Fame

A British-directed, New-York based musical which follows the heartbreak-and-success story of a group of youngsters as they're put through their paces at the High School of Performing Arts. The main characters, all lightly sketched in, offer a brief showcase for just about every kind of performing talent from classical ballet to stand-up comedy; the song'n'dance numbers are edited to an unstoppable disco beat; and the brazen jokes (Jews, blacks, women, gays, etc.) keep coming to show that we're all part of the same pie in the sky. It's a crack at the American Dream which carries all the exhilaration and depth of a 133-minute commercial break.