The first twenty seconds of the trailer for this upcoming dance movie were enough to win me over: jazz hands and Meghan Mullally — although I wish she was using her Karen voice. There’s also a poor man’s Chace Crawford to sweeten the deal.
Fame, MGM’s remake of a film that became a successful TV series (fans of those will be glad to see Debbie Allen on board), looks like it will be somewhere between a Center Stage and Sister Act 2— cheesy but entertaining, and possibly a little emo and inspirational. (Charles Dutton’s speech about finding your inner power gave me chills.)
And while at first I wasn’t sure how I felt about the inclusion of Frasier in the cast of a dance flick (he’s creeped me out since his autobiography came out in 1995), it does make me happy to see him sharing the screen with Bebe Neuwirth again. It also reminded me of that episode of Will & Grace where Jack and Karen see her in a coffee shop and keep calling her Lillith. Sean Hayes should be in this film.
The dance sequences are still too chopped up to determine if they’re any good at this point, but there is plenty of relationship drama (jealous classmates, angry parents) and solid (if not super memorable) belting to be had — both always a good thing. I can already tell the singer with the French braid is going to annoy me, but I love the blonde bad ass who thinks she’s the most talented one in the performing arts school. How can you not?
Fame hits theaters on September 25th. Do plan on checking it out?