Fried Rice Paradise

In 1989, I bought a cassette called The Mad Chinaman..It has the best rap version of Rasa Sayang...

Yesterday I sat at the Esplanade listening to that song, I became that teenager again...

Me in my Box Seat

The Feel of the Stage before the show

The Story of Fried Rice Paradise is set in 1979 and Singapore in the midst of modernisation. In the race to create a world class city, old districts are being torn down. Rickson Goh is one such developer with big plans to run Jalan Calamansi into an entertainment area.

Its surviving residents ( many moved to brand new HDB like Ang Mo Kio) include Chow Kew Teng and his daughter Bee Lean, who runs a noodle shop on the ground floor of their crumbling shophouse home.

Together with the neighbours, Bee Lian struggles to save  her little street. Along the way, she encouters excitement, fear and love...

The actors in the musical include Taufik Batisah ( the 1st Singapore Idol) , Denise Tan (who played Bee Lian), Sebastian Tan, the legendary Rahimah Rahim etc...

For me, the star of the show is Denise Tan. Her duet with her 'father' Lim Yu-Beng was equally touching. They have voices suited for the stage.

Taufik Batisah only shines in his solo when Denise is falling in love with Sebastian. That song has the same feel and during the intro..I thought he was going to sing Me and Mrs Jones..the song that brought him to fame in the Singapore Idol.

Overall, it a heart warming show and I can never forget the line "Fried Rice Paradise, Nasi Goreng very nice..

If I must say, this show is better than the previous Dick Lee's  musical..Beauty World

Fried Rice Paradise