Top 10 NJ Arts Events of the Week: Jurassic World Live, ‘Conscience,’ The Fab Faux, more

by JAY LUSTIG
jurassic world tour newark

The Jurassic World Live Tour comes to the Prudential Center in Newark, Feb. 27-29 and March 1.

A roundup of arts events taking place around the state, through March 6:

FAMILY

The Jurassic World Live tour comes to the Prudential Center in Newark, with shows Feb. 28 at 11 a.m. and 7 p.m.; and Feb. 29 and March 1 at 11 a.m. and 3 and 7 p.m. The production tells an original story — not identical to the plot of any “Jurassic Park” or “Jurassic World” movie — with animatronic dinosaurs, some of which are immensely large, plus human actors. It is appropriate for fans of all ages. (see video below)

MUSIC

Beatles albums were not, generally, very long, and so Beatles tribute band The Fab Faux can do not one, not two, but three of them in their entirety at a concert, and still have time for some more songs. They’ll do so Feb. 29 at 8 p.m. at the Wellmont Theater in Montclair, playing A Hard Day’s Night and Revolver (both of which clock in at under a half hour in their U.S. versions) as well as the 47-minute Abbey Road.

Pianist and composer Ted Rosenthal will give a free lecture and recital about his jazz opera, “Dear Erich,” March 3 at 7:30 p.m. at the Nicholas Music Center at Rutgers University in New Brunswick. The opera is based on 1938 letters from his grandmother, who was living in Nazi Germany, to his father in Chicago.

SIMONE PORTER

Violinist Simone Porter will join the New Jersey Symphony Orchestra for Mendelssohn’s Violin Concerto, Feb. 29 at 8 p.m. at the State Theatre in New Brunswick, and March 1 at 3 p.m. at Prudential Hall at NJPAC in Newark. The orchestra will be conducted by Christoph König, and the programs will also include Mozart’s Overture to The Magic Flute and Bruckner’s Symphony No. 6.

• Jim Messina is best known as a member of the ’70s duo Loggins & Messina, of course, though he also was a member of the adventurous rock band Buffalo Springfield in the ’60s, and co-founded the pioneering country-rock group Poco. He’ll perform at the South Orange Performing Arts Center, March 5 at 7:30 p.m.

The Rutgers Jazz Ensemble will honor the late guitarist Vic Juris, a Rutgers faculty member, with a Memorial Concert, March 6 at 7:30 p.m. at the Nicholas Music Center at Rutgers University in New Brunswick. Guitarist Dave Stryker will perform with the group.

THEATER

August Wilson’s “Pittsburgh Cycle” (also known as the “Century Cycle”) is an acclaimed series of 10 plays about African-American life in the 20th century, with one set in each of the century’s decades. The Two River Theater in Red Bank plans to produce all 10 (though not in chronological order). It has already done five, and continues with “Radio Golf,” the last play in the Cycle (set in the 1990s) as well as the last play Wilson wrote before dying in 2005. It will begin previews on Feb. 29, officially open on March 6, and close on March 22.

HARRIET HARRIS

Tony winner Harriet Harris will star as Sen. Margaret Chase Smith in “Conscience,” a new play by Joe DiPietro (“Memphis,” “The Toxic Avenger,” “I Love You, You’re Perfect, Now Change”) that will begin previews of a George Street Playhouse production at the New Brunswick Performing Arts Center on March 3, officially open on March 6, and run through March 29. The play centers around the “Declaration of Conscience” speech that Smith, a Republican from Maine, gave on the Senate floor in 1950, condemning McCarthyism.

The American Theater Group presents “Till” — a new musical based on the life of Emmett Till, whose lynching in Mississippi at the age of 14, in 1955, helped spark the Civil Rights Movement — at St. Andrew’s Church in South Orange, Feb. 28-29 and March 5-7 at 7 p.m., and March 1 and 8 at 2 p.m. The March 5 performance will be followed by a talkback by the Rev. Wheeler Parker Jr., Till’s cousin and the last living witness to the events leading up to the murder.

OTHER

Fashion designer and TV personality Isaac Mizrahi will present a show that combines music with stand-up comedy, Feb. 29 at 8 p.m. at the McCarter Theatre Center in Princeton. According to the theater’s website, at the show, titled “Movie Stars and Supermodels!,” Mizrahi “will perform a range of tunes by the likes of John Denver, Bill Withers, Cy Coleman and Stephen Sondheim. He’ll dish on model fittings, intimate dinners and exclusive parties with Hollywood’s elite, while sharing his hilarious musings on everything of the moment from politics to dieting to his latest Instagram obsessions.”

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