Backstage follows a group of outstandingly talented teenagers as they live through the highs and lows that come with attending the prestigious Keaton School of the Arts, an arts school and a key to their future and rise to their stardom – from the angst and disappointments to the new friendships and crowning achievements. (Wikipedia).

 Remember Dance Academy?  Remember Glee?  Remember Fame? Haven’t seen enough shows about teen musicians and dancers. “You’ve got big dreams.  You want fame.  Well, fame costs.  And right here is where you start paying.  In  sweat.”  The words of Debbie Allen echo through the halls of Keaton School for Dramatic Arts.   I’m not sure we need another Fame at DeGrassi combo.  At least its not another “hey we have magic powers series” on Nick!

The first episode lays out the relationships and conflict.  Fortunately, all of the young stars are talented and are dancers, singers and actors in real life.  But I fear that the storylines are already predictable.

We have

1. Vanessa and Carly, best friends and dancers.  They go by V and C.  In the opening episode, V is selected as top dancer over C.  Here’s your best friends split and competition.
2. Alya and Bianca.  The nervous nelly in competition with the famous TV star.
3. Miles.  The brooder whose “complex” and friends with Alya (and her biggest supporter).
4. Jax and Kit.  The “thinks he knows it all” DJ/mixmaster and the “she really knows it all” DJ/mixmaster.

We have the tough as nails teacher Helsweel and the everybody’s welcome teacher Park.

These kids are talented for sure.  And I’m all for any show that deftly weaves musical performances into existing storylines.  That’s not an easy thing to do as the performances need to move stories along, not just serve as “let’s put on a show right here” moment.

It should be interesting to see where Backstage goes.  The first episode was rather isolationist.  Characters interacted with one other character and a teacher but there was little interaction between islands of characters.  Backstage will need to resolve this as they move forward.