| Club Mwah! goes on Bedazzling On
its sixth season, Club Mwah! (3/F The Venue Tower, Boni Ave. Mandaluyong City;
www.clubmwah.com) presents Bedazzled 6. The world-class entertainment center gives
tribute to the famous musical "Miss Saigon," originally played by Lea
Salonga in London. The most lavish production number of the season has a helicopter
appear in mid-air with American GIs in regulation military uniforms who occupy
the area with Vietnamese villagers, all dressed to look real Vietcongs down to
the last chinky eyeshadow. 
Then
Mwah's Kim paddles a boat on stage and turns the scene into a riot of laughter
with her exaggerated pregnant look and ala-Rapunzel hair. While doing a lip synch
of "Sun and Moon," her lover Chris suddenly appears on stage. The audience
burst into renewed laughter as pseudo-lovers are entangled between war and romance.
Instead of crying, Kim barks as a wolf in the wilderness when Chris is rescued
by a helicopter leaving her behind.  Known
for its array of fabulous costumes and fantastic production stage designs, all
the sets, props and costumes are never recycled. "We don't want to shortchange
our patrons," says Club Mwah's Vice President and Administrator Pocholo Malillin.
"We always try our best to give them quality entertainment. It's a commitment
and we are not reneging on that."
Aside
from Miss Saigon, Bedazzled 6 presents an entirely new numbers except for a reprise
of the cell block Tango dance sequence lifted from the musical "Chicago"
starring Catherine-Zeta Jones and Renee Zellweger. This time, Club Mwah's president
Cris Nicolas, a world-class choreographer-director, does the dirty dancing gigolo
part. Other sequences include
Madonna's "Vogue," which is given a Thai touch complete with golden
temple as background with exotic and authentic Thai costumes and props. This is
followed by another Madonna hit from the James Bond movie, Die Another Day. Not
to be outsmarted is another Bond flick Goldfinger, where the Follies wearing gold
rhinestones in dramatic black long gowns, glide down the ramp like the temptress
in the spy film. From an African
tribal dance in a luminous spider web and the dancers garbed in ethnic costumes
with matching headdresses and cannibal sticks, the stage is converted into Sakura
Flower Festival as the Follies perform a Korean Flower production number, dressed
in a combination of orange and pink gowns. 
One
of the most applauded numbers is the penultimate performance of "I am What
We Are," a gender-bending, mind-boggling number where dancers in double face
outfits wearing their most opulent outfits parade down the lighted staircase and
thank everyone for watching the most grandiose stage show in town. Living
up to its reputation as an upscale entertainment venue-cum-party place, Club Mwah
earned another trademark as a favorite venue for product launches. Lately, it
became a site for taping, shooting for TV shows and movies. It is recently accredited
by Department of Tourism as a must-see tourist stopover. Of course, the lavish
costumes and excellent choreography, as well as the choices of music and set design,
are all well crafted and created by Cris Nicolas, the company's artistic director. •
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