This is a wonderfully simple idea that succeeds very well indeed: take a bunch of kids from New York's High School of Performing Arts and let them strut their stuff. A lot of music, a few desultory plotlines, and you've got the contemporary version of the Mickey Rooney/Judy Garland "Hey
kids, let's put on a show!" vehicle. FAME shows us how much life there still is in moribund genres like the musical.
It focuses on five episodes--set during auditions and successive academic years through to graduation--featuring various struggling young hopefuls, among them Coco (Irene Cara), a gifted, determined singer; Montgomery (Paul McCrane), a sensitive, gay actor; Leroy (Gene Anthony Ray), a talented,
illiterate dancer; Bruno (Lee Curreri), a synthesizer player; and Ralph (Barry Miller), a Puerto Rican who is ashamed of his background. However, Parker's interest lies mainly in lavish production numbers, rather than in more intimate subtleties. (The real High School of the Performing Arts
refused to let Parker film inside the building; perhaps they too disapproved of his sensationalism.)
The subject's treatment here was best suited for the television show it launched, but FAME's score and title song did win Academy Awards. Cara, who shines as Coco, was the only one of the aforementioned young leads to actually achieve fame (McCrane and Miller are respected stage, film and TV
actors), racking up a couple of hit singles. leave a comment
