“Cabaret” has everything going for it as a show to produce in 2015. It has memorable tunes, including the title song, and Nazis. Think about it–The Sound of Music, The Producers, Cabaret…these are house fillers. What is it about those Nazis that make us want to sing?

The newest production at The Riverbank in Marine City brings the audience a very solid emcee and Sally Bowles (essential for any production) and a capable ensemble that brings the troubling mood of 1930s Berlin to the music and stage.

The actors have to do the heavy lifting, as the set is very limited. There is no sign of the Kit-Kat club in the Aaron Dennis Smith-directed production. The set is, in fact, skimpy, a one-piece affair that serves as the boarding house where young writer Cliff is living with night-club performer Sally, along with land-lady Fraulein Schneider (Donna Troike). To be fair, in the small space of the Riverbank, decisions have to be made, and there isn’t even room between the stage and first row of seats to set up tables for the club. No matter. The set does not hold back the show.

For the uninitiated, Clifford Bradshaw (Caleb Kreidler) is a shy, bi-sexual young writer from America visiting Berlin to finish a novel. He encounters Sally (Natalie Rose Sevick), and the two form an awkward relationship of friendship and sex that results in a pregnancy. Meantime, the Bohemian lifestyle of the Berliners is being invaded by the rise of the Third Reich. The anti-Jew tension is brought home by the plight that befalls Herr Schultz (Edmond Reynolds), the kind Jewish German-born fruit seller. The emcee of the club, played most ably by Jeffrey Vincent, is the glue of the show, as his commentary and musical numbers range from bawdy to sharp, to both at the same time, entertaining and poking at the Hitler followers.

Vincent has played the emcee before, and it shows. His energy is a perfect match for his excellent vocals. Sevick’s Sally is beautifully reminiscent of 1930s actresses such as Joan Crawford and Norma Shearer–a bit over stewed and living too much on gin and aspirin–able to turn a smoky saloon song and be just attractive enough to get most any man for at least a day or two even when hung-over and down to her last five bucks.

Kreidler’s Cliff borders on being a little too young looking for Cliff. It is almost hard to believe he made it from Pennsylvania to Berlin on his own without at least one parent. It’s a tough role to play correctly, balancing the tension between being worldly enough to be a bi-sexual novelist in Berlin and earnest and naïve enough to view Sally as a mom willing to go back to his hometown with him.

Reynolds’ portrayal of Schultz, the optimistic widower fruit-seller everyone would want as their uncle, is heartfelt. His sudden transformation from the “it will all be okay” to appearing before us wearing a yellow star on his coat is pulled off nicely in his expressive face.

The five-piece orchestra, perched above the stage in a loft, and led by the multi-hat wearing Aaron Dennis Smith on keyboard (he directed and music directed as well), is mostly tight and delightfully managed the correct volume relative to the singers all night. The two-levels of the set are achieved by way of spiral staircases with occasional action happening in front of the orchestra.

If there is a criticism of the production, it’s an unevenness of singing, sometimes within the same song by the same actor. But the important songs are solid. And Vincent and Sevick pick up the show nicely when it lags a little. The Kit Kat girls are solid enough, with Crystal Rohney doing a nice turn as the endearingly slutty Fraulein Kost.

Cabaret opened in the 1960s, and is based on events from 80 years ago. Yet, like a lot of shows running in Michigan right now but set decades ago, the play feels all too current. Persecution over religion and sexuality. A political party bullying the populace by trying to limit personal freedoms and liberties. Neighbors turned against neighbors over politics and religion. 1935, indeed.

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