Beyoncé has five shows scheduled for MetLife Stadium.
Here is a roundup of major arts events taking place around New Jersey, through May 30.
MUSIC
• Beyoncé will bring her Cowboy Carter Tour — named after her Cowboy Carter album, which was named both Best Country Album and Album of the Year at this year’s Grammy Awards — to MetLife Stadium in East Rutherford, May 22, 24-25 and 28-29 at 7 p.m. This represents the first time an artist has played at this stadium, which opened in 2010, five times on a single tour.
Reviewing the tour-opening show in April, in San Diego, Bryan Armen Graham of theguardian.com wrote that “she brings forth a sweeping, theatrical spectacle that reclaims country music, reframes American identity and reminds everyone who’s still driving pop’s evolution after all these years. Her nearly three-hour, seven-act performance draws heavily from Cowboy Carter — her Grammy-winning country epic — and threads in nods to Renaissance, the ballroom-infused predecessor that lit up stadiums barely two years ago. Rather than stake a claim in country, Beyoncé goes deeper: celebrating the Black roots of the genre and exploding its boundaries with precision, power and polish.”
• “BobFest,” Pat Guadagno & Tired Horses’ annual Bob Dylan tribute concerts, taking place May 22 at 7 p.m. at The Vogel at The Count Basie Center for the Arts in Red Bank (with a second show scheduled for May 29 at 7 p.m.), will have the theme of “Rare & Unreleased.” Singer-guitarist Guadagno is joined in the band by guitarists Rich Oddo and Steven Delopoulos, bassist Red River Rizzo, harmonica player Rob Paparozzi, drummer Joe Bellia, violinist Gary Oleyar and singer Mary McCrink; most of the instrumentalists sing as well. “It’s just mind-blowing how good these guys are,” said Guadagno in a recent NJArts.net interview.
“BobFest” began, in 1998, as a way to celebrate Dylan’s birthday; he will turn 84 on May 24.
• Darrell Scott, a longtime mainstay of the Nashville music scene who has written or co-written many songs that have been hits for other artists — including “Long Time Gone” (The Chicks), “Born to Fly” (Sara Evans), “It’s a Great Day to Be Alive” (Travis Tritt) and “You’ll Never Leave Harlan Alive” (Patty Loveless) — will present a solo show at The Williams Center in Rutherford, May 22 at 7 p.m.
DOUG HARDESTY
TAB BENOIT
• The fiery Louisiana-born blues artist Tab Benoit — who released his first studio album in 13 years, I Hear Thunder, last year — will bring his I Hear Thunder Tour to The Vogel at The Count Basie Center for the Arts in Red Bank, May 28 at 7:30 p.m., with the Belgian blues-rock artist Ghalia Volt opening.
Benoit will also return to New Jersey soon for two more shows: June 2 at 8 p.m. at The Sunset Jazz Series at Wiggins Park in Camden; and June 5 at 8 p.m. at The Newton Theatre.
• The 12th annual Jersey City Jazz Festival will take place May 30-31, with free performances on three stages on the Hudson River waterfront. Also, leading up to it, various Jersey City venues will present both free and ticketed events from May 27 to May 29. Performers will include The Rumble (featuring Big Chief Joseph Boudreaux Jr.); Winard Harper & Jeli Posse; Artemis (featuring Renee Rosnes, Ingrid Jensen, Nicole Glover, Noriko Ueda and Allison Miller); Steven Bernstein’s Millennial Territory Orchestra featuring Catherine Russell; Fred Hersch, John Hébert & Bennie Wallace; Astoria Salsa Company; Sam Barsh; James Austin Jr. (performing his Stevie Wonder tribute); April May Webb; Tyreek McDole; Tim Berne; WBGO’s Next Gen Collective; The Riverview Jazz All-Stars, led by Bryan Beninghove; The NJCU Jazz Ensemble; Champian Fulton; and The United Children’s Music Program’s Latin Ensemble.
• The Iolanthe Opera Company will present “The Grand Tour: Opera and Its Legacy” — described as “a journey of compelling favorites from grand opera, art song, and musical theater” — May 30 at 3 p.m. at The 1867 Sanctuary in Ewing. Works by Bizet, Fauré, Gounod, Mahler, Mozart, Offenbach, Rossini, Schubert and others will be featured.
HILLARY FISHER
THEATER
• The Paper Mill Playhouse in Millburn will present “Disney’s The Little Mermaid,” with previews starting on May 29, the official opening night on June 1, and the last show on June 29. Based on the 1989 animated film (which was, in turn, inspired by a Hans Christian Andersen story), the musical includes songs from it (such as “Kiss the Girl,” “Under the Sea,” “Part of Your World” and “Poor Unfortunate Souls”), with additional songs as well. It began previews on Broadway in 2007 and ran there through 2009.
Hillary Fisher, who made her Broadway debut last year in “The Notebook,” will star as Ariel, the mermaid who yearns to be human.
• Crossroads Theatre Company will present “Vanguards: Collected Excerpts From Yesterday, Today, and Tomorrow,” May 23-25 and 27-31 and June 1 at The New Brunswick Performing Arts Center. Crossroads describes this work as “a celebration of some of the most treasured works from our archive with contemporary voices of today and new plays that reflect the promise of tomorrow. The common thread is that these works and artists found a home at Crossroads and have inspired the next generation of storytellers.”
Represented in “Vanguards” are new works by Silma Sierra Berrada (“Pearls”) and James Anthony Tyler (“Hop ThA A”) plus “Two Hah Hahs and a Homeboy” (1995) by Ruby Dee and Ossie Davis, and “for colored girls who have considered suicide/when the rainbow is enuf” (1976) by Ntozake Shange.
• Classic Irving Berlin songs such as “Cheek to Cheek,” “Puttin’ on the Ritz” and “Let’s Face the Music and Dance” will be heard in “Top Hat: The Musical,” which will be presented at The Surflight Theatre in Beach Haven, May 28-31 and June 1-4 and 10-15. Based on the 1935 Fred Astaire-Ginger Rogers film of the same name, “Top Hat” debuted in London in 2011, and this will be its North American premiere.
Russell Crowe in “A Beautiful Mind.”
FILM
• The Princeton Garden Theatre will screen “A Beautiful Mind,” May 22 at 7 p.m. and May 23 at 1:30 p.m. The film, which stars Russell Crowe and won the Oscar for Best Picture in 2002, is about the Nobel Prize-winning mathematician John Nash, and some of it was shot on location at Princeton University (where Nash received his PhD).
Some of the proceeds from the screening will go to the MIT Alumni Club of Princeton (Nash taught at MIT), and Frank Rumore, president of the MIT Alumni Club of Princeton, will lead post-film discussions.
REVIEWS
“Primary Trust” at Berlind Theater at McCarter Theatre Center, Princeton. (Through May 25)
“the ripple, the wave that carried me home” at Luna Stage, West Orange. (Through May 25)
“James Prosek: At Work” at Morris Museum, Morris Township. (Through June 8)
“Tatyana Kazakova: In Spite of Our Fears” at Grover House Gallery, Caldwell. (Through June 27)
“Nanette Carter: A Question of Balance” at Montclair Art Museum. (Through July 6)
“Indigenous Identities: Here, Now & Always” at Zimmerli Art Museum, New Brunswick. (Through Dec. 21)
“Morven Revealed: Untold Stories From New Jersey’s Most Historic Home” at Morven Museum & Garden, Princeton. (Through March 1)
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