Fame the Musical
Troubadour Theatre - Wembley
4.4/5 based on 29 reviews (read reviews)- Booking until: Sunday, 26 January 2020
- Running time: 2 hours 20 minutes
Fame the Musical photos
Fame the Musical description
Fame the Musical – The 30th anniversary tour
Hm... the 1980s. The fashion was pretty awful, a flurry of brightly coloured rara skirts, hammer pants, perms, shoulder pads and legwarmers. Britain was diving deep into yet another recession, mostly fuelled by high interest rates. Things were difficult. But we had Fame the movie, an inspirational story that cheered us all up with its quirky characters, dazzling show tunes and inspiring plot.
Within no time Fame had become the soundtrack of a generation, and not long afterwards the stage musical version was created. Since then Fame The Musical has enjoyed seven separate runs in the West End, each a monster hit. Now it's back for 2019 and the anticipation is as powerful as ever. So what's the story?
Fame The Musical, first performed in 1988, tells the life story of a group of students at New York's High School of Performing Arts. Carmen and her friends are determined to become famous. There's the ambitious actress Serena and actor Nick, the bad-boy and funny man Joe, the quiet violin-playing Schlomo and the dancers Tyrone, Iris and Mabel. The young people have to deal with tricky issues like homosexuality, abortion, suicide and illiteracy, and like all youngsters they also have to cope with everyday stuff like homework, heartache and broken dreams. The overall effect is charming, fun, and makes as much emotional sense today as it did way back then. Some things don't change!
Irene Cara, whose song Flashdance – What A Feeling was a massive chart hit, played Coco Hernandez in the original film, a role that shot her to instant international stardom. The song Fame itself, written by Michael Gore and Dean Pitchford, thrilled a generation. And Cara ultimately received Grammy nominations for Best New Female Artist and Best New Pop Artist. The song Fame won an Oscar in '81 for Best Film Theme Song. It was re-released in Britain during 1982 following the TV series and hit the number one spot in the UK Singles Chart for 3 weeks running. As of 2017 more than a million copies of the song had been sold in the UK alone, and it's still selling.
Since it was first created, Fame the Musical has been on stage worldwide in numerous countries. The cast album has been released in all sorts of languages, proving its international appeal: Danish, Japanese, Korean, Norwegian, Swiss, Polish, German, Italian, Finnish and more. And this 30th anniversary tour is set to delight thousands of us all over again.
This time around the musical stars the wonderful Keith Jack, talented Mica Paris and super-cool Jorgie Porter. It's on at the Peacock theatre from autumn 2019. It's a stage musical treat stuffed with romance and drama, highs and lows. If you'd like to experience a show that has already proved a monster hit 7 times in the West End, grab tickets as soon as they come out.
