Learning to fly Plenty of legs left in old favourite
GET your leg warmers out – we are back to an age when the most dangerous place to park was outside a dance academy.
New York City’s High School of Performing Arts opened for business once more and Selladoor Productions’ highoctane production of the enduring 1988 musical Fame was a total success.
The first act was little more than scene setting, but the second soared, even with the evening’s most chilling moments.
When the fun stops briefly and real, unforgiving life steps in, the horrors of this fragile earthly existence become all too apparent again.
There is no happy ending for the tragic Carmen Diaz, thrillingly played by Stephanie Rojas.
As her life slowly ebbed away, I felt her stirring swansong In LA grasp at the very soul.
Restoring the feelgood factor, Albey Brookes sparkled as the brash Joe Vegas, hilariously compromising the dignity of Romeo and Juliet.
Jamal Crawford dazzled as the incredibly athletic Tyrone and there was robust support from the versatile Simon Anthony as sax-wielding Schlomo.
Keith Jack weighed in impressively as the ambitious Nick, perfectly complemented by Molly Mcguire as the feisty Serena.
For all its razzmatazz, however, one character’s reality check does it for me every time.
All rise for the formidable Mica Paris, whose finely observed portrayal of strict old-school headmistress Miss Sherman brimmed with conviction and pathos.
Her heated confrontations with graceful prima donna Iris and the dyslexic Tyrone melted into gentleness and profound reflections upon her celibate lot, enabling her to evolve from an exacting matriarch into a figure of enormous sympathy.
Her bravura, rendition of the contemplative aria These Are My Children justly garnered the night’s biggest ovation.
Sadly, there were no life-size car roofs suffering beneath the feet of the dancing multitudes, leaving us to make do with a couple of scale-model yellow taxis sliding up and down angled poles, as the newly-graduated and animated cast powered through the spectacular finale.
Between them, they all made magic and flew high – this show really does deserve to live forever.