Fame, The Musical

Published Monday 13 September 2004 at 13:35 by Jenny Tweedie

There are brief moments in life when you get a deep longing for it to be 1983 again - leg warmers all the fashion, pirate copies of ET circulating the school, the kids from Fame shaking their booty on TV.

Indeed, the original series was so popular there can be few households that don’t still have a copy of the cassette kicking around. So it’s a shame that Fame, The Musical, includes none of the iconic classics, with the exception of the title song, in its repertoire.

Some of the numbers do measure up, notably Dancin’ on the Sidewalk and Can’t Keep It Down, but this is due mainly to Karen Bruce’s choreography and the delivery. James Haggie’s performance of the latter song is so animated and comical that it easily becomes the standout moment of the show.

Craig Stein’s Tyrone Jackson certainly keeps the audience happy with his powerful jumps and acrobatics and in general, every person on the stage appears massively talented.

The set, designed by Adrian Rees, is simple, necessary with so much movement and dancing but Adrian Barnes’ lighting seems rather basic given the nature of the production.

It is a pity that the build-up to the final scene rushes the story, as the last number is a crowd-pleasing, all-singing, all-dancing spectacular.

But there is an overriding feeling that borrowing more from the original could have resulted in a show with extra sparkle. Even some overindulgence in eighties kitsch might have been a start.