‘Fame’
dances, moves fall short with cast
By Monica Levette Clark
On-line Forty-Niner
 “Hard
work! For the next four years those two
words will own you,” Ms. Sherman told the
newly accepted students of New York City’s
High School of Performing Arts.
For the next two hours the cast of
“Fame, A Musical” had to work hard to portray
the super talented teenagers from the 1980’s
hit movie, “Fame.”
Not that they weren’t good. The cast
of dance, music and acting students were
talented, but just not of the same high
caliber of the cast from the original movie.
We e all know the story of the young aspiring
artists, trying to find their voices, determined
to “make it” in a world as elusive as the
arts. Whether dancing, music or drama
that is their passion, each young artist
must put in long hours perfecting their
craft in order to shine brighter than the
rest of the stars, swimming in a celestial
pool of talent. These are those students
you hear of who live and die for the sake
of their art.
I was expecting the cast of this musical
to be exceptionally talented but in all
fairness the cast, for the most part, gave
a mediocre performance.
Some scenes were overdone, some notes were
missed on songs and some of the steps were
a little less than polished—all things that
you wouldn’t expect from a musical based
on a major motion picture that boasted brilliant
performances. The production of this musical
borderline cheesy.
Q. Smith, as the overweight dance student
Mabel Washington,, gave the good performances.
She sang her heart out on the song, “Mabel’s
Prayer.” Not only could Smith sing well,
but she was also naturally funny, garnered
a few laughs from members of the audience
attending the musical Sunday night.
Another explosive performance was given
by Jacen R. Wilkerson, who played Tyrone
Jackson, the emotionally unstable, inter-city
dancer, who suffered from dyslexia.
Scenes called for Tyrone’s character to
be slapped by Ms. Sherman, played by Shirell
Ferguson, after cursing her out just inches
from her face.
The scene was great, but seemed out of place
as most of the scenes in the musical were
less than stellar.
A mistake on director Sha Newman’s part
was not casting enough actors as extras
in the two-act musical. Because of this
shortage, a dance student became a music
student, an acting student, a dancer, and
vice versa, adding to the musical’s cheesy
factor.
Having seen “Fame,” the original movie this
production is based on, the musical didn’t
compare to the emotional depth of the original.
In fact, “Fame” as a musical just didn’t
work for me. The scenes were too condensed,
limiting the development of the naïve,
dysfunctional personalities of these characters,
causing the performances to be either halfway
or overly exaggerated.
This was the final appearance of the Theater
League’s production that opened last Friday
at the Terrace Theater.
|
