Update of ‘Fame’ reflects hard work required of Las Vegas Academy students

They're gonna live forever -- and they're already learning to fly.

Students at the Las Vegas Academy (more formally known as the Las Vegas Academy of International Studies, Performing and Visual Arts) don't need a movie to validate their dreams.

But maybe "Fame" will help others understand those dreams -- and how hard they're working to make them come true.

The update of the 1980 gotta-sing, gotta-dance favorite arrived in theaters last weekend, substituting a contemporary hip-hop beat for the original's infectious pop sound.

The rhythms may have changed, but the story line remains the same, following a diverse group of aspiring actors, singers, dancers and musicians through the rigors of a program that (in the words of on-screen principal Angela Simms, alias "Fame" veteran Debbie Allen), offers students "a unique opportunity to immerse yourselves in the arts" -- and "cram in a full day of academics" at the same time.

Easier said than done, as Las Vegas Academy students -- and alumni from R&B singer Ne-Yo to TV stars Matthew Gray Gubler and Rutina Wesley -- well know.

"It's always hard," says theater junior Kyleigh Keith, "because after school, we're here," working on a show, or a concert, or other project, after which "we have to go home and do our homework."

No wonder "it's hard to fit everything in," Keith says.

But they must, theater senior Matt Phillips notes, because students who aren't in class more than half the day can't participate in the creative endeavors they're at the academy to pursue.

"Select teachers" at the academy who "understand what we do" -- and take into account their students' rehearsal and performance schedules -- go easy on the homework, says dance senior Madeline Benfield -- who, she proudly notes, once defeated "Fame" and "So You Think You Can Dance" cast member Kherington Payne at a Los Angeles dance competition two years ago. ("Yay, team!" cheers her fellow dance major, senior Francesca Kintz.)

Sure, it's a challenging, sometimes grueling, way to spend your high school years.

But it's also exhilarating for students to immerse themselves in their chosen artistic discipline -- an exhilaration that may prove infectious to "Fame" audiences as well.

"I think it will inspire kids to come here," dance teacher Lisa Lazenby says of the new movie. "And I think the kids here will be more proud."

In part, that's because academy students who've had to make do with other recent musicals, from "Step Up" to "High School Musical," finally have a "Fame" to call their own.

"It's just exciting to have our own version, instead of the old-school one," says Kintz, who notes her mother's affection for the original "from back in the day." (No wonder Kintz and Benfield bought advance opening-night tickets.)

Before the new "Fame's" arrival, Las Vegas Academy music department chair Bill Swick received some promotional materials with footage that "looked a lot like coming to LVA every day," depicting a wide range of artistic pursuits.

As for the original, "my sister loved that movie -- and I thought, 'That's what LVA is going to be like,' " says Phillips. "Sadly, we don't have random dance breaks in the cafeteria."

Not that some students don't try.

Lazenby recalls one lunch period during which a band started jamming -- and other students started dancing along.

"I thought, 'Wow -- this is really cool,' " she says.

And while school rules don't allow spontaneous lunchtime artistic eruptions, senior Carolyn Turner, a choir major, remembers the day "a lot of choir majors were sitting at lunch and randomly started caroling" -- before a school official reminded them such musical outbursts were not allowed.

Even so, life at the academy reverberates with the same kind of creative spirit "Fame" celebrates.

During a recent lunch period, one student was busy setting up a camera tripod on the athletic field while another walked down a hallway, playing a classical melody on her clarinet while in transit.

That all-enveloping sense of creativity is everywhere at the academy, Benfield says.

"I left a binder in one of the dance rooms and I went back to get it," she notes, "and when I walked past the choir room, girls were singing. In the band room, somebody was playing a trumpet. You feel like you're in a movie."

"There's always someone singing," adds choir major Cheyna Alexander, a senior.

"There's always someone playing an instrument," Phillips says. "Theater people are constantly working on something. Stuff's always going on."

The same kind of energy "Fame" conveys also inspired academy instructors who experienced the original.

"I was a new theater teacher" at a "very suburban, very white high school" when the first "Fame" hit theaters, recalls drama instructor Glenn Edwards. "And when I saw that great mix of kids" in the original, "I wanted to teach a mixed group of kids. That's one of the things I love most" about LVA.

Similarly, Swick, then teaching at the college level, wondered about a colleague who left to teach high school after seeing "Fame" following its 1980 release.

"I thought he was a nutbag," Swick admits. "Then I saw the movie and thought, 'This is why.' "

And it's why Swick did the same thing when he had the chance, noting the joys of teaching "in an environment where the students are just so motivated."

To principal Andre Long (a musician who plays flute with the Las Vegas Philharmonic), if the new "Fame" update "shows the amount of time and effort" students make every day at schools like LVA, "it will have done its job."

Contact movie critic Carol Cling at ccling@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0272.