DAVELL CRAWFORD
Here is a roundup of arts events taking place around the state, through Sept. 16:
MUSIC
• The Central Jersey Jazz Festival will offer free music in four different cities this week: Davell Crawford (see video below), the Charles Turner Quartet and the NJPAC Alumni Trio on Stangl Road in Flemington, Sept. 10 at 7 p.m.; the Terell Stafford Quintet, the Mark Whitfield Quartet, the Emily Braden Quartet and the New Brunswick Jazz Project Brass on Livingston Street (in front of the New Brunswick Performing Arts Center), Sept. 11 at 1 p.m.; the Marcus Printup Quintet (featuring Riza Printup) and the Metuchen High School Jazz Ensemble at Town Plaza (at New and Pearl streets) in Metuchen, Sept. 11 at 6 p.m.; and the Orrin Evans Quartet, Dara Tucker and the NJPAC Alumni Trio at the Somerset County Court House Green in Somerville, Sept. 12 at 3 p.m.
• This year’s edition of pop-rock mastermind Jack Antonoff’s annual Shadow of the City festival takes place at the Stone Pony Summer Stage in Asbury Park, Sept. 11 from 1 to 10 p.m., with Antonoff’s band Bleachers headlining. Other performers will include Japanese Breakfast, Beach Bunny, Claud, Blu DeTiger and Long Beard.
Proceeds will go to the Ally Coalition’s work with homeless and at-risk LGBTQ youth
CHIA MESSINA
DANIELIA COTTON
• The Hopewell Theater will celebrate both its fourth anniversary and its reopening with an 8 p.m. Sept. 10 concert by the dynamic singer-songwriter Danielia Cotton, who grew up in Hopewell. The theater, whose history dates back to 1880, had fallen into disrepair but underwent extensive renovation before reopening in its current incarnation in 2017. Other shows currently booked at the theater include Pyrenesia, Sept. 17; Patty Larkin, Oct. 16; and Chris Pierce, Nov. 5.
• This year’s Metal Hall of Fame induction ceremony will take place online, Sept. 12 at 2 p.m., but there will be an in-person pre-show event beginning at noon that day at the Middletown Arts Center, which is currently hosting a photography exhibition, “The Decade that Rocked: A Tribute to Eighties Rock & Metal by Photographer Mark Weiss.” Weiss, who is being inducted into the Metal Hall of Fame this year, will participate in the Middletown event along with Jay Jay French of Twisted Sister, Ross the Boss of Manowar and The Dictators, drummer and Hall co-founder Pat Gesualdo, and album cover artist Ioannis.
The Dictators — featuring Ross the Boss, Andy Shernoff and Albert Bouchard — will introduce a new singer/guitarist via an acoustic performance at the event.
There will be no admission charge. Tickets can be reserved by emailing info@TheMetalHallofFame.org. The induction ceremony itself can be streamed at volume.com/metalhalloffame at 2 p.m.
In addition to Weiss, inductees will include “legacy members” of Kiss and Iron Maiden, Triumph, Stryper, and guitarist Marty Friedman.
Suzanne Dawson will star in “Dorothy Parker: A Certain Woman.”
THEATER
• Dorothy Parker, the writer best known for her sharp wit, will be celebrated in “Dorothy Parker: A Certain Woman,” a world premiere play starring Suzanne Dawson and presented by the East Lynne Theater Company at Cape May Presbyterian Church, Sept. 15-18, 22-25 and 29-30 and Oct. 1-2, 6-9 and 13-16 at 8 p.m.
• Hoboken’s Mile Square Theatre will begin presenting in-person performances again for the first time since the pandemic began with free, outdoor productions of the manic spoof, “The Complete Works of William Shakespeare (abridged) [revised],” Sept. 16-19, 23-26 and 29-30 and Oct. 1-2 at 8 p.m. at the Sinatra Park Amphitheatre.
DANCE
• This year’s edition of the free, annual Dance on the Lawn festival, taking place Sept. 11 at 3 p.m. at St. Luke’s Episcopal Church in Montclair, features works by Inimois Dance/Nai-Ni Chen Dance Company, 277 dance project/Nicole Phillippidis and Chalvar Monteiro & Jacquelin Harris, plus Emerging Commissioned New Jersey Choreographer Amber Sloan and New Jersey dance schools.
FILM
• The South Orange Performing Arts Center suffered major storm damage last week and has had to close until Oct. 1, but the neighboring Village at SOPAC movie theater has been able to stay open, and is launching, in addition to its regular programming, a “Cinema Lab Celebrates … Michael Keaton” series with screenings of “Batman,” Sept. 11-12 at 5 p.m. This will be followed by “Clean & Sober,” Sept. 15 and 18-19; “The Other Guys,” Sept. 22 and 25-26; and “Beetlejuice,” Sept. 29 and Oct. 2-3.
“Twelve Cadillacs,” by Andy Warhol.
VISUAL ART
• Andy Warhol’s “Twelve Cadillacs” (1962), shown at right, will be one of more than 60 pieces of art included in “Transformed: Objects Reimagined by American Artists,” an exhibition that will open at the Montclair Art Museum on Sept. 11 and run through early 2023. Other artists in the exhibition will include Jasper Johns, Maurice Prendergast, Arshille Gorky, Man Ray, Louise Nevelson and Romare Bearden. According to a description on the museum’s web site, these artists “take objects as their points of departure, transforming them to reflect their varied cultural backgrounds and viewpoints.”
Also opening at the museum on Sept. 11 is “Color Riot! How Color Changed Navajo Textiles.”
OTHER
• Actor Steve Buscemi will participate in “Being Buscemi: An Eve With Steve!,” a benefit for the New York-based Friends of Firefighters organization hosted by director-actor Kevin Smith. It will take place at Smith’s SModCastle podcast theater in the Leonardo section of Middletown, Sept. 10 at 8 p.m., and be streamed live for free via Tiltify, with donations to Friends of Firefighters accepted.
Friends of Firefighters provides mental health counseling and wellness services to New York City Fire Department members and their relatives.
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