“Getai” is Chinese street opera performed during the Hungry Ghost Month which usually falls around every August. It’s to keep the ghosts happy and entertained during that time when they are supposed to be walking the earth among our midst so they don’t make any mischief.

Growing up in Penang, I used to love going to “getai” with my parents. You met friends, there was always lots of food and treats and I loved the performers’ costumes – bright, colourful, gaudy. In truth, I didn’t take to the music – the banging of the cymbals used to frighten me, my mother said.

As I grew up, “getai” slowly disappeared from my life. There were also fewer and fewer of them being staged as English-educated Malaysians like me discovered a new form of entertainment, Western pop culture.

John Lennon just seemed cooler than some man dressed as a woman in gaudy costumes and painted faces singing in a dialect I could hardly understand as I absorbed more English into my bloodstream so as to prepare myself for a working life.

Well, today I want to personally thank Singapore film maker Royston Tan for bringing back the nostalgia of “getai” and, most importantly, for making it cool again among the youths.

Last night, I caught 881 The Musical, an adaptation of his movie hit, 881, the story of the Papaya sisters as they battle it out in a “getai” competition against the Durian Sisters, as well as a story of friendship, love and family.

I wasn’t sure if the musical could live up to the movie – but you know what, it’s a completely different experience and the creativity with which the story is told, through the voices of the three Gods, Fu (Fortune), Lu (Prosperity) and Shou (Longevity), is ingenious.

The costumes are fun, fabulous and outrageous. Designed by Thai duo Saksit Pisalasupongs and Phisit Jongnarangsin, they are nothing like the costumes I saw as a child. These have Parisian, Las Vegas and Singapore va-va-voom factor sewn into the threads.

The music is rhythmic, the Hokkien and Mandarin songs are catchy, the singing is good and the dancing’s fun. Most of all, the story resonates – the story of friendship, love and family.

At the time 881 the movie was released, I read an interview with Royston, now 25, who made his name in short films and then went on to produce “15”, a gritty movie about teenage gangsters in the Singapore suburbs.

He said the reason he made 881 was so he could make a movie his mother could understand in her own mother tongue. She also loved “getai” and had expressed the concern that it was an endangered form of entertainment. He wanted people to see “getai” in a different light.

Well, he certainly has. With this musical, he and the company behind it, Toy Factory, have produced a form of entertainment that to me speaks of and to the new Asia and could cross boundaries in this new world – a world that is increasingly looking to Asia for trend-setters which embrace heritage, not discard it.

Its costume inspiration comes from Thailand – remember those cabaret shows in Pattaya – and musical influences come from Korea, Japan and of course the West. There’s pop, hip-hop and rock and Lady Gaga makes an appearance through “Kiasu Face”, a spoof of her “Poker Face”. Quite hilarious.

The musical has all the street languages of Singapore thrown in – Mandarin, English, Hokkien, Malay – and comes with subtitles.

The friend I saw it with commented that Westerners might have problems understanding it but then, look at how Italian opera has conquered the world without the world speaking Italian.

I can see this musical crossing over to travel and tourism – there’s one particular scene where the two stars are dressed like the Merlion and the supporting cast sport “iconic” headgear in the shape of the Esplanade, Marina Bay Sands and Singapore Flyer, and digs are taken at these icons.

The political satire definitely lends an edge to the sentimental storyline and drew laughs from the audience at a time when this nation, which has been in the hands of the same ruling party and father, goes to the polls on May 7.

After the musical, I met two elderly Chinese women. “Did you enjoy it?” I asked.

“Yes,” they nodded vigorously. “Very clever and fun.” They spoke in Hokkien. “It’s our first time at the Esplanade.”

And this to me is the breakthrough – 881 The Musical is bringing a new audience, one that traditionally belongs to the Singapore heartland, to a venue that is increasingly trying to make itself more accessible to one and all.

Throughout 881, I had an ongoing conversation in my head with my friend Ken Low, the late branding chief of the Singapore Tourism Board, and the producer of the musical “Chang and Eng”.

I know he would have loved 881 and he would have instantly got this new Asia we live in – an Asia that is producing art forms that hold their own next to the likes of “Lion King” that is playing just next door at the Marina Bay Sands.

I don’t see any reason why one day, 881 or a Singapore-produced production will be the anchor musical at such a venue, anywhere in the world.