Broadway Sacramento

Broadway Sacramento

Broadway Sacramento, formerly known as California Musical Theatre, is the largest nonprofit arts organization in the state of California. It is also the oldest professional performing arts company in the city of Sacramento. It mainly produces musical theatre shows.

One of its famous parts is called the Music Circus. This group has been putting on Broadway-style musicals since 1951. In 2002, the Music Circus had its last season in a traditional canvas circus tent. The next year, the company opened a new place called the Wells Fargo Pavilion. This building was made to look like a circus tent, keeping the old tradition alive. The inside of this venue has a special fabric cover. In 2021, the Wells Fargo Pavilion was renamed to the UC Davis Health Pavilion.

History

In 1949, the Music Circus began in a field in Lambertville, New Jersey. It was created by St. John Terrell as a special kind of theatre, mixing musical shows inside a circus tent. This fun idea became popular in the 1950s and 1960s, and other theatres along the East Coast, even as far as Miami, started doing the same thing.

In California, two producers, Russell Lewis and Howard Young, wanted to build a theatre and chose Sacramento. The theatre opened with a show called Show Boat, just like the first one in Lambertville. In 1951, the Sacramento Music Circus tent was set up for the first time by the Sacramento Light Opera Association. In April 2018, the company changed its name from California Musical Theatre to Broadway Sacramento. The touring shows at the Safe Credit Union Performing Arts Center are now called Broadway On Tour, and the summer shows at the UC Davis Health Pavilion are called Broadway At Music Circus.

Broadway at Music Circus

From 1951 to 1989, the summer Music Circus program was the only show put on by the Sacramento Light Opera Association. For most of those years, Lewis and Young were in charge. The summer shows have been in almost the same place since they began. Actors, directors, and designers from all over the country come to Sacramento to create new productions. The current executive producer, Richard Lewis, is the son of the original producer, Russell Lewis. Sacramento Music Circus used to be one of many summer theatres that performed in a circle. Today, it is one of the few professional theatres that puts on musicals in an arena setting.

Broadway on Tour

Broadway on Tour began as the Music Circus Winter Season and is now called The Broadway Series. These shows happen when the Music Circus is not in its main season. They perform popular musicals at the Community Center Theater. Since 1989, shows have included The Unsinkable Molly Brown, The Phantom of the Opera, Chicago, and The Producers. Broadway Sacramento helps lead groups for musical theatre, and Richard Lewis, who helps make these shows, is part of a big group for American theatres called the League of American Theatres and Producers.