Fame was a relatively low-budget film musical from 1980 directed by Alan Parker and written by Christopher Gore, following a group of students and their teachers, and their exploits and adventures at the New York High School of Performing Arts. The film starred Albert Hague (as Mr. Shorofsky, the music teacher), Jim Farrell (drama), Anne Meara (English), and Debbie Allen (as Lydia Grant, the main dance teacher and focal point of most of the auditions), with the students played by Maureen Teefy (as Doris Finsecker), Barry Miller (as Ralph Garcie, formally known as Raul Garcia until he tried to disguise his Puerto Rican roots), Irene Cara (Coco Hernandez), Gene Anthony Ray (Leroy Johnson), Lee Curreri (Bruno Martelli), and Paul McCrane (Montgomery MacNeil). Despite the film's success in the U.S., winning an Academy Award for Best Song (the title track sung by Irene Cara as Coco Hernandez), it was not well received in the U.K., the film only moderately successful and the soundtrack not even able to hit the Top 20.