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Theater & Arts
Fame gonna learn how to wing it
Updated: 2009-11-28 10:45
With a team of "translators" watching every performance of Fame - The Musical to tailor-make it for the Chinese market, the version that local audiences see on Dec 23 is going to be quite different from the final show 10 days later.
The Broadway musical will run for 15 performances at Shanghai City Theatre from next month, with a small creative team tagging along for the first time in China to change the program according to local tastes.
"They will observe the audience's reaction to the play and make changes by paying high attention to the Chinese market and the tradition of musicals here," said Ma Minghui of Netherlander Worldwide Entertainment, which is producing the show.
The cast for the China tour is made up of more than 60 people, most of them recruited from Broadway. The show, part of a larger franchise that has already netted more than $300 million in global revenue, will be staged at a new theater in suburban Shanghai's Minhang district, with the blessing of the local government.
"In order to give the City Theater a good start, we decided to stage Fame here," said Ma, whose company has built its reputation on successfully managing theaters around the world. "The theater has a capacity of about 1,000 people and guarantees a VIP experience from any of the 16 rows on the ground floor."
Fame - The Musical premiered in 1988 in Miami, Florida, eight years after the eponymous (hit) movie was released. The musical was conceived and developed by David De Silva, with Steve Margoshes scoring the show and Jacques Levy writing the lyrics.
It tells the story of students from different social and ethnic backgrounds learning to get along at the New York High School of Performing Arts. While everybody dreams about being a star, they all have their own crosses to bear - learning difficulties, troubled relationships, even drugs. The musical charts their growth and development through their school years.
Dec 23-Jan 3, 7:30 pm (no show on Dec 28)
Dec 26-27, Jan 2-3; 2 pm
Shanghai City Theater
4889 Dushi Road (near Xinzhuang Subway Station)
Tel: 5415-8975
