As in the 1980 original, "Fame" follows a group of students at New York's High School of Performing Arts from auditions through senior year. It's little more than an exercise in nostalgia. Actually, it's more of an attempt to capitalize on the success of "High School Musical," since there's not nearly as much acting or classical dance as musical numbers, be they solo and quiet or big and splashy. The remake is only rated PG (the original got an R rating) so the problems encountered by the kids are not quite so serious -- girl wants to sing but her father insists she become a classical pianist, boy wants to be a ballet dancer but he's just not good enough, etc. -- and are fairly easily resolved. Also, of course, there's a chaste romance. It's not a horrible movie, but it pales in comparison to what it once was, and the attempt to bring in the youthful HSM demographic failed as well, judging by the box office results.
The only two songs from the original to be retained are the two originally sung by Irene Cara. I really dislike the revised version of the title song, playing over the closing credits, but "Out Here On My Own" is sung very nicely by Naturi Naughton. Debbie Allen, a dance teacher in the original film and the TV series spinoff, plays the principal here. Among the faculty now are Charles S. Dutton and Megan Mullally (who sings a song), as well as Kelsey Grammer and Bebe Neuwirth, who have no scenes together, thus denying us a reunion of Frasier and Lilith. My grade: C-plus.
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