Music Guild in Moline Revisits the Always Relevant, Riveting “Cabaret”
This year is the 60th anniversary of the classic John Kander-Fred Ebb musical “Cabaret,” and it’s opening Friday at Quad City Music Guild, 1584 34th Ave., Moline, just 13 years after the last time it was staged at Prospect Park.
In a Berlin nightclub, as the 1920s draw to a close, a garish Master of Ceremonies welcomes the audience and assures them they will forget all their troubles at the Cabaret. With the Emcee’s bawdy songs as wry commentary, “Cabaret” explores the dark, heady and tumultuous life of Berlin’s natives and expatriates as Germany slowly yields to the emerging Third Reich, according to a synopsis.
Cliff, a young American writer newly arrived in Berlin, is immediately taken with English singer Sally Bowles. Meanwhile, Fräulein Schneider, proprietor of Cliff and Sally’s boarding house, tentatively begins a romance with Herr Schultz, a mild-mannered fruit seller who happens to be Jewish. Musical numbers include “Willkommen,” “Cabaret,” “Maybe This Time,” “Don’t Tell Mama” and “Two Ladies.”
Kevin and Valeree Pieper in Music Guild’s new “Cabaret.”
Directed by Luke Vermeire, the new cast features John Whitson as Emcee, Stephanie Moeller as Sally Bowles, Daniel Williams as Clifford Bradshaw, Valeree Pieper as Fräulein Schneider, Kevin Pieper as Herr Schultz, Drew DeKeyrel as Ernest Ludwig, and Madison Duling as Fräulein Kost.
Even though Music Guild last did the show in 2013 (and St. Ambrose and Augustana have both done it in more recent years), Music Guild wanted to bring back a newer version, which was updated in 1998, director Luke Vermeire said.
“This version cut the Telephone Dance. It cuts one of Cliff’s songs, ‘Why Should I Wake Up?’ And then it adds in ‘Maybe This Time’,” he said Monday, April 6. “There’s an updated version of ‘Money,’ but doesn’t include ‘Sitting Pretty,’ which I like ‘Sitting Pretty,’ but that’s neither here nor there.”
“Cabaret” is licensed under three main versions – the original, from 1966, the 1987 and 1988.
The ’98 Roundabout Theatre Company revival mostly played at Studio 54 in New York, and it ran a total of 2,377 performances, becoming the third longest-running revival in Broadway musical history, third only to Oh! Calcutta! and Chicago. Alan Cumming reprised his role as the Emcee, opposite Natasha Richardson as Sally, John Benjamin Hickey as Cliff, and Ron Rifkin as Herr Schultz.
John Whitson plays the garish, androgynous Emcee in “Cabaret,” which premiered on Broadway in 1966.
Vermeire isn’t sure which version Guild did in 2013, but it was more ensemble-heavy. His ensemble at the Kit Kat Klub only features 10 performers, among a total cast of just 17.
As he did for his most recent directing gigs at Guild (“Sweeney Todd” in fall 2023 and “Escape to Margaritaville” in spring 2025), Vermeire also covered the orchestra pit now, bringing the action closer to the audience, and has the band on stage, on a second level.
“The nice thing about this process has been you almost have the musical, which is all of the Kit Kat numbers, and then you’ve got the play, which is what we call the Berlin stories, which is everything else, which is really actually the meat and potatoes of the show,” he said. “It’s been nice having (the orchestra) up there. It really feels like a club, right?”
Emphasizing this show’s drama
While Steph Moeller has been in several Guild musicals (“Elf,” “King and I,” “Disaster,” “RENT” and “Sweeney Todd”), most of her theater experience is straight plays.
“I chose Steph because we kind of had a hierarchy of needs for this show. On one hand it is musical theater, and on one hand this is a show about showbiz. But there’s a deeper story and we really prioritized acting and we gave that a lot of weight,” Vermeire said. “Steph is a very good singer and she’s a very good dancer, but a lot of her expertise lies in her ability to act and perform in that nature. And with a few solos, exceptions of a few solo songs, she’s really only in like two ensemble numbers. She really only dances in two numbers in the show.
“Letting her be the actor that Sally needs to be sure was really important to us. And she’s been doing an exceptional job,” the director said. “The beauty of ‘Cabaret’ is it’s those two different shows. It was nice to see her shine in a piece of musical theater that is very much like a play with a few songs sprinkled in.”
Performers at Berlin’s Kit Kat Club in Music Guild’s “Cabaret.”
“That is always the debate about Sally Bowles is, do you go gritty and do you go for something a little bit more realized, or do you go for something that everybody’s familiar with — Liza Minnelli, who, in my opinion, is there to sing and dance,” Vermeire said of the iconic star of the Oscar-winning 1972 film version, directed by Bob Fosse.
“And doesn’t offer some of the grit that role has, in a more traditional sense. I think the show’s evolved over the years where people really come expecting that movie with Liza Minnelli,” he said. “They really only see it as ‘Chicago,’ where it’s women dancing on backwards chairs with bowler hats and vests on, and then they come see a production. And especially because the movie is so vastly different than the stage play, I think a lot of people get taken by surprise with this show, which I think is part of the story we’re telling as well.”
He’s thrilled with John Whitson as the flamboyant Emcee (whose credits include Tony in “West Side Story,” Don Lockwood in “Singin’ in the Rain,” and Bert in “Mary Poppins”), who he knew would kill it from “Cabaret” auditions.
“I always like to give notes in the audition room and see how people take that and how people change and keep what their natural instincts are,” Vermeire said. “John really got to a point in the audition room where we were kind of creeped out in a way that I think the role needs. He was able to entertain us and make us laugh and make us giggle. But then when it was time to get serious and make us think, we really saw those gears turn.
“And he’s been able to take every slight note this entire process and really make a character that when they step out on stage, you don’t know what to expect,” he added. “And sometimes that’s a great thing. And by the end of the show, it is kind of fascinating to watch.”
A great thing about “Cabaret,” even though it’s tied to a specific era of history (right before Nazis came to power in Germany), is “that it rings true and it feels relevant in every single era that it gets put on,” Vermeire said.
“Especially if a time ever arose where we felt like we didn’t need to tell the story of ‘Cabaret,’ I think that’s all the more reason to tell it,” he said. “Because that is when we start to get vulnerable and start to fall under that spell and start to get comfortable.”
“Because it’s always a warning,” Vermeire said of the story. “For me, ‘Cabaret’ tells a deep a story about, what would you do? It is a literal question to the audience of, put yourself in the shoes of the people at that time. It’s easy to look back on this period in world history and think that we would have done something different.”
Steph Moeller and John Whitson in “Cabaret,” running at Prospect Park in Moline April 10-19, 2026.
“And there will always be the looming threat in the background,” he said of authoritarian regimes expanding power, whether in the 1930s or 2020s. “Researching the show has been hard, I will put it that way.”
“You need to become familiar with how they came to power. You need to be familiar with the messages, the symbols that they utilized,” Vermeire said of the Nazis. “That was a very fascinating topic to learn about because ultimately the German people didn’t know that the Holocaust was happening. I mean they knew people were being sent to camps but there was propaganda about how nice these camps were.”
“Even the German people I don’t think could have understood what was actually happening in their countries because how could that happen to anyone anywhere?” he said. “And that’s what ‘Cabaret’ to me is about is. Don’t wait for it to be true to care. Like don’t wait for it to become a reality. You know, learn from past lessons and move forward smart or hopefully don’t ever let it get that bad again.”
Back-to-back Nazi-themed shows
Partly by coincidence, Music Guild is presenting back-to-back popular musicals that revolve around Nazis, after “The Sound of Music” (1959) last fall, which reflects the von Trapp family’s ability to flee Nazis as they invaded Austria in 1938.
“Cabaret” is “a story about people that didn’t have a choice but to stay,” Vermeire said. “ ‘Sound of Music’ is about when they started invading other countries and when things got so bad.”
“The reality of the Holocaust is always the background thought of ‘Cabaret,’ but it’s really a show about the moment before when it wasn’t too late,” he said, noting he researched a Scott Miller book on the Holocaust.
“Every company email that I send out, I have a quote from Scott Miller’s book. It says, ‘Cabaret’ is about that moment, a time when it wasn’t too late, when Germany wasn’t yet locked into a path that would lead to the murder of millions of Jews,” Vermeire said. “But the people of Germany couldn’t see what we see. They didn’t know how their choices, their fear, their apathy would lead to the bigger things.”
In the show, the Kit Kat Club is the refuge, to escape your troubles; in here, everything is beautiful, the Emcee says. “And ultimately, that’s what the Kit Kat numbers do in our show. They provide commentary on the story that we are telling,” the director said. “It was a place of freedom and expression, and that’s why the Nazis wanted them shut down.”
Vermeire loves being back with the same assistant director and choreographer as “Margaritaville,” Adrienne Evans and Kim Dunn, respectively.
“Kim is, like, the most thoughtful choreographer, especially in a show like this, where there is message to be told, there are stories being told through the choreography that some audience members might notice and some might not,” he said. “She has a vision. She’s fun to work with. She has high expectations, but she doesn’t have unrealistic expectations. And then Adrienne is always wonderful to work with because she has this — she fills the gaps that I have, you know, she focuses on her theater experience has been primarily plays, and my theater experience has been primarily musicals.”
“And it’s nice to have somebody that I trust and work well with,” Vermeire said, adding this was the least stressful casting process he’s ever had.
“We were very lucky to get a lot of really good people to fill our ensemble, and we got the right people to fill our leads,” he said. “There’s a lot of new faces that I think is always a valuable thing, especially in a deeper show like this where Guild regulars, you know, will sit in the audience and not necessarily recognize every person that’s on that stage. I think there’s value in the storytelling of that as well. The ensemble has been great to work with. They’re really, especially in this last week, starting to have that camaraderie and have fun.”
Real-life spouses (and Guild regulars) Kevin and Valeree Pieper are a natural as Herr Schultz and Fraulein Schneider.
“One of our biggest assets is a couple in that role, because obviously their chemistry is so natural,” Vermeire said, noting this is just their third show acting opposite each other. “But it’s also fun and sweet to watch them play shy around each other…It’s a nice added bonus to watch this couple fall in love with one another.”
“I love hearing the stories of them singing the Pineapple Song. Their grandson, he loves the Pineapple Song,” he said. “They’ve been great to work with. It’s nice to have two seasoned actors in those roles. It’s a privilege and an honor to work with them.”
Bringing Sally and Emcee to life
Moeller, with her dramatic experience, appreciates the separate tracks “Cabaret” functions on – musical and straight play, with Sally getting the best of both worlds.
“Daniel and I had a scene where we were working, and it was very obvious that there was, like, there’s moments where it changes from a musical to a play, because musical theater acting is very one thing and straight acting is very another thing,” she said Monday. “There are moments where it just kind of shifts and it’s no longer feels like a musical. Now it feels like a play.”
Compared to the carefree, upbeat reputation of the title song, “Cabaret” has lots of hard, bitter moments for Sally, especially the challenges of her plea for love, “Maybe This Time.”
Stephanie Moeller plays Sally Bowles in Music Guild’s new production of “Cabaret.”
“She’s very flighty, and she’s very energetic, and she has all these things, but especially once they added ‘Maybe This Time’ into the show, since it wasn’t originally in the show. That adds this depth to Sally where you see that, like, just because she’s up here and she’s flying and she’s happy all the time, it doesn’t mean that that’s reality,” Moeller said. “You just realize that there’s more to her than the flash.”
She also was intimidated to take on such a legendary musical role, where Sally has to be a star. But Moeller was attracted to her vulnerability, “that you don’t get a lot of times in musicals, and that’s why I love this kind of part,” she said.
The biggest challenge for Moeller (a veteran of many Prenzie Players productions) was dancing, she said,
“The musical stuff, since I’m not a musical gal. I’m a Shakespeare gal,” she said.
The Kit Kat Klub set for “Cabaret” was designed by director Luke Vermeire and Evan Gagliardo, with lighting design by Michael Turczynski.
As the charismatic, theatrical Emcee, Whitson said: “I’ve enjoyed the challenge of playing a character that’s a little more. It is sinister. And I feel like, whereas with previous roles I’ve had, I’ve been drawn by their optimism, happy-go-luckiness, or just, like, the musicality of the music. This one’s been very, like, acting forward through the direction of preparing the character. So that’s been very fun to clear it up.”
“The fun part has been exploring some androgyny within costumes that I’ve been given,” he said. “That’s always fun. I’m open to trying out different things.”
“Cabaret” has this dual message – come forget your troubles, life is a cabaret, but never forget the atrocities that Nazi Germany perpetrated.
“I’m inviting people to kind of forget their worries and woes, but at what expense and what’s happening when we’re getting too comfortable,” Whitson said of the Emcee. “So for me, I was drawn to the performance, like front and center aspects of the role, but knowing the layers to it and it’s kind of like a long-delayed sucker punch. And I contribute to from the beginning. So exploring the nuance there.”
As a theater-goer, Moeller said “there are times where I’m like, I don’t want to think. And like, if I walk into a show and it ends up being that it touches me, makes me feel feelings. Of course I love that because that’s what I love to do for other people,” she said.
Performances of “Cabaret” will be 7:30 p.m. on April 10, 11, 17, and 18, and 2 p.m. on Sundays, April 12 and 19. Tickets are $20 for adults, $15 for children (12 and under), available by calling the box office at 309-762=6610 or by visiting the QCMG website, www.qcmusicguild.com.
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