Take an iconic piece of american musical theater by arguably the best musical theater writing team of all times and add Music Circus talent and production values and you have a splendid evening of entertainment. "Oklahoma" was the first collaboration between composer Richard Rodgers and lyricist and librettist Oscar Hammerstein II. Rodgers had previously worked with Lorenz Hart creating "Pal Joey." Hammerstein had been teamed with Jerome Kern, with "Show Boat" as their best-known production. The new collaboration worked well for both. Hammerstein preferred to write lyrics before they were set to music. Rodgers preferred to have completed lyrics before creating the music. There previous co

 Monty Python’s Spamalot opened the 60th season of the California Musical Theater Music Circus on Friday. This, the 500th show produced by Music Circus, makes it is easy to see why the theater has not only survived but thrived for 60 years. The book and lyrics by Eric Idle take the best of the popular Monty Python movie Monty Python and the Holy Grail to another level. While much of Spamalot spoofs the Broadway Musical genre, Idle has created a great Broadway Musical. The Music by John Du Prez and Idle is classic Broadway Musical style and in this case it is a very good thing. Everything in this Music Circus production shines, starting with Glenn Casale’s direction. Much is made in theat