Shakira will perform at MetLife Stadium in East Rutherford, May 15-16.
Here is a roundup of major arts events taking place around New Jersey, through May 15.
MUSIC
• Shakira will perform at MetLife Stadium in East Rutherford, May 15-16 at 7:30 p.m., with Pitbull opening on May 16 only. Shakira’s current Las Mujeres Ya No Lloran World Tour follows the release of her 2024 album of that name — which includes hits such as “Monotonía,” “Acróstico” and “Te Felicito,” and was named Best Latin Pop Album at this year’s Grammy Awards — and these are the tour’s only currently scheduled stops in New Jersey. These will also be the Colombian singer-songwriter’s first New Jersey shows since 2010, when she performed in Atlantic City.
In March, Billboard picked her as No. 1 on its list of The Best 50 Female Latin Pop Artists of All Time, with Gloria Estefan, Selena, Celia Cruz and Karol G rounding out the Top 5.
• Banjo player Béla Fleck, harp player Edmar Castañeda and drummer Antonio Sánchez have formed what is, perhaps, the world’s first banjo/harp/drums trio. They will release a new album, BEATrio, on May 16 (listen to lead single “Archipelago,” below), a few days after their tour comes to The McCarter Theatre Center in Princeton. The concert will be at 7:30 p.m. on May 13.
• Philadelphia radio station WMMR will present its annual MMR*B*Q concert, May 10 at 1 p.m. at The Freedom Mortgage Pavilion in Camden, with Alice in Chains, Three Days Grace, Mammoth WVH, Dorothy, Dead Poet Society, Octane, Return to Dust and Fat Mezz, plus live-band karaoke and DJ music on a side stage. Up until 5:25 p.m., all seating will be general admission.
LUCIE ARNAZ
• The Garden State Arts Foundation will present veteran actress and cabaret performer Lucie Arnaz in a free concert at The PNC Bank Arts Center in Holmdel, May 14 at 1:30 p.m.
• Graham Bonnet — former lead singer of Rainbow, The Michael Schenker Group and other hard-rock bands — will bring his own Graham Bonnet Band, featuring New Jersey’s own Beth-Ami Heavenstone on bass, to The Landis Theater in Vineland, May 10 at 8 p.m. Click HERE to read a new interview with Bonnet and Heavenstone.
THEATER
• The Shakespeare Theatre of New Jersey will open its 2025 season with Oscar Wilde’s classic comedy “The Importance of Being Earnest,” featuring veteran STNJ actors such as Marion Adler (as Lady Bracknell) and Christian Frost (as Algernon). The shows will be at The F.M. Kirby Shakespeare Theatre at Drew University in Madison, with the first preview on May 14, the official opening night on May 17, and the last show on June 1.
In a special “Food Drive Preview,” May 14 at 7:30 p.m., you can get admission for only $10 by donating two cans of food.
• With The United States’ semiquincentennial (250) anniversary coming up next year, The Algonquin Arts Theatre in Manasquan will help theater-goers get into the spirit by presenting “1776” — the Tony-winning 1969 musical about the signing of The Declaration of Independence, featuring music and lyrics by Sherman Edwards and a book by Peter Stone — on May 9-11 and 16-18.
• The Black Box Performing Arts Center will continue its series of staged readings of all of Edward Albee’s plays, May 14 at 7:30 p.m. at Debonair Music Hall in Teaneck, with “Three Tall Women” — Albee’s 1991 drama, for which he won his third Pulitzer Prize.
A conversation with cast members, director Matt Okin and Jakob Holder, executive director of The Edward F. Albee Foundation, will follow.
DARIO CALMESE
Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater dancers
DANCE
• Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater will perform at Prudential Hall at NJPAC in Newark, May 9-10 at 8 p.m., and May 11 at 3 p.m. The May 10 show will include the world premiere of its interim artistic director Matthew Rushing’s Sacred Songs, which features music used in the 1960 premiere of Alvin Ailey’s masterpiece Revelations but was later omitted; Revelations itself will be performed at all three shows.
Other premieres will include Hope Boykin’s Finding Free (featuring a score by pianist Matthew Whitaker), May 11; and Lar Lubovitch’s Many Angels, which is set to Gustav Mahler’s Symphony No. 5 and has been described as a meditation on the question posed by the 13th century theologian St. Thomas Aquinas, “How many angels can dance on the head of a pin?,” May 10.
There will also be a 6 p.m. May 9 panel discussion in tribute to the late Judith Jamison, who served as the company’s artistic director from 1989 until 2011, and died last last. Participants will include Rushing and former company members, with dance critic Zita Allen moderating.
BOOKS
• Penn Jillette of the magic/comedy team Penn & Teller will sign copies of his new release “Felony Juggler: A Crime Novel,” May 14 at 6 p.m. at Bookends in Ridgewood. Promotional material sums the plot up this way: “A street performer finds himself enmeshed in a crime and must outwit his fellow conspirators in his greatest juggling act yet.”
Ben Affleck and Matt Damon in “Dogma.”
FILM
• Director Kevin Smith will celebrate the 25th anniversary of his comedy “Dogma” — co-starring Ben Affleck and Matt Damon as fallen angels, and featuring Alanis Morissette as God — with screenings and question-and-answer sessions at his SModcastle Cinemas in Atlantic Highlands, May 14 at 7:30 and 8:30 p.m. and May 15 at 6, 7:30 and 9 p.m.
OTHER
• Paisan Con — taking place at The Williams Center in Rutherford, May 9-11 — is an Italian-American culture festival with films, comedy, music, food and more, plus celebrity appearances with an emphasis on “The Sopranos” cast members, including Vincent Curatola (Johnny Sack), Federico Castelluccio (Furio), David Provale (Richie Aprile), Dan Grimaldi (the twins Patsy and Philly Parisi), Jason Cerbone (Jackie Aprile Jr.), Al Sapienza (Mikey Palmice), Oksana Lada (Irina) and Louis Lombari (Skip Lipari).
REVIEWS
“Safe Passage in Conversation with Her Flowers: Disruption of Old Narratives: Heather Williams” at Karl and Helen Burger Gallery at Kean University, Union. (Through May 9)
“Comfort” at New Jersey Repertory Company, Long Branch. (Through May 11)
“The Shark Is Broken,” presented by George Street Playhouse at New Brunswick Performing Arts Center. (Through May 18)
“James Prosek: At Work” at Morris Museum, Morris Township. (Through June 8)
“Tatyana Kazakova: In Spite of Our Fears” at Grover House Gallery, Caldwell. (Through June 27)
“Nanette Carter: A Question of Balance” at Montclair Art Museum. (Through July 6)
“Indigenous Identities: Here, Now & Always” at Zimmerli Art Museum, New Brunswick. (Through Dec. 21)
“Morven Revealed: Untold Stories From New Jersey’s Most Historic Home” at Morven Museum & Garden, Princeton. (Through March 1)
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