Fame Musical Remake Streams Free This Month

The original needs no introduction - the 1980 mega-hit inspired multiple remakes over the years with the 2009 film being the most notable one. The film features a special appearance by Debbie Allen, who portrays the school principal Angela Simms.

The stage production of Fame, which features a distinctly different storyline compared to the movie (and the 2009 remake), is also available to stream thanks to the live capture done during the recent UK tour of the show.

Here's how to stream the 2009 remake of Fame and the 2020 stage production now:

FAME became a global phenomenon in 1980 thanks to the original film starring Irene Cara, Gene Anthony Ray, and Debbie Allen. The movie follows a group of talented young students throughout their four years at the High School for the Performing Arts in New York City, where everyone is given a chance to live out their dreams.

The incredible success of the original film spawned a whole franchise, which includes the 2009 remake by MGM, which is now available to stream for free in the US and Canada. A direct link to the stream can now be found in our free streaming musicals guide.

The 2009 adaptation has choreography and direction by Kevin Tancharoen and screenplay by Allison Burnett and Aline Brosh McKenna. The cast features Debbie Allen, Charles S. Dutton, Kelsey Grammer, Megan Mullally, and Broadway star Bebe Neuwirth.

In their review from 2009, Time Out said: "here are enough hoary soap-operatic plottings for a thousand Gossip Girls (emotionally distant parents, almost-rapes, suicide attempts), yet Tancharoen individualizes each crisis so that no one character comes off as a mock-universal surrogate. It helps that Fame has been cast with performers who have the glow of possibility about them (or, in the case of the teachers, the necessary world-weariness). It gives the graduation-ceremony finale, which is superficially played for uplift, something of a bitter subtext. You can’t help but think: lambs to the slaughter."

The highly successful stage production of Fame, which is loosely based on the original storyline of the 1980 movie, was conceived by David De Silva in the late '80s and has since been produced all over the world.

The filmed stage production is now available to stream thanks to a live capture done during the show's 30th anniversary UK tour. The tour opened in Manchester in July 2018 and was filmed live during its last stop in London's West End. Fame is now available to stream online.