Fame

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I'm gonna live forever, I'm gonna learn how to fly (High!) I feel it coming together, people will see me and cry. I'm gonna make it to heaven, light up the sky like a flame. I'm gonna live forever, baby remember my name!

A musical film in 1980 that later became a stage musical and then was remade in 2009, Fame is the story of some students of the New York High School of Performing Arts, a very exclusive school (which has since been merged with the High School of Music & Art to become the Fiorello H. LaGuardia High School of Music & Art and Performing Arts). The students find themselves cooperating amongst themselves and with the faculty, even as they compete for chances in the real world to make their dreams of stardom come true, and the obstacles that stand in their way on a personal level.

Fame is an interesting example in that, along with the silver screen and the stage, it's also been presented as a musical television series, several times. The most recent attempt, in 2003, was an In Name Only Reality Show similar to American Idol.

The original film received two Academy Awards: one for the score in general, and one for the title track. It was added to the National Film Registry in 2023.

Tropes used in Fame include:

The movies provide examples of:

• Actor Allusion: In the remake, one of the auditionees performs "All That Jazz" from Chicago. Bebe Neuwirth, who plays one of the dance instructors, won a Tony for her portrayal of Velma Kelly (who sings the number) in a Broadway revival of Chicago.
• Ambiguously Gay: Kevin in the remake. The actors and the director disagree whether he is gay or not.
• Artistic License: "P.A." as shown in the film closed in 1984, but modern productions such as The Life Aquatic are mentioned by the characters in the remake.
• Casting Couch
• Coming Out Story: Montgomery
• Dark and Troubled Past: Malik's sister Ayanna died very young, and his father left his family even before that.
• Driven to Suicide: Nearly happens to Lisa in the original and Kevin in the remake after they're informed that their ballet skills aren't enough to recommend them to a professional dance studio.
• High School: Albeit an "alternative" one.
  • High School Dance: A much more interesting one than most people had in their schools, to be sure!
  • High School Rocks: Literally.
• Gayngst: Montgomery. It makes sense considering when this takes place.
• "I Am Becoming" Song: "In L.A.", though it's more I Was Becoming.
• I Am What I Am / "I Am" Song: "Out Here on My Own".
• "I Want" Song: "Fame", natch.
• Inspired By: The real students of the real school.
• Kick the Dog: "Who in the world told you you were special?"
• Proscenium Reveal: One of the main characters is monologuing about his mother. It looks like an interview, until he flubs a line and we realize it's an audition.
• School Play / Graduate From the Story: "I Sing the Body Electric"/"Hold Your Dream".
• Shrinking Violet: Doris in the original, Jenny in the remake. They get better.
• Spiritual Successor: So, so many.
  • Camp = Fame AT SUMMER CAMP!
  • Glee = Fame IN A REGULAR SCHOOL!
  • Victorious = Fame AS A SCREWBALL COMEDY!
  • Dream High = Fame IN KOREA!
• You Would Make a Great Model: Coco is approached in a diner by a sleazy guy claiming to be a director. She goes to his apartment for a "screen test" and he orders her to undress in front of a camera. She does so, and starts crying from embarrassment and shame.

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The musical version provides examples of:

• Absent-Minded Professor: Mr. Myers.
• Alpha Bitch: Iris Kelly, though it's more how the other kids see her.
• Angry Black Man: Tyrone, in the beginning.
• Big Man on Campus: Nick
• BBW: Mabel. And she's awesome.
• Casanova: Joe Vegas likes to think he is.
• Casting Couch: Implied to happen to Carmen Diaz. It Gets Worse
• Deadpan Snarker: Lambchop.

Lambchop: Sorry I'm late! My bus had a flat and I missed the ferry. See, I come from the end of the world - Staten Island. Ms. Sherman: Miss Lamb, that's no excuse. Lambchop: I know, it's a curse!

• Doomed Protagonist: Carmen
• Good Bad Girl: Carmen
• Fridge Logic: Wait, a performing arts high school, and not ONE gay kid?!
• Hippie Teacher: Ms. Bell and Mr. Sheinkopf.
• Hollywood Pudgy: Mabel, depending on the actress. She can be any size, but the point is, she's fat for a dancer.
• Ho Yay: "Can't Keep it Down" is full of it. In some productions, Nick and Joe Vegas Ho Yay it up during the Romeo and Juliet scene with Serena.
  • Not to mention that Serena is half-convinced Nick is gay.

"You'll probably go off to New Haven and meet some guy and forget all about me!"

• Inner-City School
• Large Ham: Mabel.
• Lovable Nerd: Schlomo. Just ask Carmen.
• Massive Multiplayer Ensemble Number: "Pray I Make P.A./Hard Work".
• Nice Guy: Schlomo.
• Pet the Dog: After spending most of the production being overly strict and a bit harsh on her students, Miss Sherman's offer to help Tyrone learn how to read and her subsequent song, These Are My Children, definitely comes across as this, as well as a Crowning Moment of Heartwarming.
• Shrinking Violet: Serena, until she comes out of her shell.
• Single Girl Seeks Most Popular Guy: Serena and Nick.
• Single Woman Seeks Good Man: Carmen and Schlomo.
• Stern Teacher: Ms. Sherman. Tough as hell, but she's got a soft spot for Tyrone.
• Tomboy: Lambchop
• Tragic Mulatto: Carmen verges on this - she gets hooked on drugs and has lots of anonymous sex in L.A., then dies of an overdose.
• Villain Song: Miss Sherman's half of "The Teacher's Argument" verges on this, since she's trying to convince Miss Bell that Tyrone will never make it as a dancer.
  • Not entirely true: Miss Sherman is trying to convince Miss Bell that even though Tyrone is extremely talented, he needs to be prepared for whatever happens if he doesn't make it as a dancer. It's more of an "if," not a "when."
    • It's still the closest anyone in the musical comes to a Villain Song, since the audience isn't supposed to sympathize with Ms. Sherman.