Dig into real food in Fried Rice Paradise reboot

The updated take on Dick Lee's hit 1991 musical is set amid a 2025 backdrop of Chinese mega-chains

- Shawn Hoo

Singer-songwriter Dick Lee's beloved 1991 musical of feuding heiresses to Fried Rice Paradise restaurant is getting an update for 2025's cut-throat food and beverage scene.

In this new version, the titular heritage business charts its succession plans in the face of stiff competition from Chinese mega-chain restaurants.

Playwright Thomas Lim, 34, who has not watched a stage version of the musical, has been entrusted by Lee to reinvent the story for current times.

To which Lim responds: "A lot of how the food industry operates today is very different (from 1991) - almost every corner you see (the Hunan mega-chain restaurant) Xiang Xiang. The small local businesses are up against very big chains."

In Fried Rice Paradise - The Makan Party, business owner Bee Lean's daughters represent two ways the restaurant can go - the way of the traditionalist Nancy or the way of Fancy, a trendsetter who experiments with her food.

Audience members will be served a four-course meal - each course presented two ways - and vote to decide on the fate of the fictional restaurant's succession plans.