Beauty World (musical)

Beauty World is a Singaporean musical written by Michael Chiang and composed by Dick Lee. Drawing on the tradition of 1950s black-and-white Cantonese movies, it tells the story of a young Malaysian girl who comes from Batu Pahat to 1960s Singapore in search of her father and winds up in the eponymous sleazy night club. It premiered at the 1988 Singapore Arts Festival.

Written in English with some Singlish elements and Singaporean slang, it is one of the best known musicals of Singapore. With Makan Place, which was also written in 1988, it is one of the first two Singaporean musicals.

Plot
Ivy Chan travels from Malaysia to Singapore in hopes of finding her father. Her only clue is a jade pendant inscribed with the words "Beauty World". Once in Singapore, Ivy meets her penpal friend, Rosemary Joseph. Beauty World turns out to be a cabaret, commanded by head girl LuLu. Ivy goes undercover at Beauty World, where she grows closer to the cabaret members, especially the club's bouncer, Ah Hock. This complicates things when Ivy's boyfriend, Frankie, comes to Singapore to bring her home.

Act l
In 1960s Singapore, The Audience is firstly introduced to the Beauty world Cabaret(“Beauty world Cha-Cha-Cha”)and it’s cast of characters: The Madame who is in charge of the Cabaret, Towkay Neo a rich businessman who is a frequent client of the Cabaret, and Lulu the Cabaret’s main star. Towkay Neo and the other clients of the Cabaret ask Lulu to sing a song for them, in which she does while expressing to the audience, of how she’s willing to use any man she can get her hands on in order to climb her way to the top of riches and glory(“Nothing gets in my way”).

Ivy Chan is a young girl who has recently arrived in Singapore from Batu Pahat, she meets up with her Penpal, Rosemary Joseph, who runs the Elizabeth Tailor dress shop, as the two go to the Polar cafe to chat, Ivy reveals the reason she left Malaysia, was because all her life, she’s been told that both her parents had died by food poisoning on their wedding day, but recently Ivy has discovered a jade pendent with the words “Beauty world” inscribed on it left behind by her real Father, She also mentions that she left behind her Boyfriend, Frankie Wong, back in Malaysia, leaving him a note explaining where she went, Rosemary tells Ivy that was a bad decision, especially considering how hard it is to find a man nowadays when you’re incredibly shy(“Single in Singapore”), Ivy ends up making her mind, and decides to go into Beauty World undercover, to discover more about her father.

Ivy ends up meeting Beauty World’s Bouncer and Bartender: Ah Hock, she also ends up meeting Beauty World’s Maid, Wan Choo, Ivy meets the Madame and after some long consulting, gets herself hired for 1 week as a drink waitress, then if the Madame likes her, she can stay, if not, then she goes. As Ivy goes into the dressing room, she ends up meeting the other girls of the Cabaret: Daisy, Lily, and Rosie, who teach Ivy the ways to work in a Cabaret and how to seduce a man(“There’ll Be a new you”). As the night begins, Frankie Wong meets with Rosemary, saying that he needs to find Ivy, Frankie ends up visiting the Beauty world Cabaret as a client, in which Ivy makes Wan Choo hide her from his sight, Ivy then serves a drink to Towkay Neo who starts taking a interest in her because of her Beauty, which makes ahead girl Lulu, incredibly Jeolous, Ivy then storms out of the back door flustered by the night, Ah Hock checks up on her and keeps her company, forming a little romance between the two, Ah Hock then dreams about how if life didn’t make him work in Cabaret, where would he be now(“Another World”). At night, Ivy ends up snooping through the Madame’s room to look for pieces of evidence from her father’s past, however is caught by Lulu, who rats her out to the Madame for stealing, after Ivy tells the Madame she wasn’t stealing, Ivy pours out her feeling privately about how she didn’t care in the past about her parents' history, but now she does(“I Didn’t care”).

Meanwhile, Lulu ends up bribing Towkay Neo to make Ivy drink a glass of Alcohol with Sleeping powder laced in it, and then to carry her to a hotel room in order to rape her. The audience is reassured however about how this story has a happier ending by a chorus formed of the Cabaret girls and clients(“Truth conquers all”).

Act ll
As another active night continues at the Cabaret(“Welcome to Beauty World”), Frankie gives up on looking for Ivy inside the Cabaret and returns to Rosemary’s dress shop where the two resolve to just simply wait for Ivy to return, in which Frankie ends up falling asleep, Meanwhile, as Ivy is almost raped by Towkay Neo, she is saved by Ah Hock who knew where Ivy was by consulting with Wan Choo who saw Lulu sabotage Ivy the entire time, as Ivy is still passed out, Rosemary sings about her forbidden developing romance with Frankie, while Ah Hock sings about his Forbidden developing romance with Ivy(“It wasn’t meant for me”). As Rosemary goes to look for Ivy herself, she ends up getting into a heated argument about Social classes with Lulu(“No Class”), Rosemary then uses the help of Sergeant Muthu, a police officer who is a close friend of hers, in order to purposefully make everyone in the whole of Beauty world to help realize who Ivy’s parents are, after a long realization, Ivy’s mother is revealed to be Lulu while her father is revealed to be a Japanese Soldier who never came back after going to fight in the war, It’s then revealed that Lulu didn’t have enough money to raise the baby, so her brother took the baby and dropped it outside of a hair salon in Batu Pahat, Malaysia, Ivy then decides to go back home with Frankie as the story ends here(“Beauty World reprise”).

Productions
The original 1988 production began rehearsals in January of that year. It was directed by Kengsen Ong and choreographed by Najip Ali. On opening night, technical issues halted the show for about half an hour. Actresses Claire Wong and Jacintha Abisheganaden adlibbed a conversation for about five minutes, hoping to fill the silence. Although critical response to the show was negative, it was very popular with audiences.

Beauty World toured four cities in Japan (Osaka, Tokyo, Hiroshima and Fukuoka) and had a run in Singapore in 1992. In 1998, Beauty World was remade for television for the President's Star Charity Show, and starred Sharon Au as Lulu, and Evelyn Tan as Ivy. The musical was staged again at the Victoria Theater in April of that same year.

An amateur production took place on 15 April 2006 at the University of Chicago. Dubbed Return to Beauty World it was directed by Andy Tan a fourth year economics major in the college.

The King's College London Malaysian Singaporean Society put up a student production of Beauty World at The Albany in Deptford South-East London on 2 and 3 March 2009. It was produced by Debra Lam and directed by Kang Yanyi.

In 2008, W!LD RICE, celebrated the 20th anniversary of the musical by staging the musical for the forth time at the Esplanade Theatre. The musical starred Irene Ang, Neo Swee Lin, Elena Wang and also featured Daren Tan, Project Superstar II winner. The production also added six new songs, written by Dick Lee.

In 2014, a student production of Beauty World was put up by National University of Singapore (NUS) College of Alice and Peter Tan (CAPT) on 8 February, which opened to a 900-strong audience at the University Culture Centre at NUS and was attended by its scriptwriter and playwright, Chiang. The musical was produced by Ong Wee Yong and Sherilyn Tan. It was directed by Heidi Chan and took its musical direction from Elaine Hoong. Vocal coach and chorus conductor Chan Jun Hao helmed the training of all singers.

In 2015, the musical was staged for the seventh time at the Victoria Theatre, with composer Lee as the director instead. The production was set to be in a darker mood and starred Jeanette Aw, Cheryl Tan and Janice Koh.

Act l

 * "Beauty World Cha-Cha-Cha" (Chorus)
 * "Nothing Gets in My Way" (Lulu)
 * "Single in Singapore" (Rosemary)
 * "There'll Be a New You" (Lily, Rosie, and Daisy)
 * "Another World" (Ah Hock)
 * "I Didn't Care" (Ivy Chan)
 * "Truth Will Conquer All" (Chorus)

Act ll

 * "Welcome to Beauty World" (Madame, Lulu, Wan Choo, and Chorus)
 * "It Wasn't Meant For Me" (Rosemary and Ah Hock)
 * "No Class" (Lulu and Rosemary)
 * "Not A Hero" (Frankie and Chorus)
 * "Beauty World Reprise" (Company)