Top 12 NJ Arts Events of the Week: Light of Day, HYPROV, ‘Bridges of Madison County,’ more

by JAY LUSTIG
light of day 2022 basie

Joe Grushecky will be among the performers at the Light of Day concert at the Count Basie Center for the Arts in Red Bank, March 12.

Here is a roundup of arts events taking place around the state, through March 17.

MUSIC

• The main show of the 2022 Light of Day WinterFest, which is already under way, will take place March 12 at 6:50 p.m. at the Count Basie Center for the Arts in Red Bank and will be dominated by festival mainstays such as Joe Grushecky & the Houserockers, Willie Nile, Jesse Malin and Joe D’Urso & Stone Caravan. Other performers will include The Weeklings, Remember Jones, Steve Forbert, Guy Davis, James Maddock, Williams Honor, Linda Chorney, Anthony D’Amato and Joe Bonanno.

This concert is taking place in Red Bank rather than Asbury Park (the city for most LOD events) because of renovations being done at the Paramount Theatre. Bruce Springsteen has made unannounced guest appearances at some but not all past Light of Day main shows.

Other Light of Day concerts include a pre-release party for Williams Honor’s upcoming album eX, at House of Independents, March 10 at 7:30 p.m.; Nile, Grushecky, Malin and others at the Stone Pony, March 11 at 7:20 p.m.; Forbert and his band the New Renditions at House of Independents, March 11 at 6:45 p.m.; and multi-artist “Songwriters by the Sea” shows at the Langosta Lounge, March 12 at 1:30 p.m. and March 13 at 2:30 p.m.; and Tim McLoone’s Supper Club, March 13 at 6 p.m.

The festival raises money for the fight against Parkinson’s Disease. For the complete lineup, visit lightofday.org.

DARIO ACOSTA

DANIIL TRIFONOV

• The New Jersey Symphony performs at Prudential Hall at NJPAC in Newark, March 10 at 1:30 p.m. and March 12 at 8 p.m.; the Richardson Auditorium at Princeton University, March 11 at 8 p.m.; and the State Theatre in New Brunswick, March 13 at 3 p.m. The symphony’s music director, Xian Zhang, will conduct, and pianist Daniil Trifonov will be featured in a program that includes Tchaikovsky’s Capriccio italien, Romeo and Juliet Fantasy-Overture and Suite from Swan Lake; and Mason Bates’ Piano Concerto.

• Phoenix Productions will present “Putting It Together,” a revue showcasing songs written by the late Stephen Sondheim, March 11-12 at 8 p.m. at The Vogel at the Count Basie Center for the Arts in Red Bank. Songs from musicals such as “Company,” “Follies,” “Into the Woods,” “A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum,” “Sweeney Todd,” “A Little Night Music” and “Sunday in the Park With George” will be featured.

• Red Baraat, the high-energy Brooklyn-based band that merges elements of North Indian bhangra music with rock and funk, will present a “Festival of Colors,” celebrating the Hindu beginning-of-spring holiday, Holi, March 11 at 8 p.m. at the South Orange Performing Arts Center.

• Princeton Pro Musica will present James Whitbourn’s Annelies, featuring a libretto by Melanie Challenger (based on text from “The Diary of Anne Frank”), March 13 at 4 p.m. at the Richardson Auditorium at Princeton University. Soprano Lily Arbisser Shorr will be featured.

SIMONE DINNERSTEIN

MUSIC/DANCE

• “New Work for Goldberg Variations,” which will be presented by the McCarter Theatre Center in Princeton, March 11 at 8 p.m., will feature pianist Simone Dinnerstein playing Bach’s Goldberg Variations, and the Pam Tanowitz Dance company performing choreography by Tanowitz.

• Following the Morristown St. Patrick’s Day Parade, the Mayo Performing Arts Center will present “A Day of Irish Culture,” March 12, with the folk-rock band Derek Warfield & the Young Wolfe Tones, the Guard Pipes and Drums and students from the Rory O’Moore School of Pipes and Drums and the An Clar School of Irish Dance at 5 p.m. There also will be a program for children at 2:30 p.m.

COMEDY

• Colin Mochie of the long-running improv TV show “Whose Line Is It Anyway?” brings his HYPROV (Improv Under Hypnosis) show, also featuring hypnotist Asad Mecci, to the Union County Performing Arts Center in Rahway, March 17 at 8 p.m.

VISUAL ARTS

• Guitarist Joe Satriani, whose interest in science fiction is reflected in the titles of his instrumental rock albums (Surfing With the Alien, Is There Love in Space?, Shockwave Supernova, etc.), demonstrates an interest in the future, and the world of imagination, in his artwork, too. “I like making the invisible, visible, and the unimaginable, real,” he has said. “The image on a canvas, or, an electric guitar for that matter, can make you feel something unexpected and revealing, something that is the beginning of a greater personal insight.” March 12 from 5 to 8 p.m., Satriani will make a personal appearance at a show of his works titled “Beyond Reality” that is now running at the Wentworth Gallery at the Mall at Short Hills.

KATE BALDWIN

THEATER

• Two-time Tony nominee Kate Baldwin (“Hello, Dolly!” “Finian’s Rainbow”) and Aaron Lazar (a cast member of television’s “Filthy Rich”) will co-star in “The Bridges of Madison County” at the Axelrod Performing Arts Center in Deal, March 11, 18 and 25 at 7 p.m., March 12, 19 and 26 at 2 and 8 p.m., March 13, 20 and 27 at 3 p.m., and March 16 and 23 at 2 p.m. The musical, featuring music and lyrics by Jason Robert Brown and a book by Marsha Norman, debuted on Broadway in 2014, and was based on the Robert James Waller’s best-selling 1992 novella (which also was made into a 1995 movie co-starring Meryl Streep and Clint Eastwood).

• Playwright Nikkole Salter will participate in a discussion after a free reading of her play “Torn Asunder” at Luna Stage in West Orange, March 11-12 at 8 p.m.. Reservations are encouraged as seating is limited. The play is about a slave in Maryland, during the Civil War.

FAMILY

• Artrageous, an innovative show combining music, dance and the creation of visual art, will be presented at the Levoy Theatre in Millville, March 10 at 10:30 a.m. and 7 p.m.; the Grunin Center at Ocean County College in Toms River, March 11 at 7 p.m.; and the Union County Performing Arts Center in Rahway, March 13 at 1 and 4 p.m.

REVIEWS

“Painting in Excess: Kyiv’s Art Revival, 1985-1993” at Zimmerli Art Museum, New Brunswick. (Through March 13)

“Bruce Springsteen Live!” at Grammy Museum Experience Prudential Center, Newark. (Through March 20)

“In Time and In Tide” by Armisey Smith and “Red Portraits” by Caren King Choi at Gallery Aferro, Newark. (Through April 1)

“Carlos Villa: Worlds in Collision” at Newark Museum of Art. (Through May 8)

“Tenacity & Resilience: The Art of Jerry Pinkney” at Montclair Art Museum. (Through June 26)

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