Fabulous FAME
FAME 2010 was the first ever professionally produced musical show
presented by the University of London students at Royal Institute. The
cast comprised entirely the students from the degree section reading for
Bachelor's in Law, Economic and Social Sciences.
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The FAME team |
The show was directed by Safra Deen and choreographed by Natasha
Burhan - both final year students at Royal Institute. The title FAME is
derived from the words: Friends, Artistes, Musicians and Entertainers.
The words describe the cast of the show.
While highly talented in performance many cast members are not
professional musicians but rather aspiring lawyers, economists and
social scientists.
Safra Deen, a Fellow of the Trinity College of Music London, was the
past choir leader of the Bishop's College Choir and a past member of
'The Voices In Harmony' directed by the late Ruwani Seimon. She has
performed in many leading musical productions such as 'Stay tuned'
'Carousel' 'A musical journey with Ruwani Seimon' 'Vortex' and 'Timeless
Echoes'. This is her her debut direction.
Natasha Burhan, a senior advanced dancer of the Deanna school of
Dance, has performed in many acclaimed productions such as 'Atmosphere'
'Hypnotic' and 'Chili awards'. A past pupil of Ladies' College she is a
final year LLB student and is also making her debut in choreography. The
musicians for the evening will be Sheron Mahendran (Associate of the
Trinity College of Music, London) on keyboards, Narendra Senaratne
(Licentiate of the Trinity College of Music, London) also on keyboards
and Chandeep Adhikari on drums.
The show was unique as it featured a high degree of combination of
both choral music and dance which is uncommon for most musical shows
which tend to focus on one or the other.
The first half featured contemporary and popular music from a range
of genres including pop, rock, hip-hop and songs from Broadway hits
while the second half consisted of both classical and contemporary
Christmas carols and songs. The show consisted of choral and dance items
and will also include solos and duets. The first contemporary medley
features several popular hits by Jason Mraz, Train, Greenday and others
while the second contemporary medley brought together hip-hop music by
artistes ranging from Flo Rida to Lou Bega fused together with choral
harmonies. There were also items sung only by the male of female cast
members. The girls singing “Proud Mary” and “Rehab” and the boys paid
tribute to the King of Rock and Roll, Elvis Presley, There were dance
items choreographed to popular hits such as Waka Waka and DJs.
The second half of the show was entirely dedicated to celebrating the
festive season with both Christmas classics and pop favourites.
In addition to the choral items the show also featured solos and
duets. The soloists for the first half was Rajindra Amarasinghe who had
given a rendition of “In the Arms of an Angel” by Sarah McLachlan,
Janeen Fernando singing “On the Street Where You Live” from the musical
“My Fair Lady” and Akiel Deen who performed “Save the Last dance for me”
popularized by The Drifters and Michael Buble. In addition Jehan
Gunasekera and Shastha Liyanage performed a duet of Edwin McCain’s “I’ll
be”. The Christmas half featured solos by Safra Deen singing “O Holy
Night”, Harith de Mel singing “Believe” which was featured in the movie
“Polar Express” and a duet by Lakshika Pinto and Sarah Fazal who will
perform “All I want for Christmas” , a song made popular by Mariah
Carey. |
