Fame: The Musical (2020) User Reviews

Not the original Movie

[pebsdad · 5/10 · 14 June 2021]

First off...the stage version of this musical is not the same as the original 1980 movie many love except for the setting and theme. It doesn't have any of the songs from the 1980 movie version with the exception of the title song, sang at the end. This appears to be overlooked or misunderstood by some of the other reviewers. This musical stage version more closely follows the updated remake released 20 years after the original.

However...what they do have correct is how amateurish many of the singers and actors are for West End pros. 3 of the male leads seemingly were picked for their looks and not singing or acting ability. One was consistently flat with his over singing and the others over sang and acted. The characters were all caricatures, as it was written, not real people, and the accents problematic. This also makes the show feel very dated.

The musical stage version is not one that is remembered as being memorable to begin with and rides off the coattails of the popularity of the hit movie. This filmed performance from the West End proves that, and will be hard to get through for many musical theater fans like myself.

The script.... What happened?

[stefan-34-742417 · 2/10 · 25 September 2020]

First, I love the movie, and the tv-show. This musical is a total mess, outdated and without good music, full of stereotype, only the black/colored fails/dies, and all the white ones succeed. Even the gay character is straight. The best part is that the show finally ends. This movie is almost as bad as Cats.

Bad script, poorly acted and terrible proshot!

[jcorbancm · 2/10 · 27 September 2020]

I love musicals, and I really liked the original movie, but this is a train wreck. I keep reading this production got rave reviews but honestly I cannot see how. It probably reads better live, but honestly the actors are playing caricatures of the characters and they are not grounded in reality. They are all stereotypes and playing just for the jokes. Now, to top it off proshot of it it's terrible. A lot of bad close ups, audio issues and terrible editing made a painful viewing experience for a musical. You miss the big musical numbers in favor of a close of an actor who is out of frame half of the time. It's just a big miss, like the 2009 remake of the movie.

just.... a flop

[sebsammich · 1/10 · 22 November 2023]

I've never seen the movie, but judging on the other reviews I don't think it would improve the work at all. The story is all over the place, and except for maybe two characters, I have no clue what the motivation behind any of the events in the show are. A lot of the characters are very... dated. Dated is the only word I can use to describe this show. The over abundance of stereotypes completely ruin the enjoyment or any semblance of a decent plot. The terrible sound quality is something I would expect from a bootleg audience filmed cut, not a proshot. Any time the actors do manage to sing on tone, it's barely audible. All being said, I don't know how they managed to stretch 10 minutes of plot into 2 hours.

Oh dear... what a mess!

[glaucodilieto · 2/10 · 15 November 2020]

I'm a big fan of the original movie and was really looking forward to the musical version. What a major disappointment: badly written, terribly acted and appallingly directed. In fact, there is no evidence of any direction whatsoever.

The cast, who are mostly average singers and without exception fairly useless dancers (including the Tyrone character, who's meant to be the equivalent of Leroy Johnson - but Leroy he ain't, sadly) seem to have completely misunderstood their own characters and are just playing flat caricatures rather than real individuals. The irony of the drama teacher's constant mentions of "finding yourself" and "getting in touch with your true emotions" was hard to ignore.

All the way through, it was like watching the first reading of the script, and you keep expecting the director to step in and say "uh, sorry guys but this really isn't working, you've all got to rethink your characterisations completely". Clearly that didn't happen in rehearsal, and the actors were not guided towards a genuine performance. Instead they were allowed to reach the premiere looking and sounding fake, unfunny or just plain annoying.

Some of them are just trying way too hard to get a laugh, with the inevitable consequence that they don't.

And all the couples who are meant to portray adolescent love clearly feel no real connection. Nothing they do and say is believable, memorable or even remotely polished. I've seen amateur productions with more mature performances.

The only diamond in this pile of rubble is Mica Paris playing Miss Sherman, but her superior acting and singing only serves to highlight everyone else's shortcomings.

The worst thing about it is how lacklustre the whole production is: it's dark, dreary and unimpressive, with none of the 80's glitz and glamour that made us all fall in love with Fame in the first place. I understand trying to do something different rather than recreating the film or the TV series, but you've got to at least pay homage to the feeling of the original, because if you use a certain title you'll be attracting certain fans - and you will inevitably disappoint them.

In fairness, Miss Sherman tells the students from the start "if you think you're gonna live forever or start dancing on top of car roofs on 46th street, think again". Well, there was certainly none of that. Unfortunately, nothing else was put in place to deliver that same buzz. And without the buzz, you can't call a show "Fame".

Most songs were really forgettable, and thank goodness they performed the title song at least, but again it only made me miss the original.

Honestly, give this a miss. Instead, watch the film again, remember how good it was and why it will live forever - unlike this dross.

I thought this was an amateur production

[kateoffthewall · 3/10 · 4 June 2021]

I own the awesome original London cast recording and the vocals are phenomenal... This version though, I honestly thought it was a recorded amateur production. Alot of the vocals were flat or just damn painful, the American accents were dodgy, and the choreography was uninspired. Considering how rigorous auditions are for shows these days, I'm amazed how most of the cast got picked.

Didn't get it

[bubbles-90510 · 2/10 · 23 April 2022]

We were hugely disappointed 😞 Didn't see much of a story line to the movie which is what we expected, Dancers were great so much talent in this production but wasn't what we expected !

Disappointed

[karenhazelbroome · 3/10 · 7 March 2021]

I don't normally do reviews but dear god this was just not good. Aside from the outstanding Mica Paris..this was just poor. I dont believe it was the actors.singing but the shocking script and with a couple of exceptions the songs were just dodgy. I was.a teen in the 80s and loved the original but this doesnt even compare. I love musicals but this is the first one I have forced myself to warch to the end.