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IN DOWNTOWN Kuala Lumpur, a string of 20 sleek black Mercedes-Benzes speeds past the slow-moving traffic with the aid of several motorcycle traffic police towards the city's newly inaugurated cultural performance venue, Istana Budaya. One by one, VIPs and political dignitaries emerge from the cars and file inside the lotus-shaped performance hall to witness a new chapter in the country's cultural history.

It's the opening night of the first full-scale West End musical ever allowed to be performed in Malaysia, and as the cast of 27 bouncy, toned Australians dances and sings on stage, the crowd responds with cheers. Fame, which started life in the 1970s as a book by stage performer Jose Fernandez, before being turned into a hit film by Alan Parker, a television series and now a musical, is proving it really can 'live forever', as the theme song says. It seems audiences still want to follow the dreams of a bunch of students at New York City High School for the Performing Arts.

The Kuala Lumpur show represents a strong start to an Asian tour for a production that boasts no big stars, big budget, or fancy stage design. Even Cats, the Andrew Lloyd Webber international hit, is second in line to be staged in the capital city.

'I must say everything that has happened so far has been beyond my expectations,' says David Atkins, director of Fame The Musical, in Kuala Lumpur. 'We really altered the book with this one. We were just testing the waters of this market because a concern has always surrounded the sensitivity of the Islamic culture.'

Atkins, a veteran dancer and director whose past credits include the Australian production of Broadway hit Chicago and the creator of the spectacular Sydney Olympic Games opening and closing ceremonies in 2000, is visibly pleased his gamble paid off. 'We went in not knowing what we would encounter. A script was first sent to the Ministry of Culture for assessment, and we tried to tone down the risque nature of the story to suit their requirements,' Atkins says.

By risque, Atkins means bare midriffs, profanity ('we are talking about high-school students from Brooklyn and the Bronx, so it's not unusual to hear the f-word,' he says), and references to racism and homosexuality, all of which had to go. 'A lot of the humour needed to be watered down,' he admits. Audiences, it seems, have no problem. 'We find people paying great attention to the entire story,' Atkins continues. 'They are laughing at the jokes and enjoying the energy of the dancing. We had a private preview for an audience of mostly Muslim women and they were all snapping their fingers and clapping along.'