Nick Vera: (humming)Come to the Cabaret...Lilly Rush: I hate musicals.
Nick Vera: Well, you wouldn't if you'd seen me as Danny Zuko in my eighth grade production of Grease. Brought the house down.
In this musical theater episode, the cast prominently features Broadway stars Adam Pascal (from the original Broadway cast of Rent, as well as the late 2003 Master of Ceremonies in the most recent Broadway revival of Cabaret) and Laura Bell Bundy (from the original Broadway casts of Legally Blonde and Hairspray).
In the casting sides and in the CBS press release for this episode, Dennis' last name was Hirschfelder and Della's (the local community theater owner in the beginning of the episode) last name was Morris. These were later changed to Hofferman and Gardner, respectively.
This is the second time all the music in the episode is taken from a single musical. The first time was episode 2-21: Creatures of the Night, with music from the 1975 movie version of the musical The Rocky Horror Picture Show.
Cabaret
The theater group is doing the musical Cabaret, which opened on Broadway in 1966. All the songs in the episode are taken from the musical, including the title song Willkommen. It is also the same song Dennis performs when he auditions.