Broadway by the Bay

Broadway by the Bay was an outgrowth of a San Mateo Recreation Department program that originated in the 1950s as "La Honda Music Camp", in Jones Gulch, near La Honda, California in the Santa Cruz Mountains. Each summer, that program employed the talents of young musicians, singers, and actors to produce primarily Gilbert and Sullivan's comic operas, which were staged at the camp site in Jones Gulch near La Honda, California.

In June 1963, the San Mateo Recreation Department established the San Mateo Community Theatre, with Dr. Randolph Hunt (1925-2011) as music director and Robert Lynch as drama director, at Hillsdale High School in San Mateo, California.

First productions: Gilbert and Sullivan

The first production was Patience, in August 1963 in the little theatre at Hillsdale High School, with a cast of high school and college students that included future opera singer Luana De Vol in the part of Saphir. In the summer of 1964, Hunt and Lynch collaborated on The Mikado, again at Hillsdale High School. In 1965, Anthony "Duke" Campagna, the band director at Hillsdale High School, worked with Lynch on a production of H.M.S. Pinafore.

Move to musical theatre

After presenting the three Gilbert and Sullivan operas, the San Mateo Community Theatre moved in a different direction. Although Campagna returned, he was joined by a staff that included Kenneth L. Ton, the drama director at Capuchino High School, and Ben Denton, the choral director at Aragon High School. For the first time, in 1966, SMCT presented a classic Broadway musical: Oklahoma! by Rodgers and Hammerstein. Once again, the cast and orchestra were drawn from high school and college students throughout San Mateo County. The performances were moved to the little theater at the College of San Mateo. The production was a success and encouraged SMCT to produce more musicals.

Hunt returned as a director for the 1967 production of West Side Story by Leonard Bernstein and Stephen Sondheim. The performances were given at the auditorium at San Mateo High School, later known as the San Mateo Performing Arts Center. This remained the home of the company until 2011. The company continued to produce musicals each year, and later productions mixed professional and semi-professional talent with amateur singers and dancers, increasing the quality of the shows.

The San Mateo Community Theatre became a non-profit organization in 1978. In 1983, the Board of Directors expanded the focus of the company and changed the name to Peninsula Civic Light Opera. In 1999, a decision was made to gradually change the name to Broadway by the Bay to more accurately reflect the group's focus on Broadway-type musicals instead of light operas.

"Broadway by the Bay"

Under its new name, Broadway by the Bay's production schedule featured four full-scale musical theatre productions each year. The actors, ushers, and some of the musicians were volunteers.

In 2010, composer-lyricist Jason Robert Brown offered classes and performed a concert to help fundraise for Broadway by the Bay's Youth Theatre Conservatory, which offered performing arts experiences to local children. In 2011, Broadway by the Bay moved to the Fox Theatre in Redwood City, California, and went on to sign a five-year lease with them in 2016.