George Clooney and Adam Sandler co-star in “Jay Kelly,” which will screen at The Montclair Film Festival on Oct. 17.
Here is a roundup of major arts events taking place around New Jersey, through Oct. 23.
FILM
• The Montclair Film Festival — which has become, in its 14 years, New Jersey’s most substantial film festival — will take place from Oct. 17 to Oct. 26 at various Montclair locations, with appearances by Spike Lee, Brendan Fraser and Stephen Colbert; a chance to see new movies starring Emma Stone (“Bugonia”), Jeremy Allen White (“Springsteen: Deliver Me From Nowhere”), Sydney Sweeney (“Christy), Daniel Craig (“Wake Up Dead Man: A Knives Out Mystery”) and others; panel discussions and workshops; competitions; parties; podcast tapings, and more.
The festival will open, Oct. 17 at 7 p.m. at The Wellmont Theater, with the Noah Baumbach-directed “Jay Kelly,” co-starring George Clooney (as a famous actor) and Adam Sandler (as his manager). A question-and-answer session with the film’s soundtrack composer, Nicholas Britell, will follow.
As part of the festival, The Bellevue Theatre in Upper Montclair will reopen after being closed since 2017, starting with “The Sound of Music,” which ran at The Bellevue for several years in the mid-’60s, at noon Oct. 18.
• Kevin Smith’s SModcastle Cinemas in Atlantic Highlands will celebrate the 30th anniversary of the 1995 Smith-directed comedy “Mallrats” by screening it Oct. 18 at 7 p.m. and Oct. 19 at 3 p.m., with live commentary by Smith (who also acted in the film) as well as co-stars Jason Mewes and Jason Lee.
SModCastle Cinemas in Atlantic Highlands will screen “Hello! My Name Is Blotto: The Movie!,” Oct. 19.
• Rock fans of a certain age will surely remember Blotto. The Albany, New York-based band had a surprise hit in 1981 with the goofy novelty song “I Wanna Be a Lifeguard,” which was a staple of MTV in the station’s early days, and had some other minor successes as well before breaking up in 1984. SModcastle Cinemas in Atlantic Highlands will screen a new documentary about the band, “Hello! My Name Is Blotto!” (watch trailer below), Oct. 19 at 5 p.m., and its director — Rob Lichter, a longtime friend of the band aka Bert Blotto — will participate in a question-and-answer session after the screening.
• A musical version of “Frankenstein,” which ran off-Broadway from 2017 to 2020, now has a New Jersey-made movie version (see trailer below), and it will be screened at Art House Productions in Jersey City, Oct. 19 at 7:30 p.m.
Eric B. Sirota — who wrote the music and lyrics for the musical, and adapted the musical’s book from Mary Shelley’s 1818 novel — will talk about the film and answer questions, after the screening.
FILM/MUSIC
• New Jersey Symphony, conducted by Constantine Kitsopoulos, will perform music from Disney’s classic 1940 animated film “Fantasia” — as well as its 1999 sequel, “Fantasia 2000” — as scenes from both films are screened at The Mayo Performing Arts Center in Morristown, Oct. 23 at 7 p.m.; The Count Basie Center for the Arts, Oct. 15 at 2 p.m.; and The State Theatre in New Brunswick, Oct. 26 at 2 p.m.
MUSIC
• Tony Orlando will host a tribute to songwriter Larry Brown — whose credits include co-writing Orlando’s hits “Tie a Yellow Ribbon Round the Ole Oak Tree,” “Knock Three Times” and “Say, Has Anybody Seen My Sweet Gypsy Rose” — Oct. 17 at 2 p.m. at The New Jersey Hall of Fame entertainment and education center at the American Dream mall in East Rutherford.
Admission to the event is included with regular Hall of Fame admission.
JOHN PIZZARELLI
• Singer-guitarist John Pizzarelli and his trio will present a tribute to the late Tony Bennett, and Pizzarelli will be honored, at the 2025 New Jersey Arts Icon Gala taking place at The Axelrod Performing Arts Center in Deal, Oct. 18 at 8 p.m.
The gala will also include a cocktail hour, a silent auction and a post-show reception.
Also this weekend … The South Jersey Jazz Society will present Pizzarelli at The Gateway Playhouse in Somers Point, Oct. 17 at 7 p.m.
• M.C. Taylor, the North Carolina-based singer-songwriter who fronts the Grammy-nominated alt-country band Hiss Golden Messenger but also sometimes performs solo under that name, will bring his current solo Hiss Golden Messenger tour to The Outpost in the Burbs at The First Congregational Church in Montclair, Oct. 18 at 8 p.m. Rett Madison will open.
His Golden Messenger’s 2019 album Terms of Surrender was nominated for a Grammy, in the Best Americana Album category.
THEATER
• The Shakespeare Theatre of New Jersey will present “Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein,” David Catlin’s 2019 adaptation of the classic horror tale, at its F.M. Kirby Shakespeare Theatre at Drew University in Madison, from Oct. 22 to Nov. 16.
STNJ artistic director Brian B. Crowe (who will also direct this production) said in an interview with BroadwayWorld.com that it not only tells the classic “Frankenstein” story “but also explores the origins of that story, which is what drew me the most to this piece. … I’m eager to crash through the misconceptions that folks have after years and years of the Universal and Boris Karloff version of this story. Shelley’s book is so much richer; within the eerie suspense and moments of terror, it asks profound questions about identity, moral responsibility, and our universal need for connection.”
• American Theater Group will present “Our Town” — Thornton Wilder’s profound 1938 play about life in the fictional small town of Grover’s Corners, New Hampshire — in two locations. Oct. 23-26 and 30-31 and Nov. 1-2, it will be at The DMK Black Box Theatre at The Union Arts Center. Then it will be at The Sieminski Theatre in Basking Ridge, Nov. 6-9.
• Hudson Theatre Works will present “Edward Albee’s At Home at the Zoo: Homelife and The Zoo Story,” Oct. 23-26 and 30-31 and Nov. 1-2 and 6-8 at The Weehawken Water Tower. This work combines Albee’s 1959 one-act play “The Zoo Story” with a one-act prequel, “Homelife,” that Albee wrote more than 40 years later because he felt, he once said, that one of the two characters in “The Zoo Story” needed to be more “fleshed out.”
OTHER
• Darlene Love will receive a lifetime achievement award at Monmouth Arts’ “POP! ‘Til You Drop” Celebration & Dinner” at Asbury Lanes, Oct. 23 at 6:30 p.m. Stevie Van Zandt and Tim McLoone will present her with the award. Other honorees will include singer-songwriter and actor Val Emmich; Eileen Chapman, director of the Bruce Springsteen Archives and Center for American Music at Monmouth University; the Ansell Grimm & Aaron law firm; and artist Knowledge Bennett. DJ Pepe Loco will provide the music, and Remember Jones will host a live auction.
There will also be a VIP cocktail party at 5:30 p.m., at The Soundbooth at the nearby hotel The Asbury.
KRISP VISUALS
Colin Pieters plays the title character in “Hamlet” at Art House Productions in Jersey City, through Oct. 26.
REVIEWS
“Lisa Ficarelli-Halpern: The Florilegium” at Watchung Arts Center. (Through Oct. 25)
“Topdog/Underdog,” presented by Vanguard Theater Company at Vanguard Theater, Montclair. (Through Oct. 26)
“Hamlet” at Art House Productions, Jersey City. (Through Oct. 26)
“The Supreme Leader” at Mile Square Theatre, Hoboken. (Through Oct. 26)
“Troy Jones: Echoes of the Diaspora — A Study in Style, Culture and the African Mask” at Morris Museum, Morris Township. (Through Oct. 26)
“Bull Durham” at Paper Mill Playhouse, Millburn. (Through Nov. 2)
“Léni Paquet-Morante: Extract/Abstract,” presented by Princeton University Art Museum at Art@Bainbridge. (Through Nov. 2)
“Indigenous Identities: Here, Now & Always” at Zimmerli Art Museum, New Brunswick. (Through Dec. 21)
“Tom Nussbaum: But Wait, There’s More!” at Montclair Art Museum. (Through Jan. 4)
“Morven Revealed: Untold Stories From New Jersey’s Most Historic Home” at Morven Museum & Garden, Princeton. (Through March 1)
“Salvador Jiménez-Flores: Raíces & Resistencias” at Grounds for Sculpture, Hamilton. (Through Aug. 1, 2027)
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