Broadway and Off-Broadway stars -- including Robert Cuccioli, Teri Ralston, Brooks Ashmanskas and Alyson Reed -- will appear in the seven show summer season of the Sacramento Music Circus, July 12-Aug. 29.

Natascia Diaz, who was embraced by critics in the recent national tour of West Side Story, and who appeared in Off-Broadway's Bright Lights Big City, kicks off the season, literally, playing Anita in West Side Story July 12-18. Her co-stars are Andrea Burns as Maria and Tim Martin Gleason as Tony.

Jekyll & Hyde Broadway star Robert Cuccioli will appear in The Secret Garden Aug. 2-8; Ralston, a veteran of Broadway's Company and A Little Night Music, will appear as Cousin Nettie in Carousel with George Merrick and Lauri Landry Aug. 16-22; Ashmanskas, of the Roundabout Theatre's Little Me, sings "Put On a Happy Face" in Bye Bye Birdie, with Edward Staudenmayer (Forbidden Broadway Cleans Up Its Act!) as Birdie, July 26-Aug. 1; Reed (of the film, "A Chorus Line," and the 1987 revival of Cabaret) stars as Dorothy Brock opposite Patrick Quinn (Lumiere of Broadway's Beauty and the Beast) as Julian in 42nd Street Aug. 9-15.

Metropolitan Opera soloist Charles Karel will be the title character in The Most Happy Fella July 19-25, with Karen Culliver (a Broadway Christine in The Phantom of the Opera) as Rosabella.

A Chorus Line with Blane Savage (Broadway's Dancin') and Paula Leggett Chase (Broadway's A Chorus Line and Damn Yankees) closes the season Aug. 23-29. For information about the Sacramento Music Circus season of summer musicals, call (916) 446-5880.

-- By Kenneth Jones