Electric Theatre, Guildford
1st February 2003

Anyone who had the great pleasure of catching the Music and Drama Society’s recent production may well have been left scratching their heads and wondering just how they pulled it off, but can have been left in little doubt as to why they did it. The hummable songs. The breathtaking choreography. The naff costumes (including those infamous leg-warmers). The oh-so-ironic post-modernism of having a bunch of Guildford’s finest aspiring musicians, actors and dancers stage a musical about a bunch of New York’s finest aspiring musicians, actors and dancers. This week, our very own MaDSoc stands proud like a great beacon of achievement in the muddied waters of amateur dramatics, having pulled off something of a production coup. Indeed, it is vastly unfair to think of the talented individuals showcased by Fame: The Musical as amateurs at all, but rather, as the best possible advertisement for the performing arts departments at this university.

In the beginning, it must have seemed like a faintly ludicrous and certainly ambitious project - to stage a musical that is not only very well known already, but one that is still running in the West End and on professional UK tour. It is impossible not to admire the sheer, breathtaking audacity of the Society in their choice of material. It would be like the Union booking Britney Spears (and then charging only normal FNO prices) or like Oscar Film Unit re-making The Godfather, or maybe like Barefacts bidding to serialise the next Harry Potter book before its release.

In the light of MaDSoc’s previous productions, however, there was never any doubt of their success. The auditorium was filled to capacity (although not, sadly, with as many students as might have been expected or hoped) and the audience left on a palpable high - buoyed by the infectious energy of the show, yet, at the same time, exhausted on the actors’ behalves at the sheer extravagant ebullience of the performance.

It could have all been so different - anyone who has ever sat through an average amateur musical will know what I mean - and, in fact, the evening’s entertainment did not start all that promisingly, with a lengthy delay before curtain-up and an ominous announcement to the effect that one of the parts would be played by an understudy. Yet such was the professionalism of this brave actress and the cast as a whole that, in a straw poll during the interval, 90% of the audience had incorrectly assumed that she had not yet appeared. Wherever the production wobbled slightly (the tuning of some of the solo instrumentalists was, initially, rather suspect), the whole show bounced back tenfold to dazzle and delight once more.

Fame is essentially an ensemble piece - there is no out-and-out starring role - but several of the actors merit special mention. Danielle Barnes, as teacher Miss Sherman, richly deserved the most enthusiastic round of applause of the entire evening for her elegant solo “These Are My Children”. Eddie Elliott, playing the anti-authoritarian Tyrone, demonstrated a staggering versatility as he rapped and writhed his way into the audience’s affections. Meanwhile, as lovelorn Serena, Heather Andrews delivered a truly astonishing performance, her powerful, true voice and genuine personality enough to melt the stoniest of hearts, on-stage and off.

Highest praise of all, however, must be reserved for Dan de Cruz, the director, who has been a stalwart of MaDSoc productions for several years now. Not only did he create a magnificent show but also bagged for himself the fantastic part of funny-guy Jose Vegas, which he clearly enjoyed immensely.

Space prohibits me from including all of the actors, musicians and crew that deserve praise for their contributions; but in any event, the times when Fame worked most effectively were in the exuberance of the big dance numbers and in the set-pieces (such as the beautiful “magic trick” in which red, glowing balls were seemingly tossed from person to person, balanced, juggled and multiplied, ultimately disappearing into thin air). It was here that the attention to detail and the overwhelming talent of the whole cast and the live band shone through as the production’s greatest assets, inspiring in the audience the kind of blissful awe normally reserved by Hollywood.