Fame
Artist: Original Cast
Label: DRG Records
Genre: Soundtrack
Rating: (0 out of 4)
Availability: Widely Available / eMusic Download
Steve Margoshes – the orchestrator for such stage shows as The Who’s Tommy, Smokey Joe’s Cafe, and Dance of the Vampire – probably has a lot to atone for in his life. But probably nothing makes him more in need of redemption than his role in composing the soundtrack for this musical adaptation of Fame.
Steve Margoshes’ Fame is not a recent addition to my collection. This little jewel found its way in from my eMusic account a long time ago. I vaguely remember making it halfway through the opening medley of “Pray I Make P.A. / Hard Work” before I turned it off in disgust and deleted it from my hard drive. It probably had something to do with “Pray I Make P.A.” actually ending with a happy student proclaiming, “I made it! I made it!” Or it might have had something to do with the absolutely horrid “roll call” sequence. Whatever it was, it resulted in a snap judgement of “putrid”.
But recently I’ve been thinking that maybe I was a little bit too harsh in my original judgement. After all, I didn’t actually listen to the whole thing before I decided it wasn’t worth listening to. Maybe only the opening was shoddy, cliched, hackneyed, and annoying. Practically every musical has at least one number you wish wasn’t there to ruin the whole thing. So I decided to revisit Fame with an open mind and listen to the whole thing before passing judgement.
Let’s start with some background information.
If you remember Fame fondly, chances are pretty good that you’re remembering the 1980 Alan Parker film with Irene Cara, Albert Hague, and Steve Inwood. Christopher Gore’s script told the story of a small group of students from the New York City High School for the Performing Arts. With its emphasis on the hard work required by the students, its tales of the difficulties awaiting budding artists, and its fun, pseudo-musical energy, Fame quickly became a staple film of arts students everywhere. And it helped cement New York’s P.A. as a model of the “magnet school” in the American consciousness.
Of course, you might also be thinking of the television series spawned by the movie – the show which ran for five years (1 1/2 years on NBC, 3 1/2 years of new episodes in syndication), which featured such talents as a young Fran Drescher and produced a live tour of the actors performing song and dance numbers from the series.
Or even the not-as-successful 90’s spin-off, Fame L.A. (a series which, despite all common sense, appears to be on the air, still).
Fame: The Musical’s Official Homepage tells the story of the musical’s birth. The show – based on both the 1980 film and the 1982-87 TV series (but not on Fame L.A.) – was originally developed in not-for-profit theatres in Miami and Philadelphia. It got its “big break” when Music Theatre International picked up and published the show. Since then, it’s been performed internationally and is still conducting an American tour. It was De Silva’s hope that the show would help to promote the Magnet School model, as well as “making a social statement about literacy, hard work, perseverance, and the importance of staying drug free.” Lofty goals, indeed.
Too bad Margoshes couldn’t come through with a less generic score.
I’m willing to grant that the true power of a musical comes in live performance, and doesn’t translate well to cast albums. That said, most of the good shows out there have cast albums that are at least listenable.
And you can listen to Fame, but the question is why you would want to. The singing is strong and competent, the musicians aren’t all that bad (if a bit too soulless at times) – but the content?
The truly sad element of Margoshes’ soundtrack is that it’s completely bland and generic. It’s a by-the-book, paint-by-numbers musical in the style of many other “Hey, isn’t Grease a great musical about teen life?” pretenders. The music is without era, sounding for all the world like it could have been written at any time within the past 60, 70, or 80 years of musical theatre. Even attempts to give the music a flavor (adding a Latin tinge to the borrowed song “Fame”) fall flat with passionless translations.
Frankly, my suspicions were correct – I was too harsh on the soundtrack when I first listened to it. But only in the sense that I worried the entire album might be as painful as “Pray I Make P.A. / Hard Work”. The fact is that the rest of the album is nowhere near as painful. Nor is it particularly pleasurable.
It exists. And, frankly, in musical theatre that’s unforgiveable.