By accident, I’ve had a bit of a blogging break. I’ve written quite a bit and got the photos ready, I’ve just not published anything. Well, in the meantime, we were given/gifted two tickets to see Fame the Musical at the New Theatre in Oxford, as part of its UK tour and starring TV’s Jorgie Porter; soul legend, Mica Paris; and theatre star, Keith Jack.
Based on the 1980 phenomenal pop culture film, Fame The Musical follows the lives of students at New York’s High School For The Performing Arts as they navigate their way through the highs and lows, the romances and the heartbreaks and the ultimate elation of life. This bittersweet but uplifting triumph of a show explores the issues that confront many young people today: prejudice, identity, pride, literacy, sexuality, substance abuse and perseverance.
My Mum had this to say:
“The young cast is to be commended as many were multi-talented and could dance and/or sing and/or play musical instruments. Mica Paris was outstanding as you might expect and fills the entire auditorium with her powerhouse voice. The dance numbers were very good and well choreographed and the rest of the cast singers are all very good.
“The show has obviously been updated with different characters. Rightly or wrongly it was disappointing not to see my original favourites which I was expecting.
“The storyline was centred on teenage angst; adolescents from different backgrounds, ending up with the usual boy meets girl against the backdrop of their road through the performing arts school.
“Carmen (had a very strong voice) was the girl from a poor background chasing fame at any cost and not always making good choices, loved by the nice boy, Schlomo, who was from a long line of musical geniuses.
“Tyrone, from the ghetto (rapper and principle male dancer – was excellent), we discover halfway through that he is illiterate but strives to overcome his illiteracy and falls for Iris (Jorgie Porter in a non singing role, great dancer) considered the best dancer in the school and thought to be from a posh background.
“Inevitably one of them comes to a bad end, no prizes for guessing which one! Carmen, of course, who goes of to L.A. with a ‘manager’ to realise her dreams only to end up stripping and ultimately overdosing.
“My favourites were Nick (from Any Dream will Do – excellent singer) the serious student and Serena, again another strong singer, the quirky one! A good pairing.
“A couple of points we were less keen on. Not only was the storyline poor but we didn’t recognise any songs other than the title. The costumes seemed to be far less colourful than our memories of that time and there were not enough leg warmers!”
So there you have it, catch Fame until 16th Feb 2016 at the New Theatre.
