Top 10 NJ Arts Events of Week: Metallica, Outlaw Music Festival, ‘On the Town,’ more

by JAY LUSTIG
metallica nj preview

Metallica will perform at MetLife Stadium in East Rutherford, Aug. 4 and 6.

Here is a roundup of arts events taking place around the state, through Aug. 10.

MUSIC

• Metallica will perform at MetLife Stadium in East Rutherford, Aug. 4 and 6 at 6 p.m., and, the band promises, no songs will be repeated in the two shows. The shows will also have different opening acts: Pantera and Mammoth WVH (featuring Wolfgang Van Halen) on Aug. 4; and Five Finger Death Punch and Ice Nine Kills on Aug. 6. The bands will perform in an in-the-round format.

Metallica’s Lars Ulrich has called the “no repeat” concept “a fun experiment, and when you’ve been playing for as long as we have and playing as many shows as we have, I think it’s important to keep coming up with new ideas, to keep it fresh for the fans and fresh for yourselves.”

Also, Prong (Aug. 4) and Overkill (Aug. 6) will perform sets in the MetLife parking lot, at 3 p.m.

WILLIE NELSON

Willie Nelson, who turned 90 in April and will be inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in November, will bring his Outlaw Music Festival to the PNC Bank Arts Center in Holmdel, Aug. 6 at 3:55 p.m. Other performers at the show will include The Avett Brothers, Marcus King, Kathleen Edwards, Flatland Cavalry and Particle Kid (featuring Nelson’s son Micah).

The festival began on June 23 and runs through Oct. 15, with lineups varying from city to city. This will be its only New Jersey stop.

From Good Homes, the Jersey-based roots-rock band that presented a farewell show at the Waterloo Village Concert Tent 24 years ago this month, will reunite for a show at The Fields at Waterloo in Hackettstown, Aug. 5 at 4:50 p.m.

Yarn and Maribyrd will open, and From Good Homes will play two sets.

• John Eddie will celebrate the 20th anniversary of his album Who the Hell Is John Eddie? at a venue where that question really isn’t relevant — The Stone Pony in Asbury Park, where he has performed a million times before — Aug. 5 at 7 p.m. and Aug. 6 at 6:30 p.m. Bowen*Young, featuring Clare Bowen of the television series “Nashville” and her husband Brandon Robert Young, will open both shows. The Pat Guadagno Trio is also on the bill on Aug. 5, and Jarod Clemons will perform on Aug. 6.

DON FELDER

• Don Felder — a member of The Eagles from 1974 and 1980 and from 1994 and 2001, whose contributions during those years included co-writing the songs “Hotel California,” “Victim of Love” and “Those Shoes” — will perform at BergenPAC in Englewood, Aug. 5 at 8 p.m.; and the Mayo Performing Arts Center in Morristown, Aug. 9 at 8 p.m.

THEATER

The Music Mountain Theatre in Lambertville presents “On the Town,” Aug. 4-6, 11-13 and 18-20. This classic musical about sailors on leave in New York during World War II — featuring music by Leonard Bernstein and book and lyrics by Betty Comden and Adolph Green — is best known for the song “New York, New York,” in which the sailors agree, “New York, New York, a helluva town/The Bronx is up, but the Battery’s down/The people ride in a hole in the ground/New York, New York, it’s a helluva town!”

The East Lynne Theater Company in Cape May will present “Driving Miss Daisy,” Aug. 3-5, 9-12, 16-19, 23-26 and 30-31 and Sept. 1-2. Alfred Uhry’s 1987 play about an elderly white, Southern widow and her Black chauffeur won a Pulitzer Prize, and its 1989 film adaptation was named Best Picture by the Oscars, with Jessica Tandy winning the Best Actress award. In this production, T. Cat Ford will play Daisy and Art McFarland will be the chauffeur, Hoke Colburn.

FAMILY

The New Jersey State Fair/Sussex County Farm and Horse Show will take place at the Sussex County Fairgrounds in Augusta, Aug. 4-12, with tractor pulls, pig races, art exhibitions, rides, carnival games, and many other forms of entertainment. Musical offerings will range from country group Whiskey Crossing to Robbie Lawrence & the Steelworkers Polka Band and the rock tribute bands Monkey Wrench and Wicked Garden, playing the music of the Foo Fighters and Stone Temple Pilots, respectively.

FILM

In addition to being one of many New Jersey movie theaters to be currently showing “Oppenheimer,” the Princeton Garden Theatre is perhaps the only one to be showing “A Compassionate Spy,” a new documentary about Ted Hall, who was, along with Robert Oppenheimer, part of the Manhattan Project team that developed the atomic bomb. Hall admitted giving information about nuclear technology to the Soviet Union, though he never was charged with a crime. Princeton Garden screenings are scheduled for Aug. 4 and 6-10.

Humphrey Bogart in “The Maltese Falcon.”

The Barrymore Film Center in Fort Lee will give film fans an opportunity to see some great noir films on the big screen in its Essential Noir series, featuring “The Maltese Falcon,” Aug. 4 at 7:30 p.m.; “The Big Sleep,” Aug. 5 at 2 p.m.; “Murder, My Sweet,” Aug. 5 at 4:45 p.m.; “Double Indemnity,” Aug. 5 at 7:15 p.m.; “Nightmare Alley,” Aug. 6 at 2 p.m.; and “Out of the Past,” Aug. 6 at 4:15 p.m.

REVIEWS

“A Tailor Near Me” at New Jersey Repertory Company, Long Branch. (Through Aug. 27)

“Each One Teach One: Preserving Legacy in Perpetuity” at Morris Museum, Morris Township. (Through Aug. 27)

“Claybash 2023” at Hunterdon Art Museum, Clinton. (Through Sept. 3)

“Where There’s Smoke” by Lance Weiler at ArtYard, Frenchtown. (Through Oct. 1)

“Victor Ekpuk: Language and Lineage,” presented by Princeton University Art Museum at Bainbridge House, Princeton. (Through Oct. 8)

“Spiral Q: The Parade” at Grounds for Sculpture, Hamilton. (Through Jan. 7)

“Local Voices: Memories, Stories and Portraits” at Grounds for Sculpture, Hamilton. (Through Jan. 7)

“George Inness: Visionary Landscapes” at Montclair Art Museum. (Through June 30)

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