Robin Rombach, Post-Gazette Playing ladies from the Kit Kat Klub are, clockwise from top left, Stephanie Lynn Nelson, Leasen Almquist, Renee Monique Brown, Daina Michelle Griffith and Carol Schuberg.

"Willkommen! Bienvenue! Welcome!"

So leers "Cabaret's" Master of Ceremonies in the face of an emerging Nazi nation in Germany during the 1920s. That seductive invitation, in all of its various meanings, will serve as the theme for the Pittsburgh Public Theater's upcoming production of Kander and Ebb's groundbreaking 1966 musical.

Robin Rombach, Post-Gazette Lenora Nemetz, who plays Fraulein Kost, with Ted Pappas, director and choreographer of "Cabaret." Click photo for larger image. 'Cabaret' Where: Pittsburgh Public Theater's O'Reilly Theater. When: Thursday through Feb. 25. Tickets: $39.50-$60.50; students or patrons under 26 may buy advance tickets for $12.50; 412-316-1600 or www.ppt.org. Note: The show features adult content.

PBT artistic director Ted Pappas promises that the show, the biggest ever attempted at the Public and aided by financial support from UPMC, will begin as soon as the audience steps in from the street.

"The space lends itself to all the different needs of this musical, both in the spectacle and the intimacy," Pappas begins. "We'll use the entire theater -- the height from the floor, with the audience in close proximity. 'Cabaret' will put us on a new trajectory."

It is a show that Pappas has waited a long time to tackle. He calls it "one of the 10 greatest musicals ever written," putting it in a category with the likes of "Guys and Dolls," "Sweeney Todd," "West Side Story" and "Show Boat."

Whether dancing through urban streets or floating down the Mississippi, these shows all share a common denominator. "They tell big stories through real people," Pappas says. "They are working on many levels at the same time. You can't separate the story from the score, the lyrics from the text and the movement from the storytelling."

He calls "Cabaret" a "revolution, a show that changed musical theater. It had a prismatic quality. Scenes would reflect other scenes, and there were several stories being told."

But what really intrigues Pappas is how the production has periodically reinvented itself since Christopher Isherwood's 1939 episodic novel, "Goodbye to Berlin," was published. John Van Druten turned it into a 1951 play, "I Am a Camera," followed by a movie featuring Julie Harris and Laurence Harvey. The Oscar-winning Bob Fosse film starring Liza Minnelli claimed its spot in 1972. Then came a series of major revivals, three at last count, including Rob Marshall's choreographic run in 1999.

As producer, director and choreographer, Pappas will base the production on the 1987 Broadway revival starring Joel Grey, Alyson Reed, Regina Resnik, Werner Klemperer and Gregg Edelman. But there will be a shift in accent.

"My focus as a director has always been on the storytelling, and therefore the book, although we have not short-changed the glamour quotient of the production," says Pappas. "But there is a renewed emphasis on the characters, partly because that is what we do here at the Public Theater."

Even after years of watching the various incarnations of "Cabaret," he was still surprised by the strength of the book, "how moving and exciting the text is," how the relationship between Fraulein Schneider and Herr Schultz, who grapple with Jewish issues, is "so profound and the heart of the show."

"Another reason that it remains a great musical and is never dated is because it talks about things that not only matter but are eternal," Pappas says. "It's not a play about Nazis; it's a play about intolerance. It's a play about delusion and illusion. It's a play about living life to the fullest.

Pappas also felt that he could assemble a great cast. " 'Cabaret,' more than a lot of musicals, requires a very full bench of talent," he says. Immersed in the cast of 16 is local theatrical icon Lenora Nemetz, who counts the original production of "Cabaret" as her first job in New York.

Fresh from Pittsburgh, she auditioned at 17 and celebrated her 18th birthday on stage in the third year of the production's run. "I saw it during my senior year in high school," Nemetz recalls. "I thought, 'I'll never be able to be that good.' And the next year I was in it."

Actually Nemetz never planned to audition. She went to the theater to meet a friend. Arriving early, she asked to use the restroom. When confronted by a guard inside, she blurted out that she was auditioning. Out of 150 hopefuls, she was chosen for Fritzie, a Kit Kat girl.

"I grew up in that show," she says, citing the legendary Lotte Lenya as her favorite cast member among seasoned veterans. They would say to her, "Oh, Lenora, you're so old for your age," Nemetz recalls, "And I would just pretend."

She went on to star on Broadway, mentored by the likes of Fosse, Gwen Verdon and Michael Bennett, who turned her down for "Coco" but told her, "Lenora, you don't fit in. You're not an ingenue. Your time will come."

"Little did I know that it was a blessing in disguise," Nemetz says. "It made me think about what I really wanted to do, to be challenged all the time."

Now she is coming full circle, playing Fraulein Kost in the Public's "Cabaret." It's a role that she took on at Pittsburgh CLO and in the 2000 national tour.

"Every time I play this part, it's different," she says. "I love Fraulein Kost in this production -- she's more alive."

And when Nemetz sings "Tomorrow Belongs to Me," it takes on a whole new meaning.