Celebrating Pride Month What’s New at Music Circus & Celebration Arts?

by Chris Narloch

This year is flying by, and it is already time for summer theatre courtesy of Broadway at Music Circus. I also spotlight the latest offering from another of Sacramento’s longstanding theatrical institutions, Celebration Arts.

Music Circus

The Sacramento summer staple known as Broadway at Music Circus returns this June and kicks things off with the hit-filled jukebox musical “Beautiful,” which showcases the glorious catalog of one of the most prolific singer-songwriters in the history of pop music, Carole King.

In its Music Circus premiere, “Beautiful: The Carole King Musical” tells the Tony* and Grammy* Awardwinning inspiring true story of King’s remarkable rise to stardom, from being part of a hit songwriting team to becoming one of the most successful solo acts in popular music history. Along the way, she made more than beautiful music, she wrote the soundtrack to a generation.

“Beautiful” performs this June 13-18, at the UC Davis Health Pavilion on H Street. Please visit: www.broadwaysacramento.com

Celebration Arts

Two-time Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright Lynn Nottage takes audiences back to the Golden Age of Hollywood in “By the Way, Meet Vera Stark,” where we meet aspiring starlet Vera Stark, who works as a maid to Gloria Mitchell, an aging star grasping at her fading career.

Worlds collide when Vera lands a trailblazing role in an antebellum epic starring her boss. Yet, while Vera’s portrayal of an enslaved person turns out to be groundbreaking, decades later, scholars and film buffs still grapple with the actress’s legacy in Hollywood and race’s impact on her controversial career.

Through the fictionalized characters, Nottage hints at both unknown and celebrated performers and Hollywood executives during that time. Directed by Nicole Limon, “By the Way, Meet Vera Stark” promises to be a charming and comedic play that Nottage says “focuses on African American women, or women from the African diaspora, who’ve been marginalized by circumstance and who are trying to assert their presence.”

“By the Way, Meet Vera Stark” performs through this June 25, at Celebration Arts, in what was formerly the B Street Theatre complex. For more information, go to: www.celebrationarts.net