Dennis Castellano News

UC Irvine's Claire Trevor School of the Arts (CTSA) Drama Department will produce Stephen Sondheim and James Lapine's musical PASSION with guest Director Kent Nicholson, January 23 - 25, 2015. The play is an essential part of the Department's second themed season - LOVE, LUST AND GREED.

The hilarious musical La Cage aux Folles, featuring the bawdy humor of Harvey Fierstein and the melodic genius ofJerry Herman, is the final show in the 2014 Music Circus season at the Wells Fargo Pavilion, the 64th season for the venerable Sacramento institution. Performances are August 19 - 24. Check out a first look below!

The hilarious musical La Cage aux Folles, featuring the bawdy humor of Harvey Fierstein and the melodic genius ofJerry Herman, is the final show in the 2014 Music Circus season at the Wells Fargo Pavilion, the 64th season for the venerable Sacramento institution. Performances are August 19 - 24. Check out a first look below!

The hilarious musical La Cage aux Folles, featuring the bawdy humor of Harvey Fierstein and the melodic genius of Jerry Herman, is the final show in the 2014 Music Circus season at the Wells Fargo Pavilion, the 64th season for the venerable Sacramento institution. Performances are tonight, August 19 - 24.

The hilarious musical La Cage aux Folles, featuring the bawdy humor of Harvey Fierstein and the melodic genius of Jerry Herman, is the final show in the 2014 Music Circus season at the Wells Fargo Pavilion, the 64th season for the venerable Sacramento institution. Performances are August 19 - 24. Check out a sneak peek below!

The hilarious musical La Cage aux Folles, featuring the bawdy humor of Harvey Fierstein and the melodic genius of Jerry Herman, is the final show in the 2014 Music Circus season at the Wells Fargo Pavilion, the 64th season for the venerable Sacramento institution. Performances are August 19 - 24.

In its Music Circus premiere, the Disney classic musical Mary Poppins, based on the books by P. L. Travers and the beloved 1964 Disney film starring Julie Andrews and Dick Van Dyke, is the second show in the 2014 Music Circus season at the Wells Fargo Pavilion, the 64th season for the venerable Sacramento institution. Performances are July 8 - 13. Check out a first look below!

California Musical Theatre released casting for the remaining shows in the 64th Music Circus season, a roster of actors including Broadway veterans, Tony nominees and audience favorites from previous Music Circus seasons, as well as actors with Sacramento-area ties. The five-show season at the Wells Fargo Pavilion includes the Music Circus premiere of the beloved Disney classic Mary Poppins, which runs through July 13, as well as other Tony Award-winning shows including Rodgers and Hammerstein's lush South Pacific, Lerner and Loewe's mystical Brigadoon, Jerry Herman and Harvey Fierstein's hilarious La Cage aux Folles, and the singular sensation A Chorus Line, which ended its week-long run on June 29. Music Circus casting for the season is determined after auditions are held in New York City, Los Angeles and Sacramento.

An Italian vacation, young love and a parent's heart-rending decision are all part of the award-winning Broadway hit, The Light in the Piazza, book by Craig Lucas, music and lyrics by Adam Guettel, and based on the novel by ElizaBeth Spencer. Directed by Kent Nicholson, The Light in the Piazza runs today, Jan. 24-Feb. 23 on SCR's Segerstrom Stage.

An Italian vacation, young love and a parent's heart-rending decision are all part of the award-winning Broadway hit, The Light in the Piazza, book by Craig Lucas, music and lyrics by Adam Guettel, and based on the novel by Elizabeth Spencer. Directed by Kent Nicholson, The Light in the Piazza runs Jan. 24-Feb. 23 on SCR's Segerstrom Stage.

An Italian vacation, young love and a parent's heart-rending decision are all part of the award-winning Broadway hit, The Light in the Piazza, book by Craig Lucas, music and lyrics by Adam Guettel, and based on the novel by Elizabeth Spencer. Directed by Kent Nicholson, The Light in the Piazza runs Jan. 24-Feb. 23 on SCR's Segerstrom Stage.

Voting is now underway for Los Angeles! We have a record number of votes in already, but if you haven't voted yet, click here to vote! If you have voted already, tell your friends.

Voting is now underway for Los Angeles! We have a record number of votes in already, but if you haven't voted yet, click here to vote! If you have voted already, tell your friends.

Voting is now underway for Los Angeles! We have a record number of votes in already, but if you haven't voted yet, click here to vote! If you have voted already, tell your friends.

Voting is now underway for Los Angeles! We have a record number of votes in already, but if you haven't voted yet, click here to vote! If you have voted already, tell your friends.

Thirty-four years and going strong: South Coast Repertory's traditional holiday production of A Christmas Carol, complete with ghosts, vibrant costumes, dancing, endearing characters and a cast that includes 16 local school children and Hal Landon Jr. as Ebenezer Scrooge.

Billy Wilder and I.A.L. Diamond's screenplay for the 1959 cult classic film Some Like It Hot relied on one comedy gimmick, that two men, played by Jack Lemmon and Tony Curtis, could escape from Chicago mobsters by donning drag and joining a girl band ...and convince everyone around them that they were really women. Could they pull it off? Wilder himself reputedly stated that he never thought the movie would be as successful as it became due to its meager plotline. But... with Marilyn Monroe alongside Lemmon and Curtis as Sugar Kane, the hilarious trio really blended uproariously...and the rest is history. When in 1972 Jule Styne and Bob Merrill collaborated with book writer Peter Stone to create Sugar, their Broadway musical flopped, probably for two reasons. Firstly, Styne's music, with the exception of one or two songs, is not memorable. Secondly, the book, too faithful to the screenplay, has tremendous holes for a stage play and just does not, no offense to composer Styne, come up roses.

Sugar, a hilarious Tony-nominated musical comedy based on the classic film Some Like It Hot, is the next show in the 2013 Music Circus season, at the Wells Fargo Pavilion from today, July 23 - 28. Like the 1959 film starring Marilyn Monroe, Tony Curtis and Jack Lemmon, Sugar follows the hysterical antics of two male musicians, disguised as women in an all-female band, as they experience a series of mishaps while fleeing from the mob. The brassy score is by Jule Styne (music) and Bob Merrill (lyrics), composers of the hit musical Funny Girl.

Show Boat, the American musical masterpiece with a grand score by Oscar Hammerstein and Jerome Kern that includes the classic songs 'Ol' Man River' and 'Can't Help Lovin' Dat Man,' is now playing at the Wells Fargo Pavilion through July 14. Generally considered America's first true musical, the show has not been at Music Circus in 12 years, and this is its first time at the Wells Fargo Pavilion. The superb cast includes a Tony Award nominee and three veterans of The Phantom of the Opera on Broadway. BroadwayWorld has a first look at highlights of the show below.

I cannot imagine a better production. With Broadway talent of operatic caliber and Glenn Casale's all-encompassing direction, this summer's Sacramento Musical Theatre production of "Show Boat" is Music Circus at its absolute best.