It all started way back in 1985 when the group was founded by four singing students and their teacher. After a successful start at parties and corporate gigs, the group quickly transforms into a real theatre group.

Working together with a director (Paul Vermeulen Windsant), a choreographer and a stage and lighting designer, the first theatre program is being constructed: Volume 1.

It gets a lot of attention and theatres are sold out. This remarkable debut is awarded with among others, the Pall Mall Export Prize and the first prize at the Dutch National Close Harmony Concours.

The first CD Montezuma's Revenge is released in 1988, with arrangements of songs such as Elvis Costello's Girl's Talk, Paul Simon's Fifty Ways To Leave Your Lover and the well known The Lion Sleeps Tonight .

The second show II has its opening night in 1989. Again a very successful show, awarded this time by in international jury at the Knokke Festival in Belgium . New in this second show is that the group members besides the astonishing arrangements of pop covers, also write new material. Design, I Can't Get Over You and Wig Wam are Montezuma originals, released on the album Live .

The Netherlands are too small and other countries are interested. A great review in Variety and the New York Post contribute to the success of the group. From now on there is a “sixth member”, the sound engineer. In the Netherlands television helps to establish the Montezuma reputation in a weekly show called “Music Masters” with Ad Visser.

The Third Act is the name of the show for the seasons 1991-1992 and 1992-1993, during which the group is touring in the Dutch and Belgian theaters. A new director is found with Bart Stuyf and their collaboration will last for the next three shows. Of this show too, an album is released, Here's looking at you, kid .

Again a mixture of covers (Man in the mirror, Papa was a rolling stone) and new material (Too much make up, The state I'm in, Home) . This new CD is presented by Herman Brood, with whom the group also has a couple of performances.

Montezuma is looking for a new approach which is found with the show Blind Man's Dream (1993-1994). A more introspective show, appreciated by both audience and press.
Of course an accompanying CD Blind Man's Dream is being released with again a mixture of new and “old” material.
There is an extensive tour through Germany and though very successful, the group decides to take a sabbatical year to think about new and fresh ideas.
One Dutch theatre season is being skipped and the first performances after the break are in Germany in the summer of 1995. During this tour the group wins the “Kleinkunstpreis” of the city of Ravensburg .

November 1995 is the start of the fifth show De Omval . In this program Montezuma is trying to find the balance between humor and more serious matters, masculinity and femininity, musical content and the staging of the songs. As a contrast with the last show, this is a very extravagant show with Louis Seize costumes, make up and wigs. The CD of this show is called Make a Noise and contains songs such as You're the Voice, I can't win and again originals such as Losing you and Kind person, cold person.

In the sixth show Best of Five and on the CD Best of Live , the group looks back at the five previous shows and of course it's the opportunity to record songs that hadn't been recorded in the past. This show , directed by Shusaku Takeuchi, too wins a German prize, the “Schwerte Kabarett Preis”.

In 1998 theatre and film director Felix de Rooij is being chosen by the group for the next two shows. A new modern and more rough look create the new Montezuma with also new repertoire such as songs of Nirvana, the Prodigy and Nine Inch Nails. Metal fences, black clothing and a specific lighting create a totally new atmosphere. The show is called In Pursuit of Pleasure and gets great reviews, among others in the leading Dutch serious pop magazine Oor. For the first time two CD's of the same show are released, a studio ( In Pursuit of Pleasure ) and a live one ( Live Pleasure ).

Never satisfied with a specific direction, Montezuma's Revenge keeps on trying to renew itself. With Double Density (2000-2001, 2001-2002) a really thematic show is being presented. The process of mourning after a personal loss is being combined with the stages a successful group goes through, which created an interesting show in which the songs were backed up with video material and sometimes avant garde musical patterns.

A live CD ( Double Density ) is being released in January 2001 and as usual the group tours extensively through the Netherlands and Germany , Austria and Switzerland . In March 2001 Montezuma's Revenge is competing to enter the Eurovision Song Contest and gets a third place in the Dutch finals.

The show that opened in September 2002 is called Montezuma's Revenge Hits Again! and is directed by one of the founding members of the group, Maarten Mourik. The show is a reaction to the two preceding shows and contains covers only, of songs by for example The Osmonds, Elvis Costello, Wham, and more contemporary groups like All Saints, The Spice Girls and Espen Lind. The tenth CD is called Hits Again! and is produced by Attie Bauw.

Vocal trapeze artists juggling with chords, singing repertoire that's magic: in a brand new show Montezuma's Revenge is inspired by Berlin , the city which is often visited by the five men during their German tours. In this way, a new kind of variety show is made, which combines the unique atmosphere of the Berlin theaters and nightclubs with the contemporary charisma which is also an important feature of this metropolis.

To create this surprising tenth show –which reveals a side of Montezuma that is totally new- the group is directed by Karel de Rooij (Mini & Maxi) and choreographed by Hans Minnaert.

This time a live CD is recorded and is called Pop Art Live.