Here is a roundup of major arts events taking place around New Jersey, through March 12.
Lyle Lovett, left, and John Hiatt.
MUSIC
• Last year, at a pre-Grammy John Hiatt tribute concert at The Troubadour in West Hollywood, Lyle Lovett performed Hiatt’s “Train to Birmingham” (watch below), and preceded it by saying he first saw Hiatt perform in 1981 “and I’ve been a fan ever since. We’ve been down the road together many a many a mile.”
Lovett and Hiatt, who have performed together often over the years, will bring their current Together On Stage tour, on which they are performing both separately and together, to The Mayo Performing Arts Center in Morristown, March 4 at 7:30 p.m.
• The fiery blues guitarist Kenny Wayne Shepherd will play his debut 1995 album Ledbetter Heights in its entirety, as well as other songs, with his Kenny Wayne Shepherd Band at BergenPAC in Englewood, March 10 at 7 p.m.; and The Mayo Performing Arts Center in Morristown, March 12 at 7:30 p.m.
Click HERE for a new NJArts.net interview with Shepherd.
• The Virginia Beach-based Windborne Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Brent Havens, will play “The Music of Queen,” with Miguel “MiG” Ayesa handling lead vocals, at The State Theatre in New Brunswick, March 8 at 7 p.m.
Ayesa was a finalist in the TV competition “RockStar: INXS”; has appeared in stage productions of “We Will Rock You” and “The Bridges of Madison County”; and has released two albums.
EVA GEVORGYAN
• New Jersey Symphony, with Ruth Reinhardt conducting, will perform Frédéric Chopin’s Piano Concerto No. 2 (featuring Eva Gevorgyan), Béla Bartók’s Romanian Folk Dances, and Bartók’s Concerto for Orchestra, at four upcoming concerts. The shows will be at Prudential Hall at NJPAC in Newark, March 12 at 1:30 p.m.; The Richardson Auditorium at Princeton University, March 13 at 7:30 p.m.; The Count Basie Center for the Arts in Red Bank, March 14 at 7:30 p.m.; and The State Theatre in New Brunswick, March 15 at 2 p.m.
Gevorgyan, 21, grew up in Russia and is now a citizen of Armenia, and performed music by Chopin and Alexander Scriabin on her 2022 debut album.
DANCE
• The Jersey City Theater Center will present Carolyn Dorfman Dance‘s “Where Deep Waters Cross,” featuring choreography by Dorfman and poetry by Rashad Wright, March 7 at 7:30 p.m. at Jersey City’s White Eagle Hall.
According to a press release, the work “weaves together African American and Jewish histories — stories marked by exile, resilience, survival, and rebirth. Drawing from the Middle Passage and the Holocaust, the work honors two communities shaped by profound trauma and extraordinary strength.”
FILM
• “Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone” (the first film in the “Harry Potter” franchise) will be screened with live music by New Jersey Symphony at Prudential Hall at NJPAC in Newark, March 7 at 2 and 8 p.m.
• “Dirty Dancing in Concert” — taking place at BergenPAC in Englewood, March 4 at 7 p.m. — will feature a screening of a digitally remastered version of the 1987 film, with a live band performing all of its songs, including the Oscar- and Grammy-winning “(I’ve Had) The Time of My Life,” and “Hungry Eyes.”
WILL O'HARE
Andrew Sellon as “Richard III.”
THEATER
• The Curtain will present a new adaptation of William Shakespeare’s “Richard III” — by the theater company’s producing artistic director Sean Hagerty, who will also direct — from March 5 to March 29 at The Nimbus Arts Center in Jersey City. Andrew Sellon, best known for playing Arthur Penn/The Ventriloquist in the TV series “Gotham,” will star as the play’s title character.
• The Company Theatre Group will present Joe DiPietro’s family drama/comedy “Over the River and Through the Woods,” March 7-8 and 14-15 at The Hackensack Performing Arts Center. Cast members will include Teddy Coluca, who played the doorman Lester in the first five seasons of the Hulu series “Only Murders in the Building” (Lester’s murder, which took place at the end of Season 4, was the main mystery of Season 5).
FAMILY ENTERTAINMENT
• The Growing Stage in Netcong will present “Mesmerized: A Ben Franklin Science & History Mystery,” March 6-8, 14-15 and 21-22. According to the theater’s website, “This fast-paced comedy introduces us to Ben Franklin and his want-to-be-inventor niece, Sarah, as they travel to France where they use the Scientific Method to test a mystical man’s magical cure-all.”
• The Shakespeare Theatre of New Jersey will present shortened, family-friendly versions of Shakespeare’s “A Midsummer Night’s Dream” and “Macbeth,” March 7 at 11 a.m. and 2 p.m., respectively, at The F.M. Kirby Shakespeare Theatre at Drew University in Madison.
STNJ will present the same two plays again, on April 25.
The cover of Valerie Bertinelli’s book, “Getting Naked: The Quiet Work of Becoming Imperfectly Perfect.”
BOOKS
• Actress and Food Network personality Valerie Bertinelli will sign copies of her new book “Getting Naked: The Quiet Work of Becoming Imperfectly Perfect,” March 9 at 6 p.m. at Bookends in Ridgewood.
The Bookends website describes the book as Bertinelli’s “most vulnerable book yet offering wisdom hard-won through divorce, menopause, and generational pain, with a powerful message of self-acceptance and embracing the past with compassion.”
OTHER
• The McCarter Theatre Center in Princeton will present “Circus Quixote” — the Chicago-based Lookingglass Theatre Company’s adaptation of Miguel de Cervantes’ classic 17th century novel “Don Quixote” — March 4-8 and 11-15. The theater describes it as a “reimagining” of the novel that “blends breathtaking physical feats, live music, and unforgettable imagery into a theatrical experience that’s as exhilarating as it is moving.” (see video below)
REVIEWS
“The Young King” at Mile Square Theatre, Hoboken. (Through March 8)
“Contemporary Volumes” at Morris Museum, Morris Township. Works by Brian Dettmer, Colette Fu, Samuelle Greene, Cheryl Gross, Amanda Love, Sarah Matthews, Cheryl R. Riley, Susan Rostow, Diana Schmertz. (Through March 8)
“Allan Rohan Crite: Neighborhood” at Zimmerli Art Museum, New Brunswick. (Through July 31)
“Salvador Jiménez-Flores: Raíces & Resistencias” at Grounds for Sculpture, Hamilton. (Through Aug. 1, 2027)
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