ANDY Bais could have had a good career as a singer. Blessed with an outstanding singing voice that makes people in noisy sing-along joints stop talking and start listening, he received the supreme musical accolade years ago when the Organisasyon ng Pilipinong Mang-aawit adjudged him winner of its prestigious Fe S. Panlilio scholarship for exceptional performance. A newcomer can't get a bigger boost than that!

But Andy had more than music in mind. He loved singing, but he enjoyed acting as well, and he decided to go for broke and combine his two loves in musical-theater performance. He made things difficult for himself, but those twin challenges forced him to come up with his best. Before long, he was acting in one stage musical after another-and, even better, he was getting raves for his effective and entertaining performances.

He wasn't a star, but he was playing major characters with an expertise and excellence that some established names would envy. Indeed, some of them have gone up to him after a show to express their admiration for his work, and to urge him to keep improving himself. They knew how difficult what he did was, and praised him for his achievement.

Aside from his career in musical theater, Andy was kept busy by a lot of other performance options-as sing-along master, occasional TV-movie actor, commercial talent, stand-up comic, performer on the provincial stage show circuit, and even as an emcee-entertainer at political rallies. But the satisfaction and training he got from appearing in stage musicals remained at the top of his list of priorities.

Andy was perfectly happy doing musical theater, but soon, his friends were urging him to reach a wider audience. Little by little, the idea of coming up with a two-man musical-comedy show was fleshed out, to be made up of hilarious skits and song numbers that would show off Andy's exceptional singing voice.

Andy's friends offered to support him in mounting this musical-comedy revue showcase that they hoped would make producers in mainstream entertainment more aware of Andy and his many talents. But the big question was, who would be the other lead of the projected two-man show?

There were some stars who were interested in doing a show with Andy to boost his career, but Andy's friends worried that the stars' popularity might upstage Andy and thus foil their intention of throwing the spotlight on him.

So, it was decided to get another exceptional performer as promising as Andy, but like him, not yet very well known. That way, they would share the spotlight equally, and their two careers would be boosted by their participation in the showcase production.

But where could this second outstanding talent be found? Luckily, Andy started rehearsals for his next show, "Etiquette for Mistresses," a musical-comedy revue based on Jullie Yap-Daza's popular bestseller, and met one of the other new talents in the production, a tall, lovely and talented young Fil-American named Belinda Panelo.

"Etiquette" was Belinda's first theater show in the Philippines, but she took to it like a duck takes to water. As the rehearsals continued, Andy saw Belinda "blooming" into a theater professional before his eyes. He liked the physical contrast between them-her sultry beauty, his comic projection--and also their shared love for performing and readiness to work hard to come up with an outstanding show. They became good friends and they both shone when "Etiquette" was staged at the Music Museum.

After that happy experience, Andy asked Belinda if she would like to work with him in the two-man revue he had in mind. He warned her that it would be a tough show to do because there would only be the two of them entertaining the audience for one hour and 40 minutes. But, like him, Belinda loved challenges and wanted to keep honing her abilities, so she agreed to be the "Beauty" to his "Best" in the club show he had in mind.

When they started rehearsals for "Beauty and the Best" months ago, they realized just how tough the show was going to be. But they worked hard to make sure that the members of the audience would have the time of their lives.

As they were rehearsing, Belinda got to do a number of TV commercials-for Coca-Cola, Whisper and many other products-that made her a recognizable face on television, and she was also tapped as one of the eight finalists for MTV veejay, which has led to more TV exposure that has further boosted her visibility.