FAME's David De Silva Attends Opening Night At The Grand Canal Theatre Aug 24

Despite the success of Fame on both the big and small screens, David De Silva's heart was on the stage. Instead of doing something else after Fame, David embarked on a completely new version of the project (with composer Steve Margoshes and lyricist Jacques Levy) that would take him eight years to bring to completion.

"When I conceived and produced the motion picture Fame, I always imagined that it would be the ultimate reality-based stage musical. There's a logical reason for the kids to be performing, because it's part of their daily lives. They don't just burst into song out of the blue," says De Silva. "My first goal was to create a show that would be relevant and timeless as a musical. Fame - the Musical is a blueprint for the ultimate ensemble production. It has a chorus of anywhere from 8 to 80, and it allows for flexibility in staging, based on the talent available. It makes stars; it doesn't need stars to make it happen."

Unlike A Chorus Line and West Side Story, two of the shows that most inspired De Silva's creation, "the show allows every choreographer to put their own stamp on the production. The dancing is a mixture of Broadway, modern, street, and classical. The mixture of styles is as diverse as the characters, who come from different parts of New York City.

"My second goal was to create the ideal musical for high schools around the world, one that would give acting students, musicians and dancers a chance to have their 15 minutes of fame before they even graduate. Most shows today are really period pieces. No other musical deals with contemporary dance and music in a way that students can relate to directly. The show also allows a school's music department into the production, because it uses musicians on the stage, as well as in the orchestra pit."

During the years when De Silva's concept was taking shape, Performing Arts underwent its own major transformation. In 1984, the school merged with the High School of Music and Art to create what is now known as the Fiorello La Guardia School of the Arts. The new school, much larger and inevitably somewhat less personal than its predecessor, was relocated to a modern facility adjacent to Lincoln Center.De Silva chose to use the final four years at the old landmark building as the time frame for his new musical, following the progress of the last class to graduate. He spent a great deal of time with teachers and student, researching every possible detail.

Fame - the Musical got its first tryout in regional theater at the Coconut Grove in Miami, Florida, in 1988. In 1989, it was performed at the Walnut Street Theatre in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, where it broke box office records. From there, however, the show went into hiatus. For most shows, that would have been the end of the line. But we had the Fame name and the reputation to go along with it. MTI (Music Theater International) in New York, the publisher of plays like The Music Man, Annie, West Side Story and all of the Stephen Sondheim productions, chose to break with tradition and publish the show even though it had not gone to Broadway: they released the musical world-wide. The big breakthrough came in January of 1993 when the show had its European premiere in Stockholm. De Silva saw the show for the first time in the spring of 1993."I saw it four times and I cried at every performance. I didn't understand a word of it because it's in Swedish, but I didn't have to. It's an absolutely brilliant production, and dance and music are a universal form of communication." The admiration was mutual. The Swedes promptly dubbed De Silva "Father Fame."
For De Silva, the Stockholm production was the break he had been waiting for. "It's a multi-million dollar production. The endeavor brought to our attention the talents of choreographer/director Runar Borge. Borge studied ballet in Oslo, London and Stockholm. He was employed by the Norsk theater and has directed and choreographed more than 60 shows. Runar is brilliant." To David's delight, Borge had agreed to stage numerous productions of the show in Germany, Holland, Australia and the United States.

David had foreseen that the show would mark a reversal of direction in American musical theater. "I've been fortunate enough to have the title Fame to help propel the musical. You don't have to explain it. I really think this is the beginning of a trend for passionate contemporary smaller musicals to be done in regional theaters without the hit-or-miss, blockbuster mentality of Broadway. Musical theater is not about the scenery or the special effects. It's about lifting the spirit of man and musical theater should be about lifting it even higher.

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