Summer Stock Theatre - Circus Tent Theatre

Circus Tent Theatre

In 1949, St. John Terrell began a new experience presenting summer stock theatre under an arena-type (circus) tent in Lambertville, New Jersey, the Music circus. This began a new period of outdoor theatre. In 1951 this new style of summer stock made its way west with the addition of the Sacramento Music Circus.

The Cape Cod Music Circus (now the Melody Tent) in Hyannis, Massachusetts opened in 1950, the third tent theatre to open, and The South Shore Music Circus in Cohasset, Massachusetts followed in 1951. A tent theatre had opened earlier in Florida.

Another theatre in the round, the Valley Forge Music Fair (which closed in 1996), in Devon, Pennsylvania, was opened in 1955 by Shelly Gross, Lee Guber and Frank Ford. They then opened other theatres in the round, including Shady Grove Music Fair in Washington, DC, Painters Mill Music Fair in Maryland (closed in 1991), and the Westbury Music Fair on Long Island, opened in 1956. By 1957, there were 19 tent theatres, many located in Massachusetts, New York, and New Jersey, and all presenting musicals only. (The musical The Pajama Game was the major show making the tent circuit in the summer of 1957.)

The theatre in the round concept brought Broadway-style musicals to northern California under a big top tent each summer. Original producers Russell Lewis and Howard Young presented their first production, Show Boat, the same opening production at both the Lambertville and the South Shore Music Circus. The original Lambertville theatre closed in 1970, and both the Sacramento and South Shore theatres continue to thrive today. In Sacramento, live musicals in the round are presented in a new permanent complex, The Wells Fargo Pavilion. The South Shore Music Circus and Cape Cod Melody Tent now serve primarily as intimate settings for musical acts including popular singers, oldies groups, and orchestras.