By admin 
If you lived in Sacramento at any point from the 1950s to the early 2000s, chances are, you know Music Circus’ colorful tent was the place to be during the summer.
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If you weren’t around at this time, you may not know about the musical theater company at all — or that Broadway actors consider it one of the top seasonal companies to perform at.
In a new book released earlier this year, titled “Broadway Sacramento: 75 Years of Theater Magic,” Sacramento theater enthusiast and former Broadway Sacramento board member Margaret Kane meticulously detailed the history of Music Circus and Broadway Sacramento, first under the canvas tent and eventually in the UC Davis Health Pavilion, at 1419 H St. in Mansion Flats.
Kane took nearly three years and hundreds of hours of research and interviews with key Broadway Sacramento and Music Circus players to piece together the company’s 75-year history. The author calls it a “love story” to the theater group and to the Sacramento musical theater community.
“I wrote it for the Music Circus fan and the artists that have done so much to make this place what it is,” Kane said.
Through her sparkling account of the theater company’s legacy in Sacramento, she also alludes to what Music Circus’ future may look like on its current path. As consumer tastes shift and the spotlight on Music Circus and Broadway Sacramento does not shine as brightly, the company is not the local entertainment giant it once was.
“The way forward has to be figured out,” the author said. “The heart and soul of the place is Music Circus.”
The legend of Music Circus in Sacramento
The famed striped tent first went up the summer of 1951, located on the corner of H and 15th Streets. Founded by experienced showrunners Howard Young and Russell Lewis, supported by then-president of The Sacramento Bee’s parent company, Eleanor McClatchy, a prolific Sacramento arts lover.
Music Circus quickly hit its stride as a summer theater series with a relaxed atmosphere, making the typically uptight musical theater experience more approachable for diverse populations across Northern California, Kane wrote in her book.
Besides the novelty of the circus-like atmosphere under the tent, what made Music Circus stand out was its “theater-in-the-round” setup. Unlike the now-widespread proscenium seating — with rows of seats facing a rectangular stage at the end of the theater — the Music Circus stage was a rounded platform at the center of the theater, with concentric rings of seats stacked outward.
“In the round, the audience is in the show, not just looking at it,” said actor Billy Rude — who played Berger in Music Circus’s 2025 “Hair” production — in Kane’s book. “You’re not peeking through a window but opening the door and walking in.”
Music Circus’s early success came largely due to Young and Lewis, who had complementing skill strengths in theater production and business, plus an expansive Broadway Rolodex. For 40 years, the pair ran the seasonal theater company like a military ship, expecting fast-paced productions and meticulous attention to detail to keep shows running smoothly.
Not only did their business acuity build local consumer trust and support, but it also established their company as an important player as a regional musical theater producer. Actors and crew members were thrilled to spend their summers under the scorching tent, as long as they had the opportunity to get in on the Music Circus action, according to Kane’s account.
“When I was studying musical theater at UCLA, we all talked about the best summer jobs in California,” said veteran Music Circus actor Stuart Marland, in the book. “There was Disneyland, Magic Mountain and Music Circus — those were the big three.”
As financial streams wavered in the 1980s, Young and Lewis worked with an existing theater company in Sacramento to welcome theater tours year-round, which later became Broadway Sacramento, now hosted downtown at the SAFE Credit Union Performing Arts Center.
In the final two decades of the century, Lewis and Young brought in prolific theater producer Leland Ball to help lead the theater company into the future. When the fathers of Sacramento’s Music Circus died in the early 1990s — still holding tight to the reins — Ball, director Glenn Casale and Lewis’s son Richard Lewis became the second generation of Music Circus leaders.
At the turn of the century, it was evident to Ball and the junior Lewis that though the Music Circus tent had cultural and nostalgic significance to Sacramento’s theater community, it was no longer sustainable.
In 2002, the blue-and-green canvas tent came down after its final season to make way for what would be the Wells Fargo Pavilion, fitted with air conditioning, traditional theater seats and other comforts the former venue lacked.
As part of the inaugural 2003 season, Music Circus brought in Scott Klier to head the production after Ball took his final curtain call. More than 20 years later, Klier is still in charge, having captained the company through the 2008 financial crisis and the COVID-19 pandemic, which decimated the entertainment industry.
“The audience is the throughline that sustains the company,” Klier said in Kane’s book. “It has changed to the extent that society and its values have changed, but every generation is deeply attached to the tradition that is Music Circus.”
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Recounting seven-and-a-half decades of history
Kane didn’t have a background as an author, or historian, or journalist. She had degrees in Sanskrit and drama, and worked in administrative roles at The Bee in the 1980s, when she found a love for Music Circus’s charm.
During the time The Bee sponsored Music Circus seasons, employees from across the company would be able to attend one expensed show per year, a tradition known as “Bee Night.”
“I don’t know that I would’ve stumbled upon (Music Circus) without that,” Kane said. “I was blown away by it … The immersive nature of theater-in-the-round is just so different, I was very taken by it.”
She later went to work as an executive at Wells Fargo, where she helped establish the bank’s title sponsorship for Music Circus’s new, permanent theater at the site of the old tent. Kane eventually joined the theater company’s board in the early 2010s, and now she simply enjoys the show.
As the company’s 75th anniversary approached, Kane “had an epiphany,” she said, that the theater company’s history should be written down.
“If I didn’t write this book, the story was going to get lost,” she said. “I knew I had the skill set to do it, I knew I had the relationships to do it. So I felt a pretty intense obligation.”
Over more than two years, Kane scoured news archives — even working with Bee editors to dig up old photos and article clips — and interviewed dozens of actors, crew members and leaders involved with Broadway Sacramento over the decades.
In 213 pages, Kane chronologically recounted key moments, highlighted impactful productions and illustrated the stars of the show — not only actors — to tell a complete, human-centered story about Sacramento’s musical theater history.
“Broadway Sacramento: 75 Years of Theater Magic” is only available directly through Kane’s website, margaretlkane.com, and costs $49.
Looking to the future of Broadway Sacramento and Music Circus
Today, Music Circus is one of a small handful of theaters with an in-the-round setup remaining. It still holds the same impeccable reputation as it did in previous decades, Kane said.
Celebrities and Broadway performers alike carve out time in their busy schedules to work on shows at Music Circus every year. In the 2026 season, longtime Broadway actors and members of original Broadway casts performed starring roles in shows including “Come From Away”, “Jesus Christ Superstar” and “Hairspray”.
Leading “Hairspray” this year was famed drag queen and “Ru Paul’s Drag Race” star Ginger Minj, whom Kane said she ran into during the musical’s run.
“I had an opportunity to chat with (Minj) … and she just said, ‘Oh, this is just the best place to work,’” Kane said. “She said, ‘Everyone is so nice, and they treat us so well.’”
However, industry acclaim is not all that is needed to keep a theater company afloat, they must be able to fill seats. Where Music Circus summer seasons previously had 90% and above sales figures, the post-pandemic era has not been as easy for the company.
In 2022, the first season back after the pandemic cancelled shows, Music Circus faced a $1.3 million deficit in ticket sales, The Bee reported at the time. The following seasons weren’t total blockbusters, but they had some bright spots, according to Kane.
In 2024, “Fiddler on the Roof” and “Waitress” were smash hits at the box office, but “Jersey Boys” faltered. The next year, “West Side Story” and “In The Heights” almost sold out, per Kane’s book.
“(S)cale and reputation alone no longer guarantee survival,” Kane wrote. “Theaters that have adapted quickly — aligning their programming and finances with their audiences — are demonstrating that a sustainable path forward for American musical theater is still possible … it’s a blueprint for what comes next.”
Coming off a run of “Come From Away” that closed last Sunday, Music Circus will go on a brief break before returning in the winter for “A Christmas Carol” between Dec. 11-20. Tickets for the final Music Circus show of the year and Broadway Sacramento’s touring season — which starts Oct. 13 with “Water for Elephants” — are available on the company’s website.
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This story was originally published September 26, 2026 at 6:00 AM.