‘Fame — The Musical’ to kick off Grand’s Broadway series

Students from all over New York City converge at the High School of the Performing Arts with hopes of making it big in dance, theater and music.

Only a few are chosen, and “Fame — The Musical” follows a group of these hopefuls through their four years of high school. The musical, which has not played in Macon before, opens Sunday at the Grand Opera House.

“People are always glad to see a title that hasn’t been around too often and it’s an uplifting story,” said Gram Slaton, executive director of the Grand. “It’s about kids finding survival and success through the arts. And who can’t use an uplifting story here in the middle of an election year?”

The show roughly follows the same plot as the Academy-Award winning movie and the Emmy-Award winning television series of the same name.

“The movie came first, then came the TV series, which ran for about six seasons ... and then came the stage musical,” said David De Silva, who produced the movie, was a creative consultant on the TV show and also developed the musical. “‘Fame’ has been successful in all three mediums, which is very special.”

The story is based on a real New York City magnet school that was one-of-a kind when it opened in 1947 and began pulling talented students from all five of the city’s boroughs. De Silva, a native New Yorker, had long wanted to create something about the program.

“It was a good idea waiting to happen,” he said of the school. “It was a very original school but since the TV series came out and the movie, now every major city has a performing arts school.”

The musical has toured occasionally since its debut in 1988 and De Silva described it as a different experience than the TV or movie version of the musical.

“Doing it on the stage, creating it on the stage, you’ve created a blueprint for it to live forever in performance,” De Silva said. “It’s one thing to be looking at your TV screen or a movie and it’s another thing to see a live event that’s happening in front of you.”

De Silva said the theater production differs from the movie in how the music drives the characters and the storyline.

“The movie had songs by different composers and they were just putting in songs that were going to be popular and be good for the movie,” he said. “A musical has to develop the characters and they have to have a reason to be singing at the moment.”

De Silva is not involved in the tour, but does still do the auditions and rehearsals.

“It’s an incredible cast that’s doing it,” he said “There’s a lot of talent in this show.”

This story was originally published September 29, 2016 at 9:00 PM with the headline "‘Fame — The Musical’ to kick off Grand’s Broadway series."