Central Community Theatre has been pestering me for three seasons to give them a chance. There have been talented people working there, but I shied away, first because I thought they were associated with the monolithic church in which they perform, then because their productions only ran for two weekends, and finally because they seemed to schedule their season from the Holy Book of Well-Worn Retreads. I was assured last season that they were not associated with the church, and during the past ariZoni Awards presentation, one of their Board members cornered me to let me know because of my suggestion, they had chosen to extend their runs to three weekends to gain more legitimacy. Finally, this season, they stuck the odd choice of Eric Rockwell and Joanne Bogart’s 2003 Off-Broadway Musical Homage/Satire The Musical of Musicals (The Musical!) between their takes on the too-oft-retold Steel Magnolias and Nunsense. They won. I went to their opening night and was glad that I did. It isn’t a polished production, but its heart and determination reminded me of the ragtag group led by Gerard Alessandrini who created Forbidden Broadway back in 1982. CCT, in their unlikely religious setting, has created one of the best cabarets in town.

Rockwell and Bogart’s creation shares a brainpan with Forbidden Broadway, offering five different takes on the old “Creepy Landlord/Cash-Strapped Damsel in Distress/Liquid-Cash Hero” story. These takes are viewed through five famous Broadway styles as established by legendary composer/lyricists. The first, Corn!, is the story as seen through the rose-tinted eyes of Rodgers and Hammerstein. The second, A Little Complex, fractures the story into the dissonant chords of Stephen Sondheim. The first act ends with Dear Abby!, a star vehicle a’la Jerry Herman. The second act takes well-deserved beneath-the-mask potshots at an Andrew Lloyd Weber version entitled Aspects of Juanita, and ends with Kander and Ebb’s Speakeasy styling, right down to the glossy Fosse choreography. It is jam-packed with references to each of their canons (Rodgers and Hammerstein’s includes a “run of DeMille” dream ballet while Weber’s touts the use of a fog machine to cover the pilfering of Puccini) and it may take even the grandest musical theatre aficionado a few visits to get every one of them.

The quartet, led by director Steve Hilderbrand in the role of the evil landlord Jitter, features B. Nicole Park as damsel June, Garrett Van Rooy as Billy the hero, and Barbara McBain as the old pro Abby, always there to offer advice, encouragement, and vitriol when needed. Each of them dives into their five separate versions of the roles with aplomb. All of them have strong voices, with Park having the power and register of a true diva. Each plays as broadly as the script allows, with Hilderbrand chomping the most scenery to hilarious effect. Van Rooy aces the hilarious Big Willy soliloquy at the beginning of the show, while McBain’s morose turn as a long-in-the-tooth hooker gives her all in a wonderfully fatalistic song at the end.

This is cabaret theatre, so the sets are implied (with the occasional hand peeking out to move the signs announcing the composer being skewered) and the costumes are garishly obvious though filled with surprises. The lighting is surprisingly strong and adds to all of the stylings. Hildebrand’s staging makes the most of the large stage, and most of the dance sequences, especially the ones associated with the Herman sequence that involve splashy numbers with the chorus dragging the star around the stage, are just as wittily considered as the music and lyrics.