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BWW Reviews: FAME, Edinburgh Playhouse, April 22 2014

By: Apr. 23, 2014
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The tag line under this 25-year anniversary tour is "Fame - as you've never seen it before". Boasting that this production has revamped the 80s musical and brought it into the 21st century director Gary Lloyd has made a few changes. The updated script is littered with pop culture references from the past twelve months.

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I first saw Fame in when I was in my early teens and it was the first musical I fell completely in love with. It remains one of my favourites today and thankfully this production manages to hang onto everything I love about Fame. This version is set in a performing arts high school in New York in 2014 rather than the 80s. A combination of dancers, actors and musicians balance their regular schoolwork with honing their crafts. Yes, it's cheesy- but that's what makes Fame so great.

An example of the changes that have been made for this production include in the song Think Of Meryl Streep the line "think of Gerry Page" is now "think of Ellen Page". The reference to Madonna in another song has been replaced with Rihanna. Although never mentioned in the dialogue almost every cast member has a smart phone and/or iPad glued to their hand throughout. The costumes have changed in keeping with the times but I personally don't think younger audience members would have felt alienated by the inclusion of legwarmers and headbands.

As for the cast I would be reluctant to single anyone out as everyone gave an excellent performance. Where both vocals and choreography were concerned there was nobody who seemed to fall behind. However Jodie Steele was a fantastic choice for troubled singer Carmen Diaz. Her rendition of In L.A. was one of the highlights of the show for me.

One of the things I loved so much about previous productions of Fame was the finale. This production is missing a fairly iconic stage piece- the yellow cab. The end performance was certainly energetic but I definitely missed what I would view as an vital set piece.

While I love the story and the music of Fame, I doubt that if it had remained untouched it would appear dated. The 80s setting was part of its charm. I also don't feel that twerking should ever happen on a theatre stage. This tour is high energy and I thoroughly enjoyed the performance: I just think they should ditch the modern references and bring back the legwarmers!

Fame is on tour around the uk.



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