Glen Ridge Middle School thespians to stage ‘Fame’

GLEN RIDGE, NJ — The Glen Ridge Middle School Drama Club, on its toes with voices raised, will present the junior version of “Fame: The Musical,” on April 1 and 2, at 7 p.m. at Ridgewood Avenue School.

The show is 90 minutes long, without intermission, with a cast of 28. The production is under the direction of Drama Club Director Heather Ballantyne who, in a March 18 interview with The Glen Ridge Paper, said the drama club “lost a little steam” because of the pandemic.

“I chose ‘Fame’ because, with this generation, there’s a little curiosity for clothes and music,” she said. “And I didn’t want these students playing animals in a musical, but to play students and stretch themselves.”

“Fame,” which originated as a film released in 1980, is about a group of ambitious high school students attending the School of the Performing Arts in New York City. Its success spawned a TV series and a stage musical. Speaking about the leading roles in the show, Ballantyne began with Carmen, which is double cast with Ava Murtha and Chloé Novoa. 

“Carmen thinks she’s hot stuff,” Ballantyne said. “She quits school to go to Los Angeles. She doesn’t think she needs school. In the full version of the musical, she dies of a drug overdose. But in our junior version, she goes to L.A. and returns humbled and stays to finish school.”

Another double-cast role is that of Serena, played by Claire Liotta and Ellie Hudon.

“Serena is attending the school to learn acting,” Ballantyne said. “She’s very shy at first but grows in confidence.

“Then there’s Iris,” Ballantyne continued. “She is an amazing ballet dancer who comes to school in a limousine. The other students think she’s a rich kid. But she’s not what she seems; her father is a chauffeur.”

Iris will be played by Sofia Perez.

Among the boys in the cast is Gaby Slim playing Nick, a famous child actor who wants to be taken seriously, and Cooper Hughes playing Schlomo, a musician who comes from a famous family. 

“All these characters are coming to the performing arts school for a reason and with a challenge,” Ballantyne said. 

In yearbook-like fashion, to effect the passage of time and character development, the students are “photographed,” caught in a motionless tableau. The first time they are assembled, it is the confusing, tentative, first day of school. Next, as sophomores, they are not quite so nervous. Over time, the tableaux show them growing in confidence and individuality. 

“There are a couple of romances,” Ballantyne said. “Serena is enamored with Nick. They always get cast together, but usually she gets to play his mother. So Serena sings the song ‘Let’s Play a Love Scene.’”

In the adult version of “Fame,” Nick comes out as gay.

“We have that in our version, too,” she said. “We added a few things from the full version but stuck to the junior script.

“We wanted a full audience and a family-friendly show,” Ballantyne continued. “But it’s tough to get a full audience with only 28 in the cast. I would just love to have a normal audience after all the COVID restrictions, so that the children can have the biggest audience they can get.”

Some of the students cast in “Fame” will be heading to high school next school year.

“It’s been a breeze with them,” Ballantyne said. “They make my job easy. They’re very invested and disciplined. I’ll be sad to see them go.”

She had many of the same students in the May 2021 production of the musical “Camp Rock,” which was performed outdoors at Freeman Gardens.

“It was very challenging rehearsing in the cold and rain,” she said. “But they were so happy to do it. Only 100 people could attend, and that was a sold-out audience. The show was about a school of performing arts, and, it’s funny, so is ‘Fame.’”

Ballantyne nominated “Camp Rock” for several awards bestowed by Montclair State University for school productions.

“I knew the difficulties of the rehearsals and the quarantine,” she said. “But they kept showing up, and it was a terrific show.”

An admission fee will be charged for “Fame, the Musical.” Go and live forever.

  Broadway, FEATURED, Glen Ridge Middle School