California Musical Theatre - History

History

In 1949 the original Music Circus began its operations in a vacant field in Lambertville, New Jersey. Begun by St. John Terrell as a summer stock theatre hybrid, mixing musical theatre within a circus tent, the new musical theatre performed in the round. The unique experience gained popularity through the 1950s and 1960s. Theatres copied the format and name, eventually spawning similar Music Circus theatres along the East Coast as far south as Miami.

In California, producers Russell Lewis and Howard Young began scouting a location to build their theater and were lured to Sacramento by Sacramento Bee president Eleanor McClatchy. The theatre opened with a production of Show Boat, the same show which opened the original Lambertville theatre as well as the North Shore Music Theatre. In 1951 the Sacramento Music Circus tent went up for the first time under the operations of what was originally known as the Sacramento Light Opera Association. McClatchy had been a patron of the Sacramento Civic Theatre (now known as Sacramento Theatre Company). Its facility had a large parking area that would be the home to the original Music Circus tent.

In 2008 a controversy erupted nationwide when its then artistic director resigned over the revelation of his personal donation of $1000 to a political campaign to support California proposition 8. The proposition, which would amend the state constitution to limit marriage between a man and woman passed and donor information became public. A number of Broadway artists who had previously worked with the director became critical and called for a boycott of the theatre by all gay artists and performers.