SUMMER STAGES: Northern California's Top Picks for Summer Entertainment

Sacramento Music Circus opens its 2016 season this week, and that means summer theatre is officially here! Check out our top picks for the Sacramento and San Francisco, Northern California regions below!

Over at California Musical Theatre, we can look forward to Paul Schoeffler as Professor Callahan in Legally Blonde, Jason Graae as the Cat in the Hat in Seussical, and Robin de Jesus as the Emcee in Cabaret. Then there's the question of how Glenn Casale will stage the epic Hunchback of Notre Dame in the round. The shows only run one week each throughout the summer, so be sure to check out the schedule and reserve your seats today.

For those of you in the Bay Area, SHN San Francisco will also host Cabaret this summer. The National Tour plays June 21 - July 17. The tour of Disney's Beauty and the Beast also visits San Francisco June 29 - July 10.

San Francisco Symphony also has a great lineup for its Summer with the Symphony July concerts, which will feature music by John Williams, music from Ratatouille and Star Trek, and - for video game fans, scores from Final Fantasy.

The show of choice for community and regional theatres this summer seems to be patriotic musical 1776, with productions at Playhouse Merced, Stockton Civic Theatre, and Contra Costa Musical Theatre. Runaway Stage Productions will offer All Shook Up and Shrek the Musical, while Modesto Performing Arts produces Bye Bye Birdie and Oklahoma! Berkley Playhouse will also present Disney's The Little Mermaid this June and July.

As the summer closes out, you won't want to miss a brand new, reinvented version of The Mikado from The Lamplighters in August, and Hillbarn Theatre opens a new season with Legally Blonde.

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