Fame (musical)

A stage musical based on the 1980 musical film Fame has been staged under two titles. The first, Fame – The Musical conceived and developed by David De Silva, is a musical with a book by José Fernandez, music by Steve Margoshes and lyrics by Jacques Levy. The musical premiered in 1988 in Miami, Florida. As Fame on 42nd Street, it was performed Off-Broadway at the Little Shubert Theatre on 42nd St from 2003 to 2004.

De Silva had produced the 1980 film about students at New York City's High School of Performing Arts. The critically and commercially successful film was followed by a six-season television series, and the musical. The musical is significantly rewritten from the previous adaptations, with an almost entirely new score. The film is referred to several times in the script and in two songs.

It tells the story of several students who attend the High School of Performing Arts, among them fame-obsessed Carmen, ambitious actress Serena, wisecracking comedian/bad boy Joe, quiet violinist Schlomo, "talented but dyslexic" dancer Tyrone, determined actor Nick, overweight dancer Mabel, and poor dancer Iris.

Fame (David Bowie song)

"Fame" is a song recorded by David Bowie, initially released in 1975. Written by Bowie, Carlos Alomar and John Lennon, it reached No.17 in the British music charts and Number 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 in the USA during the week of 20 September 1975. The song is included in The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame's 500 Songs that Shaped Rock and Roll.

Song development

With the Young Americans sessions mostly concluded by late 1974, the material was delayed while Bowie extricated himself from his contract with manager Tony Defries. During this time, he was staying in New York, where he met John Lennon. The pair jammed together, leading to a one-day session at Electric Lady Studios in January 1975. There, Carlos Alomar had developed a guitar riff for Bowie's cover of "Footstompin'" by The Flairs, which Bowie thought was "a waste" to give to a cover. Lennon, who was in the studio with them, sang "aim" over the riff, which Bowie turned into "Fame" and he thereafter wrote the rest of the lyrics to the song.

Fame (Irene Cara song)

"Fame" is a pop song, written by Michael Gore (music) and Dean Pitchford (lyrics) that was released in 1980, and achieved chart success as the theme song to the Fame film and TV series. The song was performed by Irene Cara, who played the role of Coco Hernandez in the original movie. It won the Academy Award for Best Original Song in 1980, and the Golden Globe Award for the same. In 2004 it finished at #51 on AFI's 100 Years...100 Songs survey of top tunes in American cinema.

The song was later used as the theme song for the Fame television series, which aired from 1982 to 1987. It was also used in other TV shows related to Fame.

"Fame" rose to number four on the Billboard Hot 100 in August 1980. It also reached number one on the Billboard dance chart for one week. The song was rereleased in the United Kingdom in 1982 following the airing of the Fame television series. It hit number one in the UK Singles Chart for three weeks. It has sold 1.05 million copies in the UK as of June 2013. The song also reached number one in Flanders, Ireland, the Netherlands and New Zealand, and number three in Sweden.

Lolita (term)

Lolita was the nickname of one of the principal characters in Vladimir Nabokov's novel Lolita. Lolita's actual name was Dolores, with whom the narrator, Humbert Humbert, develops a sexual obsession. In the book itself, "Lolita" is specifically Humbert's nickname for Dolores. Nevertheless, "Lolita" and "loli" has come to be used as a general reference to a seductive or sexually attractive young woman.

In the marketing of pornography, lolita is used to refer to a young girl, frequently one who has only recently reached the age of consent, or appears to be younger than the age of consent.

Etymology & Related Terms

Nymphet

A nymphet is a sexually attractive girl, or young woman. The first recorded use of the term "nymphet", defined by The Century Dictionary as "a little nymph", was by Drayton in Poly-Olbion I. xi. Argt. 171 (1612): "Of the nymphets sporting there In Wyrrall, and in Delamere."

In Lolita, "nymphet" was used to describe the 9- to 14-year-old girls to whom the protagonist is attracted, the archetypal nymphet being the character of Dolores Haze. Nabokov, in the voice of his narrator Humbert, first describes these nymphets in the following passage:

Lolita (play)

Lolita is a play adapted by Edward Albee from Vladimir Nabokov's novel of the same name. The troubled production opened on Broadway on March 19, 1981 after 31 previews and closed after only 12 performances.

Frank Rich in his New York Times review wondered why the play even opened after "weeks of delays" as it was "the kind of embarrassment that audiences do not quickly forget or forgive." Rich said the least of its sins were incompetence, being boring, and trashing a literary masterpiece. "What sets Lolita apart from ordinary failures is its abject mean-spiritedness," he wrote. "For all this play's babbling about love, it is rank with indiscriminate – and decidedly unearned – hate."

Ten years earlier, John Barry and Alan Jay Lerner's musical Lolita, My Love was a bomb, closing during tryouts in Boston. (Albee's Lolita also played in Boston before its Broadway launch.) Critics had scored the play, saying that the lack of Nabokov's authorial voice made the musical salacious. Albee put Nabokov on stage in his play, but it did not help.

Lolita (trop jeune pour aimer)

"Lolita (trop jeune pour aimer)" (meaning "Lolita (Too Young to Love)") is the third single from Celine Dion's album Incognito, released in October 1987 in Quebec, Canada.

The song was composed by Jean-Alain Roussel and the lyrics were written by Luc Plamondon. The song references Lolita by Vladimir Nabokov and the lyrics describe a young woman who insists that she is not "too young" for love. According to Dion, "When I saw what Luc had written, I was bowled over. Like Eddy, Luc had explored my inner life. What he had written was so close to me that I couldn't help being really unsettled by it." Dion said the song described her love for her manager and future husband René Angélil, "The first time I sang the words to 'Lolita,' I was in front of René, and I sang it to arouse him."

The single was released with "Ma chambre" as B-side. "Lolita (trop jeune pour aimer)" was very successful reaching number 1 in Quebec for two weeks. It entered the chart on October 3, 1987 and spent twenty two weeks on it.