Cabaret Theatre Presents: It Don't Mean a Thing

About the Show

Cabaret Theatre has been delighting audiences in Omaha and across the Midwest for thirty-two years and have produced over thirty original music revues and an annual Christmas show for sellout crowds. Hailed for their impeccable blending and personal connection with audiences, Cabaret Theatre features award-winning soloists Keith Allerton, Beth Asbjörnson, Camille Metoyer Moten, and Rebecca Noble, with Justin Payne at the piano. It Don't Mean a Thing is a celebration of the Great American Songbook and includes the title song, The More I See You, I’m Beginning To See The Light, You Made Me Love You, hits by the Andrews Sisters, and a touch of the blues!

About the Performers

Keith Allerton has been connected to area theatres over the past thirty years as an actor, director, and producer.  He has received awards from the Omaha Community Playhouse and the Theatre Arts Guild for his role as Father Mark in Tony 'n' Tina's Wedding, and his directing credits include Jesus Christ Superstar and Foxfire at Bellevue Little Theatre, The King and I for the Bluffs Arts Council, Annie Get Your Gun at Chanticleer Theatre, and Quilt, the Musical for SNAP! Productions. He is a lifetime member and past president of the Theatre Arts Guild, a past president of Chanticleer Threatre's Board of Directors, and a founding member of SNAP! Productions.  Keith was also a co-owner of the UPstairs Dinner Theatre and general manager of the Firehouse Dinner Theatre.

Beth E. Asbjornson has performed leading roles in Die Fledermaus, The Merry Widow, The Mikado, HMS Pinafore, She Loves Me, Showboat, Sweeney Todd, Annie, A Little Night Music, and Starting Here, Starting Now and received Best Actress awards for her roles in Fiddler on the Roof and Barnum.  She is a founding member/performer of Soli Deo Gloria Cantorum and has soleod on two of the groups' recordings.  Beth can also be heard on Christmas Extraordinaire with Mannheim Steamroller. Beth has appeared as a vocalist with the Nebraska Arts Council, Cabaret Theatre, Nebraska Wind Symphony, Abenmusik's Tribute to the Titanic, and has performed the national anthem at the College World Series.  She received her musical training at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln and studied with Laura Sarti from the Guildhall Conservatory of Music in London. 

Camille Metoyer Moten is a graduate of Xavier University of New Orleans and has been singing and acting in Omaha and the surrounding region for over thirty-five years. She is an independent singer and songwriter and has her own pop/jazz band. Her theater performance credits include starring roles in Ragtime, Evita, Funny Girl, Tarzan, Little Women and Having Our Say. She has been a recipient of several awards including the Omaha Arts and Entertainment Award, Theater Arts Guild Award, and the Omaha Community Playhouse's Fonda/McGuire Award.  She has also been accepted into the Omaha Black Musicians Hall of Fame and the Nebraska Musicians Hall of Fame. 

Rebecca Noble is the founder and producer of Cabaret Theatre and has performed at the Omaha Community Playhouse in Disaster, Parade, Sweeney Todd, The Musical Comedy Murders of 1940, Our Town, and Hands On a Hardbody, for which she received the Barbara Ford Award for Best Supporting Actress and a Theatre Arts Guild nomination.  Additional performances include The Music Man (Eulalie Mackechnie Shinn) and South Pacific (Bloody Mary) at SumTur Amphitheatre. For seven years she was the Executive Director of the Dundee Dinner Theatre, where she appeared onstage in Quilters, Baby, A Little Night Music, Nunsense, and Godspell. Noble also toured nationally in The Sound of Music from 1990 to 1991.  She sang for four years at Great Woods in Massachusetts, with Maestro Michael Tilson Thomas, and the Pittsburgh Symphony.  

Justin Payne (Piano) is a classically-trained tenor, composer, and playwright from Omaha, Nebraska. In addition to collaborating with Dani Cleveland on Heaven Come Home and Little Brown Boy, Justin composed music for The Draft with playwright Lisa Harrison. One of Justin’s newest creations is Belle Terre the Musical, a whimsical story that sends an adolescent young woman on a journey to self-discovery with music inspired by the New Orleans brass band style. Justin previously sang as the tenor soloist for Handel’s Messiah with the Voices of Omaha, and some of his favorite operatic roles include Sam Kaplan in Kurt Weill’s Street Scene and Ruggero Lastouc in Puccini’s La Rondine. He holds a Bachelor of Music from the University of Nebraska Omaha and a Master of Music from Michigan State University. 

Thank you to our sponsors!

• Dennis and Sally Hansen

Programming at the National Willa Cather's Red Cloud Opera House is made possible with the support of the Nebraska Arts Council and the Nebraska Cultural Endowment.