Willkommen, bienvenue, welcome to the perennially popular Cabaret, a recent Theatre Alliance performance at SECCA.

I have to admit that I had never seen Cabaret before and was quite excited, but the distinct lack of energy on stage made me wish I had rented the movie instead.

Okay, I understand that the dancers ­ prostitutes at the racy Kit Kat Club in Berlin in 1929 ­ were meant to be apathetic and lifeless to some degree, selling their bodies for money and spending most of that on booze, but this production's attempt at indifferent seduction communicated an attitude almost completely devoid of emotion.

The musical opens with a lively emcee (Gray Smith) greeting the audience with his famous song, "Willkommen." Smith was the shining light in this otherwise dismal production. His stage presence commanded attention and he brought energy and confident defiance to the character.

Also intriguing in the setting of the club and the subsequent apartment complex that housed many of the Kit Kat girls was the subplot of the romance between Herr Schultz (Chuck Cunningham) and Fraulein Schneider (Gesh Spiegel).

Schneider and Schultz are sympathetic, intriguing characters.

Schultz, as a Jew, is shunned by the Fraulein's friends and the couple realizes that they can never marry in Nazi Germany. Cunningham and Spiegel did a wonderful job of bringing this doomed romance to the stage with grace and humor.

However, as a whole, Act I left me with little hope for the success of the immediate future.

Act II was at least slightly more energetic; the increase in Nazi tension offstage was replicated by building political propaganda onstage. Compared to the first act, the second was very well done.

I do have some very serious qualms about the casting of Mark Loyd as Cliff. His portrayal was dry and provided a dull backdrop for the talents of Christy Johnson as Sally Bowles.

My other complaint was the director's guidance of the title production number. Someone should have told the director (and Johnson) that "life is a cabaret" ­ and not to sing it like it's a long, slow death march.

While the character is facing some difficult decisions, Sally has the chance to sing about her freedom and independence and instead her song showed her misery.

Finally, the stage at SECCA is not a large space by any means and set designer Doug Brown utilized what little space he had with a dual level set and few, crucial props.

The lighting design, however, left much to be desired. It washed out the performers and was too flashy for this musical.

This performance was not the best, but hey, we ain't on Broadway. Good effort by the cast and crew, but possibly big show-stopping musicals are too adventurous for this group. I give them an A for effort, but in the spirit of grade deflation they deserve a C.