Sacramento, CA
Music Circus

• Brandywine Music Circus (Concordville, PA)
  Its first season was 1956.
• Camden County Music Circus (Haddonfield, NJ)
  Its first season was 1956
• Neptune Music Circus (Asbury Park, NJ)
  Its first season was 1952
• Miami Music Circus (Miami Beach, FL)
  Its first season was 1951

• Sacramento, CA Music Circus - Its first season was 1951
• Rosecroft, MD Music Circus - Its first season was 1959
• Rye, NY Music Circus
• Cape Cod, MA Music Circus - Its first season was 1950

The Lambertville Music Circus was such a success in its first year, attracting 55,000 theater-goers and 160,000 by its third year, that interest quickly grew among other theater producers to duplicate its success in other parts of the country. One of those Affiliated Music Circuses was in Sacramento, CA.

In 1951, producers Russell Lewis and Howard Young began scouting a location to build their California Music Circus 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.

[Actually Lambertville opened its first season in 1949 with "The Merry Widow." ¹]

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.

It's first Director was George Lipton. Mr. Lipton was involved with musical arena theaters as an actor and singer since the early days of the industry. His directing talents were utilized by impresario St. John Terrell at his Lambertville, NJ and Neptune, NJ Music Circuses and the Music Circus in Miami, Fla, as well as by other major tents across the country such as the Sacramento Music Circus, and The Allentown Melody Circle.

From 1951 to 1989 the summer Music Circus program was the only season produced by the Sacramento Light Opera Association. Most of those years under the direction of Lewis and Young. Its summer stock performances have been located in nearly the same location since its conception. Actors, directors, and designers from all across the country travel to Sacramento to build productions entirely original. The current executive producer, Richard Lewis, is the son of the original producer Russell Lewis. Sacramento Music Circus was once one of many summer stock musical theatres performing in the round. Today it is now one of only a few professional theatres producing musicals in an arena setting.

In April 2018 President and CEO of California Musical Theatre, Richard Lewis, announced that the company would be officially changing its name to Broadway Sacramento. Before the name change, Broadway Sacramento was the name of their Broadway musical touring season. During his announcement of the parent company name change, he also said that the name of both theater series would be changing. The touring series at the Community Center Theater is now called Broadway On Tour and the summer series at the Wells Fargo Pavilion is now called Broadway At Music Circus.

Source: Music Circus Website Archives
Source: wikipedia.org/