Sydney Theatre Company closes out the year with Merlynn Tong’s musical comedy, which opened at La Boite in Brisbane in September before touring to Singapore. The final work programmed by former STC Artistic Director Kip Williams, it is directed by La Boite’s artistic director Courtney Stewart, who has followed the show down to Sydney.

At a pacey 90 minutes, the play manages to fit in half a dozen songs, a family drama, a ghost story and a handful of fight sequences. That level of energy and chaos might seem suited to a cabaret, so it’s appropriate that Congratulations, Get Rich! is set on the opening night of Money Money Karaoke.

Congratulations, Get Rich! Photo © Prudence Upton

Proprietress Mandy (played by Tong) is desperate for customers, and even more desparate for the validation that success will bring her. Money is important – Mandy is Chinese, of course it’s important, she says – but karaoke is also a family tradition for her. In the absence of reliable parenting, a successful karaoke is all she can hope for.

As the evening progresses, however, the ghosts of her mother and grandmother invade the karaoke, and...