthusiastic and hard working cast (just a few dubious accents) all added to make this a superb production - they certainly ‘made magic’! Congratulations must go to the Production Team and to everyone else involved.  

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