The Michigan Daily-Thursday, July 31, 1980-Page 7

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RETURN CAF THE MUSICAL

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'Fame': A catchy summer step

By ANNE SHARP
In the midst of the summer doldrums,
of unbearably gross horror films and
deadly hyped-up losers like 'Urban
Cowboy, Can't Stop the Music and the
Blues Brothers, an original movie
musical called Fame has sprung in full
flashing splendor from Hollywood's
bureaucratic god-head to delight its
backers with a hit soundtrack album
and absolutely kick-ass box office
receipts. The disarming success of this
charming, inexpensive little flick is a
magical quandary. Now, when all the
trade papers are mocking at the death-
bedside of disco, did a funked-up single
like Fame smash the charts? How, in
an era in which taxpayers would rather
buy a second Winnebago than pass the
millage for their local school system,
did a film extolling the joys of an
education at the New York High School
of the Performing Arts make the
grade?
Well, for one thing, it is one of those
rare commodities, a modern movie
musical that works. In recent musicals
such as, say, Hair, there occurred
cringing, embarrassing moments in
which characters burts into song while

bopping down the sidewalk or in a
speeding car on the freeway; I'm sorry,
it worked for Nelson and Jeanette, but
spontaneous song just isn't that
believable anymore.
Fame, on the other hand, provides us
with a context wherein a cafeteria full
of rowdy students erupts into a full-
scale production number, complete
with orchestra and free-form
choreography (the kids, we are told,
bring their pianos and Danskins in
along with their peanut butter and
jellies). The "Hot Lunch" number is
sheer, abandoned delight; so is the
moment when a pretty ballet student,
after performing an entrancing solo
turn, invites an amorous observer, with
a jerk ofher elegant head, into the boy's
locker room for a bout of thrillies.
Musicals are lots of fun!
The film, if you haven't already
heard, follows eight young aspiring ac-
tors, dancers, and musicians from their
first tryouts (you have to audition for
this school) to their graduation recital
four years later. These eight are all
played by "unknowns"-among them,
Irene Cara, who sounds alot like a fresh
Donna Summer, as the surface-tough

singer Coco (she does "Fame" and
"Hot Lunch," as well as the other big
numbers); Barry Miller (who was last
seen falling off a bridge in Saturday
Night Fever) as Ralph, the funny but
bitter Puerto Rican who wants to be
another Freddie Prinze; and Maureen
Teefy as Doris, the timorous, delicate
Jewish girl who divides her affections
between Ralph and Montgomery (Paul
McCrane), a second-generation actor
just coming to grips with his budding
homosexuality.
Rumor has it that Alan Parker, who.
directed Fame, hates kids, and avoided
his youngster-filled sets whenever
possible. This may explain why kids in
Fame, although visually ' they pass
easily for high school kids, seem
engaged in such startlingly adult

broils: worried about their careers,
about sexual relationships, about
staying safe ina city full of junkies and
vicious exploiters. Save for Doris, who
is tormented by an overprotective
mother straight out of Philip Roth, the
Fame kids inhabit a Peanuts world
unhampered by parental restrictions; a
little scary, but the kids in the audience
love it. As a result, the students, who we
are supposed to be viewing growing up
from age 14 to 18 seem more like
they're making the transition from 18 to
22. But it's still a fascinating process,
and the music and dancing along the
way are very good. So to hell with-the
Blue Brothers; see Fame instead. Even
if you don't like disco, at least you won't
see any embarrassing, "spontaneous"
car chases.

"46th Street Jam," one of the many up-tempo musical scenes in this summer's
surprise movie hit 'Fame.' This scene, naturally, was filmed on location on
West 46th Street in New York City.

An active volcano's slumber can
last so long that the volcano appears
extinct. Helgafjell on Heymaey Island
off the coast of Iceland, dormant for an
estimated 7,000 years, erupted
without warning Jan. 23,1973, openinga
1%-mile-long crack in the island.
The Ann Arbor Film Coepeative
Presents at the Michigan Theatre:
THURSDAY, JULY 31
McCABE & MRS. MILER
(Robert Altman, 1970)
1, 3:30, 7 & 9:30-Michigan Theatre
Pauline Koel odptly describes it as "a beautiful
pipedream of a movie,-a fleet,,in'g ,'mos
be.It i certainly Altmans loveliest and most
e,rfet l.as*ell asia e' ofthe
Cohen." Perfectly fontas tc.-N.Y. TIMES. WAR=
REN BEATTY, JULIE CHRISTIE, RENE AUBER-
JONOIS. 35mm. Admission: $2.00, matinee $1. 50.
Toorw enrHerzog's WOTZECK and

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