Fame – The Musical conceived and developed by David De Silva is a musical with a book by Jose Fernandez, music by Steve Margoshes and lyrics by Jacques Levy. De Silva was fascinated by New York's High School for Performing Arts (which became Fiorello H. LaGuardia HS of Music and Art and Performing Arts in 1984) and created first the 1980 film about how the dedicated students there were inspired by the arts. The film was followed by a long-running television series, a reality show, and finally the musical. The musical is significantly rewritten from the previous adaptations, with an almost entirely new score. The film is referred to several times in the script and in two songs.

Fame – The Musical was first produced in 1988 in Miami, Florida. The original cast included Tom Acousti as Nick Piazza, Tener Brown as Iris Kelly, Monique Cintron as Carmen Diaz, Joel Malina as Schlomo Metzenbaum, Janet Metz as Serena Katz, and Harold Perrineau Jr. as Tyrone Jackson. Since its first production, Fame – The Musical has enjoyed numerous professional and amateur productions. The musical has been seen by nearly 4 million people since its West End premiere in 1995. The West End production was nominated for 2 Laurence Olivier Awards. The show played in New York Off-Broadway at the Little Schubert Theatre in 2003-04, for a total of 304 performances. On April 4, 2008 FAME opened in Paris at the Teatre Comedia to great acclaim.

David De Silva has conceived a sequel to FAME, FAME FOREVER, a Story of Reunion and Rebirth (Book by Ben H. Winters, Music by Steve Margoshes) first performed by Glasgow's Apollo Players at the Kings Theatre 2007. The American debut of the sequel production entitled Fame Forever: Reunion and Rebirth opened September 21 with a gala performance and continued through September 30, 2007 at the Waterville Opera House, Waterville, Maine. It also received a co-debut at The Players of Sarasota in Sarasota, Florida opening around the same time, but running to October 7. This debut show at The Players, as it is called locally, was directed by performer, choreographer, and actor Thomas DeWyane Barrett.

In 1988, Fame – the Musical was first produced at the Coconut Grove Playhouse in Miami, Florida. The original cast included Tom Acousti as Nick Piazza, Tener Brown as Iris Kelly, Monique Cintron as Carmen Diaz, Joel Malina as Schlomo Metzenbaum, Janet Metz as Serena Katz, and Harold Perrineau Jr. as Tyrone Jackson.

Following this, in 1989 the Walnut Street Theatre in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania hosted the show to sell-out houses. In January 1993, a large-scale production of the musical made its European debut in Stockholm, Sweden, running for four years, and the show came to the attention of choreographer/director Runar Borge, who has subsequently staged the show in numerous productions worldwide. The musical has had productions in countries such as Australia, Denmark, Japan, Korea, Norway, Switzerland, South Africa, Germany, Italy, Finland, Estonia and the Czech Republic. 

Fame – the Musical has been produced in nearly 25 countries, and the UK productions have had a total box office gross of £56 million through 2006. Since 1995, the musical has had six separate West End runs, including a long run at the Aldwych Theatre from 2002 to 2006, and a number of UK national and international tours. It also had a run Off-Broadway at the Little Shubert Theatre in 2003, directed by Drew Scott Harris, with a cast that included Shakiem Evans, Nicole Leach, Cheryl Freeman, Christopher J. Hanke, and American Idol semi-finalist, Marque Lynche, as Tyrone Jackson. There have also been several U.S. regional and foreign Tours. Well-known cast members in various productions have included Miguel Ayesa, Noel Sullivan, and Barbara Dickson.

A Spanish production in Catalan opened at the Teatro Tivoli in Barcelona on April 27, 2004, directed by Ramon Ribalta. It reopened in Madrid at the Calderon February 1, 2006, and is presently touring Spain through June 2008.

A Portuguese production has been playing since 2005. It is the first American musical to be performed fully in Portuguese.

In 2006, contestants from various seasons of the popular Puerto Rican telelvision singing contest "Objetivo Fama" did a Spanish language production of the musical, entitled "Fama - El Musical" in the Centro de Bellas Artes in San Juan, Puerto Rico. It was a three-night only engagement and was met with positive reviews by the press and fans alike.

An Italian production directed by Marco Daverio opened in Milan in December 2006 and toured through February 2007. It reopened on February 2, 2008 in Savona and toured
through the end of the month.[citation needed]

The musical opened on May 4, 2007, for a summer production at the Shaftesbury Theatre in London's West End.  The show is directed by Karen Bruce, and the cast includes Fem Belling as Mabel, Natalie Casey as Serena, Jacqui Dubois as Miss Sherman, and Ian Watkins as Nick.

In 2007, A Dutch talent search competition called De Weg Naar Fame auditioned a large number of people in order to give four winners the chance to play Mabel, Serena, Schlomo and Tyrone in the 2008 Dutch Tour of Fame. The show gave the finalists dance, vocal and acting training, and the three finalists for each character performed a piece from the musical in front of a panel of judges who made the final decision. The Dutch version stars Jim Bakkum as Nick, William Spaay as Joe, Kim-Lian van der Meij as Carmen, Hein Gerrits as Schlomo, Doris Baaten as Miss Sherman, and Daphne Flint as Serena.

Dec 5, 2008 a workshop production of FAME opened in Beijing at the Central Academy of Drama.

A new UK touring production went underway in January 2009.

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• Circle Players’ FAME THE MUSICAL choreographer Kate Adams-Johnson played the role of Iris in a workshop production of FAME in Wichita, Kansas, in 1994, when the show was still being developed by creator David De Silva.

• FAME started as a movie in 1980, then was made into a TV series which ran from 1982 until 1987, before it opened  as a musical at the Coconut Grove Playhouse in Miami, Florida, one year later  

• FAME director David De Silva based his book on a real school – the legendary High School for Performing Arts in Manhattan.  This alternative public school  operated from 1948 until 1984 and graduated film and stage greats such as Liza Minelli, Al Pacino, Lonny Price and Ben Vereen

• Unlike other Broadway musicals, FAME incorporates more than half a dozen different dance styles such as Ballet, Jazz, Hip Hop, Salsa,  Modern and  Break Dance  

• FAME has been performed on stages in Malaysia, Poland, Estonia, Portugal, Germany, and China. More than four million theatre fans have seen the show in 25 countries around the world

• FAME has inspired 16 cast recordings since 1993  – several of them in languages other than English

• A sequel production of FAME conceived by David De Silva called “FAME FOREVER, a Story of Reunion and Rebirth,” was performed at the Waterville Opera House in Waterville, Maine, in 2007

• MGM plans to release an updated movie version of FAME  on September 25, 2009