SCOTT ROBERT RITCHIE
Ringo Starr and His All Starr Band.
Here is a roundup of major arts events taking place around New Jersey, through Oct. 1.
MUSIC
• Ringo Starr and His All Starr Band’s fall tour will include a concert at The PNC Bank Arts Center in Holmdel, Sept. 27 at 7 p.m. The band will include Steve Lukather (of Toto), Colin Hay (of Men at Work), Hamish Stuart (if The Average White Band), Warren Ham, Gregg Bissonette and Buck Johnson.
Starr, 86, released a new album, Long Long Road, in April. Contributors include Billy Strings, Sheryl Crow, St. Vincent, Molly Tuttle and Sarah Jarosz.
This is the 16th version of the All Starr Band, whose first edition came together in 1989 to back Starr on tour. They have played at The PNC Bank Arts Center many times over the years; most recently, in 2008.
• This month marks the 50th anniversary of the release of AC/DC‘s album Dirty Deeds Done Dirt Cheap, whose title track became the Australian band’s first major United States hit. The band will bring it Power Up Tour, which is named after their most recent tour, to MetLife Stadium in East Rutherford, Sept. 25 at 7 p.m., with The Pretty Reckless opening.
The band’s current lineup features co-founder Angus Young on lead guitar and Brian Johnson (who joined in 1980, replacing the late Bon Scott) on lead vocals, plus Stevie Young (Angus’ nephew) on rhythm guitar, Chris Chaney (formerly of Jane’s Addiction and other groups) on bass, and Matt Laug (who has played with Alice Cooper, Alanis Morissette and others) on drums.
DAVID WROE
• New Jersey Festival Orchestra will open its 2026-27 season with concerts at The Presbyterian Church in Westfield, Sept. 26 at 7 p.m.; and The Sieminski Theater in Basking Ridge, Sept. 27 at 2:30 p.m. The orchestra’s music director David Wroe will conduct an “America: Honoring 250 Years” program, which will include Aaron Copland’s Lincoln Portrait and Antonín Dvořák’s Symphony No. 9, “From the New World” (influenced by traditional American music and written when the Czech composer was living in New York) at both venues, as well as Mozart’s Concerto for Two Pianos and Orchestra, K. 365 in Basking Ridge only.
Former NJFO president Louis Francz and state Sen. Jon Bramnick will serve as the narrators of Lincoln Portrait on Sept. 26 and Sept. 27, respectively, and Kate Lee and Kaiden Griggs will be featured on the Mozart concerto.
• Seals & Crofts 2, featuring Brady Seals and Lua Crofts, will perform at The Berrie Center at Ramapo College in Mahwah, Sept. 26 at 7:30 p.m. Seals & Crofts, of course, was the ’70s soft-rock duo (Jim Seals and Dash Crofts) known for hits such as “Summer Breeze,” “Diamond Girl,” “We May Never Pass This Way (Again)” and “Get Closer.” Brady Seals is a cousin of the late Jim Seals and the late Dan Seals (of England Dan & John Ford Coley fame), and has had country hits as a solo artist and a member of the band Little Texas. Lua Crofts is the daughter of the late Dash Crofts and has worked as a session musician since the ’90s.
The show will include Seals & Crofts songs as well as original material.
JOEL DE LA FUENTE
THEATER
• Luna Stage in West Orange will present Jeanne Sakata’s “Hold These Truths” — with one actor, Joel de la Fuente, playing all 36 roles — from Sept. 24 to Oct. 18. The politically timely play was inspired by Gordon Hirabayashi, who used the legal system to fight against the United States’ internment of Japanese Americans during World War II.
• Members of The Royal Shakespeare Company — which is based in Stratford-upon-Avon, England — are doing a residency at Montclair State University that will culminate in a script-in-hand performance of “Hamlet” featuring Montclair State students. It will take place at the university’s Kasser Theater, Sept. 25 at 3 p.m.; it will be free, though tickets are required.
DANCE
• The Wellmont Arts Plaza will host this year’s Montclair Dance Festival, Sept. 27 from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m., with more than 30 dance organizations — including mainstays of the New Jersey dance scene such as Nimbus Dance, Carolyn Dorfman Dance, Freespace Dance and The Alborada Spanish Dance Theatre — presenting pieces.
The festival is free, though tickets for VIP seating will be sold.
TONY DANZA
WORDS
• The American Theater Group and The Union Arts Center will launch an “In Conversation” series at the arts center’s DMK Black Box Theater, Sept. 28 at 7 p.m., with an event featuring actor and singer Tony Danza.
ATG’s new producing artistic director Charlotte Cohn will moderate and, according to a press release, “engage Danza in discussions about how he got his start, past roles, working in the entertainment business and what lies ahead for the star. Attendees can expect anecdotes about his life and career along with advice for aspiring artists. The evening will include a short Q&A.”
Cohn said, in the press release, “I envision this new series as an ‘in person’ podcast. I hope to create interest around celebrities and trending topics, eventually expanding to include guests who are leaders from our local community. My hope is for the series to foster connections at a place where candid discussions are had not only about the arts and the theater, but current events as well. To me, it all starts with a conversation.”
• Former “Saturday Night Live” cast member Kate McKinnon will sign copies of “The Jungle of Carabanana,” the third book in her “Millicent Quibb School of Etiquette for Young Ladies of Mad Science” series of novels for young adults, Sept. 28 at 7 p.m. at the Books & Greetings store in Northvale.
• Harry Connick Jr. will sign copies of his new book “Babe: Elaboratio: A Tribute to My Mother” — about his mother, Anita-Francis Livingston “Babe” Connick, a lawyer, judge and record store co-owner who died when he was 13 — Sept. 30 at 6 p.m. at the Bookends bookstore in Ridgewood.
The book is being released in conjunction with an album of the same name, featuring a Connick-written symphony that was performed at Carnegie Hall in May.
A poster for Kevin Smith’s 1994 movie “Clerks.”
FILM
• SModcastle Cinemas in Atlantic Highlands will screen Kevin Smith’s indie landmark “Clerks” (1994) as well as its sequels “Clerks II” (2006) and “Clerks III” (2022), Sept. 25 at 11 p.m., with Smith, who owns the theater, on hand to talk about them.
• The Bruce Springsteen Center for American Music at Monmouth University in West Long Branch will screen the Greg Mitchell-directed, Rosanne Cash-narrated documentary “Woody Guthrie and the Ghost of Tom Joad Today,” as well as Mitchell’s short film “Woody Lives!” (featuring Bruce Springsteen, Bob Dylan, Pete Seeger, Tom Morello, Mavis Staples and others), Sept. 25 at 7:30 p.m.
A discussion with Mitchell — who wrote about Springsteen for Crawdaddy magazine, all the way back in 1972 — will follow the films.
This will be the East Coast premiere of “Woody Lives!”
• The South Orange Performing Arts Center will screen the documentary “Gregg Allman: The Music of My Soul,” Sept. 30 at 7 p.m., followed by a discussion featuring the late Allman’s manager Michael Lehman and writer, Allman Brothers Band expert and Friends of the Brothers band member Alan Paul.
Friends of the Brothers member Junior Mack will also open the evening with a three-song acoustic trio set.
You can watch a trailer for the film, below.
VISUAL ARTS
• More than 150 venues, all over Jersey City, will participate in the Oct. 1-4 JCAST (Jersey City Art and Studio Tour), with music, poetry and film also offered, in addition to the art displays.
The theme of this edition of the annual event is “Unbounded Nature,” with artists invited “to explore the relationship between humanity and the natural world — raw, limitless, and free.”
CHUCK BOBROWSKI
Eddie Brigati, left, and the late David Brigati in 2016.
OTHER
• SZA, former Gov. Christine Todd Whitman, Lawrence Taylor and three members of The Rascals (Eddie Brigati, the late Dino Danelli, the late David Brigati) will be among the honorees of this year’s New Jersey Hall of Fame induction ceremony, taking place Sept. 24 at 7 p.m. at the Dream Live theater at the American Dream mall in East Rutherford.
Danny DeVito will host, and Stevie Van Zandt and Harry Carson will be among the presenters.
Click HERE for a new interview with Eddie Brigati, in which he discusses his induction, and more.
• Delta Hotels Woodbridge in Iselin will host the New Jersey Horror Con and Film Festival, Sept. 25-27, with screenings, panel discussions, vendors and more, plus appearances by Susan Sarandon (Sept. 26 only), Kristy Swanson, Kevin Smith (Sept. 27 only), Dee Wallace (Sept. 25-26 only), Brian O’Halloran (Sept. 26-27 only), Barbara Crampton, Christine Elise, Alex Vincent, Sean Patrick Flannery, Felissa Rose and others.
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REVIEWS
“Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?,” presented by Shakespeare Theatre of New Jersey at F.M. Kirby Shakespeare Theatre at Drew University, Madison. (Through Sept. 27)
“Scott Harbison: Recent Sightings” at Galerie Lucida, Red Bank. (Through Oct. 18)
“Salvador Jiménez-Flores: Raíces & Resistencias” at Grounds for Sculpture, Hamilton. (Through Aug. 1)
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