[KittyCat]

Hey my group are trying to get rights to do Fame next summer! Can anyone tell me what the storyline is? whta characters? espesh the soprano parts? Thanx

[actionfolksinger]

Aaaaaaah. Worst musical ever. They take everything that made the movie cool and throw it out. They add overly melodramatic songs and they tell a disjointed and horrible story. Avoid it. I hated this show.

Usually I'd take this opportunity to promote a musical I wrote like

www.myspace.com/spiderbabythemusical

But I won't. Let's see what else could you do? You said you want a good soprano part. What about Sweeny Todd or Assasins? How about the Great American Trailer park musical. It's brand new very fresh and a lot of fun. Rocking songs and hilarious story. I'll try and think of some more stuff but avoid Fame.

[my_work_my_name]

Righto, Fame...

The plot is quite straightforward - it revolves around the fortunes of various students in P.A. in New York over 4 years. Relationships are formed, broken up, re-formed, hopes are realised/unfulfilled, etc, and all this is interwoven with various musical numbers in a pop idiom, with the odd burst of the title song.

The principle female characters who have solos/feature in duets are:

Serena - shy acting student
Carmen - over-confident, desperate to achieve 'fame' at all costs (performs the title song)
Iris - an elegant, intelligent dancer (sings very little)
Mabel - an inelegant, overweight dancer
Miss Sherman - a commited, academic-grounded teacher
Miss Bell - a purely-artistically motivated dance teacher

...although I wouldn't say that any of these are soprano roles, as such - I would classify most of these characters as being mezzo-soprano to alto (although a friend of mine who's a soprano recently played Miss Sherman, an alto, with great success).
I've got a soft spot for Fame. It may not be the most emotionally-taxing musical out there, but I loved and had a great time performing it. I think we do need a break from Guys and Dolls and West Side Story now and again!

[actionfolksinger]

I'll agree that you need to switch things up now and again. I should say that when I said the play was horrible that was just my opinion. Me personally I like a little more meat to my story.

[my_work_my_name]

Fair enough! Certainly, in my part of the world, there seems to be little in the way of variety in the musicals youth/amateur companies tend to perform, so for every production of Fame there'll be about 10 Oklahomas, West Side Storys, Guys And Dolls, etc...all of which I love, but I found the chance to do cheesy pop songs somewhat refreshing!