Sacramento Music Circus – A Summertime Tradition

(UPDATED 4/23/2018)  California Musical Theatre  (CMT) is Sacramento’s oldest professional performing arts organization and California’s largest nonprofit musical theatre company.  Music Circus is a Sacramento summertime tradition.

Sacramento Music Circus is theatre in the round – and it never fails to amaze me how, with a minimum of props, the stage is set for the varied performances so imaginatively. 

When I first started occasionally attending performances at the Sacramento Music Circus venue it was in the “big tent”, a heavy canvas affair.  On hot Sacramento evenings it was often uncomfortably warm even when the tent flaps were opened – in case the Delta breeze should arrive to cool things down.  In my experience the Delta breeze only occasionally made an appearance.   

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The seating in the big tent was in Director’s Chairs (wood frame and canvas seat and back), not the most comfortable of seating  – but I don’t recall that being a major issue.  Seat location in proximity to one of the tent poles could, however, pose a problem. 

On hot summer evenings I vividly remember the performers – dancing and singing their hearts out – as their sweat was visibly flung outward by their exertions.  I don’t know how they did it!  As luck would have it I never sat so close to the stage that I had to be concerned about it “raining” on me.

In 2003, Music Circus moved into the newly built Wells Fargo Pavilion, which was built on the site of the big canvas tent.  Needless to say, the permanent indoor venue is a huge improvement.  Both patron comfort and artistic improvements to enhance the performances have combined to make Music Circus even more “special” than it was before. 

Comments on Music Circus?

Do you have memories to share about attending Music Circus performances when it was in the big tent?  Do you have any pictures of the old  Music Circus tent to share?

(UPDATED 4/23/2018)  The leadership of the California Musical Theatre announced, effective immediately, the re-naming of the organization to Broadway Sacramento.  The Broadway shows produced at the Wells Fargo Pavilion will now be called Broadway At The Music Circus.

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