There is a theater at 1285 East Hillsdale Boulevard that a significant portion of Foster City drives past twice a day without stopping. It reads, from the road, as the kind of venue you mean to check out eventually — a community theater, pleasant, local, low on the priority list. That mental category is wrong, and the gap between what residents assume about Hillbarn Theatre and what is actually happening inside it is what this post is about.
The thesis is simple: Hillbarn Theatre & Conservatory has operated a professional-caliber, six-show subscription season in Foster City since 1941, and its 85th anniversary season — closing with a show that ran on Broadway — is the clearest argument for finally walking through the door.
What 179 Seats Actually Means
Most regional theaters use their size as an apology. Hillbarn uses it as a production strategy.
At 179 seats, every chair is close enough to the stage that the gap between performer and audience that makes a Broadway show feel remote disappears. Under Executive Artistic Director Steve Muterspaugh, the theater has leaned into that proximity: shows that require emotional specificity over spectacle, physical comedy that lands when you can see the sweat, character work that depends on the audience being near enough to read a face. This is not a limitation. It is a format.
The pricing reflects the institutional level of the work. Season 85 tickets run $44 for previews and $60 for regular adult performances, with senior tickets at $54 and student tickets at $30. Groups of ten or more receive additional discounts by calling the box office at 650-349-6411. Those are not charity prices. They are theater prices for a theater that is producing at a level that warrants them.
Season 85: What a Six-Show Subscription Season Looks Like
A six-show season is not a casual calendar. It requires a year-round production apparatus, a subscriber base committed far enough in advance to fund casting, and a programming sensibility that holds together across wildly different material. Season 85 held together.
| Dates | Production | Type |
|---|---|---|
| Aug 21 – Sep 14, 2025 | Plaza Suite (Neil Simon) | Comedy |
| Oct 9 – Nov 2, 2025 | Murder for Two | Musical comedy |
| Dec 4 – 28, 2025 | Cinderella (Rodgers & Hammerstein) | Musical |
| Jan 22 – Feb 8, 2026 | What the Constitution Means to Me | Drama |
| Mar 5 – 22, 2026 | Songs for a New World | Musical |
| Apr 23 – May 17, 2026 | The Play That Goes Wrong | Physical comedy |
The through-line in Steve Muterspaugh's programming notes for Season 85 was change, transformation, and rebirth — a through-line that could read as marketing language until you look at the actual selections. What the Constitution Means to Me was a 2019 Pulitzer Prize finalist. Songs for a New World is Jason Robert Brown's concert-style work that toured to the Douglas Morrison Theatre in Hayward as part of a partnership with the Hayward Area Recreation and Park District. The Play That Goes Wrong ran on Broadway and the West End before Hillbarn staged it. These are not placeholder titles filling a season calendar.
What Closes the Season This June
SpongeBob Squarepants The Musical opens at Hillbarn Theatre on June 5, 2026.
The show ran on Broadway from 2017 to 2019, received twelve Tony Award nominations, and won for Best Scenic Design of a Musical. The material is deceptively demanding — the production design requirements are complex, the score requires range from its cast, and the comedy plays simultaneously to children and adults in a way that is difficult to execute and easy to get wrong.
Closing a season with this title says something deliberate about where Hillbarn thinks its audience is. It is a family show in the sense that families will come, and a theatrical show in the sense that the craft required to stage it competently at the production level it expects is not trivial. Performances run through late June. The box office is open Tuesday through Friday, 11 a.m. to 3 p.m.
The Conservatory Side of the Building
The theater part of Hillbarn is the visible half. The conservatory is the half that explains why the institution has lasted 85 years.
Hillbarn's Youth Conservatory trains young performers from age 4 through 18 in the performing arts, under Conservatory Director Sarah Jebian. The programs cover:
- Acting and scene study
- Musical theater performance
- After-school training with professional instructors
- Full youth productions featuring conservatory students
This is not a drop-in drama class. It is a training pipeline that has been producing local performers long enough that adults who grew up in Foster City went through it, came back to audition for the mainstage, and built careers partially rooted in what they learned in that building. The audience that fills Hillbarn on a Saturday night includes parents of current conservatory students, alumni of the program, and subscribers who have been attending since before some of those students were born. That density of community connection is what makes the institution function at the level it does.
What the 2026-27 Season Already Signals
In late April 2026, Hillbarn held Equity auditions for its 2026-27 season. The casting call went out through Playbill. Equity auditions mean professional union actors are being considered for roles alongside local talent — a casting pipeline that distinguishes a producing theater from a community stage.
The announced titles for 2026-27 include School of Rock, Gutenberg!, and a production called Pickleball. The range is intentional: a licensed stage adaptation of a major film property, a two-hander satirizing literary ambition, and an original or newer work. Subscribers who commit to the season get first access to tickets before general sale, free date changes, and the best available pricing.
If Season 85 reads as a complete argument for what Hillbarn is doing in Foster City, Season 86's early auditions suggest the ambition is not slowing. The building at 1285 East Hillsdale has been running at this level for a long time. The only thing that changes when a resident finally goes is their understanding of what has been available to them all along.
SpongeBob Squarepants The Musical runs at Hillbarn Theatre starting June 5, 2026. Tickets are available at the box office or online through the theater's website. If you have questions about the neighborhood or what it's like to live near one of the Bay Area's most enduring cultural institutions, Julie Flouty is happy to talk through what Foster City offers beyond the lagoon views and the easy 101 access. Let's Connect.
