Behind The Scenes

Musical theatre is a rich tapestry of storytelling, emotion, and artistry woven together by performers and musicians alike. For South Bay Musical Theatre (SBMT), bringing this American art form to the community is not just a mission but a passion. Now, thanks to a generous grant from the Saratoga Rotary Club Charitable Foundation, SBMT is poised to elevate its performances to new heights with state-of-the-art sound equipment at the Saratoga Civic Theater. At the heart of SBMT's mission lies the desire to share the magic of live musical theatre with the community. Central to achieving this goal is the live [...]

The following interview with Jennifer Cuevas and Nicole Tung will appear in the program for SBMT's upcoming production of RENT. Because it's a little longer than the typical "Welcome" letter, we are reprinting it here so that patrons can read it before they come to the theater. Jen and Nicole are the co-directors and co-choreographers for the show. What is your personal history with RENT? Nicole: The first time that I saw RENT was on Broadway. I had sung along with the soundtrack so many times with my roommates in college and felt like I knew and related to these [...]

by Laura Anne Millar ...  On the Town—the “New York, New York” musical! A fast favorite since 1944, the making of this Broadway hit is a story in its own right. While many musical theatre and movie buffs already know and love the film adaptation, they may not realize this was actually the third iteration of the story. The Broadway musical was the second. Which brings us to our first subject: ballet! The Ballet Fancy Free premiered on April 18, 1944 at the Metropolitan Opera House in New York City. It was conceived and choreographed by Jerome Robbins and set [...]

by Sara K. Dean SBMT Executive Artistic Director The landscape for theatre has changed drastically over the past year. One of the ways that we at South Bay Musical Theatre have improved our practices is through the inclusion of understudies in all our productions. As many Broadway productions are hit with a wave of Covid, the positions of the understudy, swings, and standbys have been heralded as the “bedrock of Broadway.” SBMT recruited understudies most recently for Shout! The Mod Musical and Company, and we are building them into the soon-to-be-announced cast of On The Town. Some people refer to [...]

by Wynne Chan, Dramaturg Editor's Note: This blog compares the modern characters in the play Anon(ymous) with their ancient counterpart in Homer's Odyssey. The character names from Anon(ymous) are shown in red, and the character names from The Odyssey are shown in blue. Origin of characters and their names Anon: Odysseus Odysseus is the protagonist of the Odyssey. In the Odyssey, Odysseus spent 10 years fighting a war in Troy and now embarks on a 10-year journey to return to his kingdom in Ithaca. Odysseus is the husband of Queen Penelope (Note: In Anon(ymous), “Penny” is Anon’s mother). Odysseus is described as [...]