DIEGO BRAWN
CECE WINANS
Here is a roundup of major arts events taking place around New Jersey, through Dec. 24.
MUSIC
• Gospel singer CeCe Winans’ 2024 release Joyful, Joyful: A Christmas Album is a “reimagined” version of 2018’s Something’s Happening! A Christmas Album, with new tracks including her take on the holiday classic “Joy to the World” (listen below). She will present “Christmas With CeCe Winans” shows at Prudential Hall at NJPAC in Newark, Dec. 19-20 at 8 p.m.
Joining her will be her younger sisters Angie and Debbie Winans, who record and tour as a duo.
• The orchestral rock group Trans-Siberian Orchestra will perform at The Prudential Center in Newark, Dec. 19 at 3 and 8 p.m. According to a press release, the show will include a “a reimagined and expanded presentation of the beloved holiday show, ‘The Ghosts of Christmas Eve,’ ” which “follows the journey of a runaway child who breaks into an abandoned vaudeville theater on December 24th. Following this powerful rock opera, the 2025 tour will also deliver a visually stunning second set packed with more of TSO’s greatest hits, fan-favorites, and unexpected delights to celebrate the 25th anniversary of Beethoven’s Last Night.”
The Beethoven’s Last Night album includes music inspired by the works of Beethoven and other classical composers, and imagines an encounter between Beethoven and Mephistopheles, on the last night of Beethoven’s life.
DARLENE LOVE
• Darlene Love and The Smithereens will both appear at The Count Basie Center for the Arts in Red Bank on Dec. 19 — separately. Love will present her “Love for the Holidays” show at the Basie’s Hackensack Meridian Health Theatre, at 7:30 p.m., and The Smithereens, featuring singer John Cowsill, will perform in the Basie’s smaller theater, The Vogel, at 8 p.m. (The Smithereens and Cowsill will also be at The Vogel on Dec. 18.)
Also on Dec. 19, both Love and The Smithereens will be inducted into the Basie’s new Walk of Fame. They will follow the Walk’s first two honorees, Jon Bon Jovi and the late Count Basie, who were both honored in September. The Walk of Fame was created as part of the Basie’s ongoing Centennial Celebration. The theater opened on Nov. 11, 1926 as the Reade’s Carlton theater.
Love will also present “Love for the Holidays” at BergenPAC in Englewood. Dec. 21 at 7 p.m.
• At “L’Chaim: A Toast to the Jewish Legacy of Broadway,” Broadway veterans Jill Abramovitz, Matthew Amira, Greg Kamp and Dana Steingold will celebrate the work of Jewish composers and lyricists, with selections from “Fiddler on the Roof,” “South Pacific,” “West Side Story,” “The Sound of Music,” “Cabaret,” “Funny Girl” and more. Kean Stage will present this show at Enlow Recital Hall at Kean University in Hillside, Dec. 20 at 7:30 p.m.
• The Water Gap Jazz Orchestra, a 17-piece big band, will perform Duke Ellington’s The Nutcracker Suite as well as its Grinch Suite — based on “You’re a Mean One, Mr. Grinch” and composed by WGJO director Matt Vashlishan — Dec. 20 at 3 and 7 p.m. at The Bickford Theatre at the Morris Museum in Morris Township. Singer Nancy Reed will perform with the orchestra, and Edward Ellington II, Duke Ellington’s grandson, will serve as narrator.
The Weeklings (from left, Glen Burtnik, John Merjave, Bob Burger and Joe Bellia).
• Glen Burtnik has a long history of presenting big holiday shows, with creative versions of Christmas favorites, in New Jersey in New York. And he will do so with his current band, The Weeklings, at their “Holiday Hullabaloo” shows at The Vogel at The Count Basie Center for the Arts in Red Bank, Dec. 20 at 3:30 and 7:30 p.m.
The shows are billed as “The Weeklings & Friends,” so expect other performers as well.
• New Jersey Symphony will perform Handel’s Messiah at The Richardson Auditorium at Princeton University, Dec. 19-20 at 7:30 p.m.; and The Cathedral Basilica of the Sacred Heart in Newark, Dec. 21 at 7 p.m. Anthony Parnther will conduct, and Heather J. Buchanan will direct the Montclair University Singers. Featured performers will include Caitlin Gotimer, soprano; Maria Dominique Lopez, mezzo-soprano; Orson Van Gay II, tenor; and Shyheim Selvan Hinnant, bass-baritone.
• The Del Fuegos “just might be the quintessential American bar band,” declared The Chicago Tribune in 1986. The Boston-based band did release some well-regarded albums and do some heavy touring in the ’80s, but by the end of the decade they had broken up. Frontman Dan Zanes became a successful children’s entertainer; his brother, Warren Zanes, a solo singer-songwriter and a writer whose books include “Deliver Me from Nowhere: The Making of Bruce Springsteen’s Nebraska” (made into a major motion picture this year) and the definitive Tom Petty biography “Petty.”
The Del Fuegos continue to reunite occasionally, and will do so again this year, with the Zanes brothers joined by co-founding bassist Tom Lloyd and drummer Woody Giessmann (who had joined in time to play on the band’s debut album, 1984’s The Longest Day). They will kick off a mini-tour Dec. 18 at 8 p.m. at The Outpost in the Burbs at The First Congregational Church in Warren Zanes’ current hometown, Montclair. Teddy Thompson will open.
ISAAC MIZRAHI
• Isaac Mizrahi is best known as a fashion designer, but he is also an actor who has appeared in the Broadway musical “Chicago,” and a singer. Backed by a six-piece band, he will present a cabaret show titled “A Holiday Fruitcake,” Dec. 18 at 7:30 p.m. at The Kasser Theater at Montclair State University.
The show is part of the university’s Peak Performances series, which describes “A Holiday Fruitcake” as “an eclectic mix of holiday classics, unexpected musical choices, and signature wit — blending humor, storytelling, and song.”
DANCE
• New Jersey Ballet and The New Jersey Symphony is teaming up for its annual production of “The Nutcracker” at The Mayo Performing Arts Center in Morristown, with remaining shows taking place Dec. 19 at 7:30 p.m.; Dec. 20-21 and 26-27 at 1 and 6 p.m.; and Dec. 24 at 1 p.m. Constantine Kitsopoulos will conduct the orchestra, except for the Dec. 19-20 shows, which will be conducted by Brent Chancellor.
Here is a roundup of some of the other “Nutcracker” shows scheduled for other New Jersey venues:
Dec. 18-21: “The Nutcracker,” presented by American Repertory Ballet at State Theatre, New Brunswick.
Dec. 19-21: “The Nutcracker,” presented by New Jersey Civic Youth Ballet at Sitnik Theatre at Lackland Performing Arts Center, Hackettstown.
Dec. 19-21: “The Nutcracker,” presented by NJ Dance Connection at Kelsey Theatre at Mercer County Community College, West Windsor.
Dec. 19-21: “The Nutcracker,” presented by Tricia Sloan Dance Studio at Scottish Rite Auditorium, Collingswood.
Chevy Chase with Beverly D’Angelo in “National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation.”
FILM
• Chevy Chase will talk about his hit 1989 comedy “National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation” following a screening of it at Prudential Hall at NJPAC in Newark, Dec. 18 at 7:30 p.m.
OTHER
• NJPAC will present its annual Kwanzaa Family Festival and Marketplace, Dec. 20 from 1 to 7:30 p.m., with dance performances and workshops, arts and crafts, a drumming workshop, face painting, film screenings, a healing circle, poetry, a fashion show, health screenings and more.
REVIEWS
“Just Another Day” at New Jersey Repertory Company, Long Branch. (Through Dec. 20)
“Ebeneezer Scrooge’s Big Jersey Christmas Show!,” presented by George Street Playhouse at New Brunswick Performing Arts Center. (Through Dec. 21)
“Into the Woods,” presented by Vanguard Theater Company at Vanguard Theater, Montclair. (Through Dec. 21)
“Indigenous Identities: Here, Now & Always” at Zimmerli Art Museum, New Brunswick. (Through Dec. 21)
“Tom Nussbaum: But Wait, There’s More!” at Montclair Art Museum. (Through Jan. 4)
“Disney’s Frozen” at Paper Mill Playhouse, Millburn. (Through Jan. 11)
“Morven Revealed: Untold Stories From New Jersey’s Most Historic Home” at Morven Museum & Garden, Princeton. (Through March 1)
“Salvador Jiménez-Flores: Raíces & Resistencias” at Grounds for Sculpture, Hamilton. (Through Aug. 1, 2027)
_____________________________
CONTRIBUTE TO NJARTS.NET
Since launching in September 2014, NJArts.net, a 501(c)(3) organization, has become one of the most important media outlets for the Garden State arts scene. And it has always offered its content without a subscription fee, or a paywall. Its continued existence depends on support from members of that scene, and the state’s arts lovers. Please consider making a contribution of any amount to NJArts.net via PayPal, or by sending a check made out to NJArts.net to 11 Skytop Terrace, Montclair, NJ 07043.
