The new "Fame" has the same concept as the old one. It's still set in a New York City high school for the performing arts and covers four years in the lives of the students to whom we are introduced on "Audition Day". We then follow their stories from Freshman to Senior Year when they graduate in a period that sees budding romance, the growth of deep friendships and painful self awareness and discovery.
The lead character is Jenny (Kay Panabaker), a timid and insecure girl who wants to be an actress and struggles hard to achieve her ambition. She gets the attention of the dashing Marco (Asher Book), a pianist-singer who sings and plays in his own dad's restaurant since he was a child. He later finds a rival in a soap actor, Andy Matthews (Cody Longo), who tries to seduce Jenny.
Then there's Denise (Naturi Naughton), a classical pianist who's just being forced by her dad to play. What she really wants is to sing. We also have Malik (Collins Pennie), an angst-filled black guy whose acting coach, Alvin Dowd (Charles S. Dutton), helps him sort out his angry feelings so he can get in touch with his inner artist. One day, Malik sees Denise belting out a pop song and he's impressed, convincing her to do a hip-hop recording with his friend, Victor Taveras (Walter Perez.) Of course, Denise hides this from her dad.
Kevin (Paul McGill) is the son of an Iowa dance studio owner who wants to achieve fame as a ballet dancer but, sadly, he doesn't really have the talent for it. The other characters are Neil (Paul Iacono), a wanna be filmmaker with his video camera; Joy (Anna Maria Perez de Tagle, the granddaughter of our own Sylvia La Torre), an aspiring singer-actress; and Alice (Kherington Payne), an exceptional dancer who is Victor's love interest.
Despite the haphazard characterizations, the acting is generally acceptable. Panabaker is lucky to have two good-looking guys competing for her attention and she does have some good chemistry with Book. Among the other students, Iacono stands out because of his hilarious scenes while Naugton really goes to town singing "Out There on My Own" and the title song that is used only in the end credits. Among the teachers, the standouts are Bebe Neuwirth ("Frasier") as the exacting dance teacher and Megan Mullaly ("Will and Grace") as the voice teacher who's the only one with some kind of a back story and gets to do a fantastic karaoke version of "You Took Advantage of Me".
The new version is directed by the debuting Kevin Tancharoen who's better known on TV. It does have a very contemporary feel in that you feel like you're watching a musical variety show or a contest like "American Idol" and "You Can Dance" as it devotes more footage to well staged song and dance numbers, neglecting to give better development to its characters. Among the musical numbers, the one with the most hyperkinetic energy is the one where the students jam while having lunch. Another good one is the 'Black and Gold' Halloween number with fine costume and makeup.
Viewers used to the "High School Musical" series will enjoy it, but those looking for more believable characters and a more compelling storyline will be disappointed. Fans of the original film will also think it's better than the remake, which is geared to a new generation of viewers that's why it's also updated with new songs like Coldplay's "Try".
