[1] 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.
[2] Ivy goes undercover at Beauty World, where she grows closer to the cabaret members, especially the club's bouncer, Ah Hock.
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.
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”).
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”).
[5] Beauty World toured four cities in Japan (Osaka, Tokyo, Hiroshima and Fukuoka) and had a run in Singapore in 1992.
Dubbed Return to Beauty World it was directed by Andy Tan a fourth year economics major in the college.
The musical starred Irene Ang, Neo Swee Lin, Elena Wang and also featured Daren Tan, Project Superstar II winner.