COURTESY OF COUNT BASIE CENTER FOR THE ARTS
The marquee and Walk of Fame at The Count Basie Center for the Arts in Red Bank.
The Count Basie Center for the Arts — which will celebrate its 100th anniversary on Nov. 11, 2026 — has announced a 16-month Centennial Celebration, and released a video featuring narration by Jon Stewart, who calls the Basie “a shining reminder of the power of the arts.” You can watch it below.
The Red Bank center’s main theater — originally known as Reade’s Carlton and devoted to film and vaudeville — is now called The Hackensack Meridian Health Theatre and is the centerpiece of a multi-faceted facility that includes the smaller theater The Vogel and The Grunin Arts Education Building, with Basie Center Cinemas nearby. More than 300,000 people attend events at the Basie Center annually, with its educational offerings reaching more than 20,000 students each year, both through on-site programs and others presented in schools and in the community.
USED BY SPECIAL PERMISSION TO THE COUNT BASIE CENTER, COURTESY OF DORN'S CLASSIC IMAGES
The Reade’s Carlton theater in 1950.
The Centennial Celebration will include:
• The creation of a Count Basie Center Walk of Fame, whose first inductees will be jazz great and Red Bank native William James “Count” Basie and a performer to be named later.
• “100 Years of Soul, Sounds and Stories,” a project collecting and sharing stories of community members’ experiences at the Basie.
• A comedic “roast” of New Jersey itself. Date and performers TBA.
• Collaborations with businesses and organizations such as Brix City Brewing (will will create a CentenniALE IPA) and Bridging the Gap (which will create a Basie Center Centennial Swing coffee). Sales will benefit The Basie and veterans charities.
• ParkStage, the previously announced outdoor venue created in partnership with Monmouth County Tourism at The East Freehold Park Fairgrounds, will open in the summer 2026.
• Stamped Stories, a collaboration Monmouth Arts to commission designs for a 12-month postcard set celebrating the Basie Center by decade.
• A decade-by-decade celebration of film at Basie Center Cinemas.
• A three-day “throwback” finale in November 2026 that will include a screening with live musical accompaniment of “The Quarterback” — the silent film (starring Richard Dix) that was shown on opening night of The Reade’s Carlton in 1926 — and more.
For information and updates, visit thebasie.org/centennial.
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