The Eagles (from left, Vince Gill, Joe Walsh, Timothy B. Schmit and Don Henley) will perform at the Prudential Center in Newark, April 7.
Here is a roundup of arts events taking place around the state, through April 13.
MUSIC
• The Eagles will play their hit-filled 1976 album Hotel California in its entirety, as well as other songs, at the Prudential Center in Newark, April 7 at 8 p.m. The band will start the show with the album — featuring “Life in the Fast Lane,” “New Kid in Town,” “Wasted Time,” “Victim of Love” and other songs, as well as the epic title track. They will be accompanied by an orchestra and a choir. After Hotel California, they will then play a set of other songs, after an intermission. The band’s lineup currently includes Don Henley and Joe Walsh — both members of the quintet that made the album — as well as Timothy B. Schmit and Vince Gill. Deacon Frey — the late Glenn Frey’s son, who was a band member from 2017 to 2022 — is no longer an official band member, though he does continue to join the group on some songs, at some shows.
According to Wikipedia, Hotel California is the sixth best-selling album of all time.
• In 1967, after releasing two hit-filled albums, The Monkees took control over their music, releasing an album, Headquarters, on which the band members wrote most of the songs and played most of the music themselves, instead of relying on professional songwriters and session musicians. It sold well and continues to be well regarded by the band’s fans, even though it didn’t yield a U.S. hit single (“Randy Scouse Git,” though, did become a major hit in England and elsewhere). Micky Dolenz, the band’s last surviving member, will focus on Headquarters (and perform lots of other Monkees songs as well) on his The Monkees Celebrated by Micky Dolenz Tour, which comes to Ovation Hall at Ocean Resort Casino in Atlantic City, April 7 at 9 p.m.; and BergenPAC in Englewood, April 12 at 8 p.m.
CÉCILE McLORIN SALVANT
• Jazz singer and composer Cécile McLorin Salvant has been commissioned to created a new work inspired by the late Toni Morrison, in conjunction with a series of Morrison-related exhibitions and events at Princeton University this year. She and pianist Sullivan Fortner will perform it at the university’s Richardson Auditorium, April 12 at 6 and 9 p.m.
• The Bamboozle Festival returns this year, May 5-7 at Bader Field in Atlantic City, and has been sponsoring a Break Contest in which the winner will get a chance to perform there. The finals will be held at the Maria Nessa Auditorium at Toms River High School North, April 8 at noon, with contestants including The Age of Ore, Black Rose Rebellion, Fracture, Honey I’m Homeless, Jrotti, Just Happy to Be Here, Kobi Reese, Misery!, Natalie Farrell, Painted Young, Pierced, Ryver Bey, Specter, The Uneasy, Via Ripa and Wave Break.
THEATER
• The Reduced Shakespeare Company, best known for their chaotically funny “The Complete Works of William Shakespeare (abridged),” will present their “The Complete History of Comedy (Abridged),” April 8 at 8 p.m. at the McCarter Theatre Center in Princeton. According to the McCarter website, the show covers “comedy through the ages, from Aristophanes and Shakespeare and Moliere (Is Moliere funny? Why not?) to Vaudeville and Charlie Chaplin to The Daily Show and Anthony Weiner.”
• Vivid Stage in Summit will present Lisa Kron’s “101 Humiliating Stories,” April 13-16. Laura Ekstrand, Vivid Stage’s producing artistic director, will star in this one-woman play in which, according to the Vivid Stage website, “we dive deep into the universal experience of humiliation … the actor shares a series of humiliations past, present, and future, including exquisitely detailed anecdotes like ‘Geeky Celebrity Encounters’ and ‘How I Spent All the Petty Cash From My Office on Makeup.’ An invitation to perform at her high school reunion in Lansing, Michigan, triggers another series of anxiety-filled fantasies. How will she, a lesbian East Village performance artist, cope with her Midwestern classmates?”
Dorcas Leung will play Juliet in “Romeo and Juliet” at Two River Theater in Red Bank.
• Two River Theater in Red Bank will present an adventurous version of Shakespeare’s classic tragedy “Romeo and Juliet” from April 8 to April 30, with a modern verse translation by Hansol Jung, an Asian American cast, and an in-the-round set configuration.
DANCE
• Carolyn Dorfman Dance will celebrate its 40th anniversary with “Dance on Exhibit,” a “retrospective experience” at the Morris Museum in Morris Township, April 13 at 7:30 p.m. and April 15 at 7 p.m. Dancers will perform both in a museum gallery, as kinetic sculpture, and in the museum’s Bickford Theatre. Featured works in the theater will include excerpts from Dorfman’s “Legacy Project” that explore her Jewish heritage, and her most recent work, 2022’s “The Attitude of Doing,” which is set to the music of jazz violinist Regina Carter. Tickets will include up two glasses of wine, in addition to admission to the gallery and the show. (For a chance to win two tickets to the April 13 performance, send an email to njartscontest@gmail.com by 10 a.m. April 10 with “Dorfman” in the subject line.)
FAMILY
• Do Portugal Circus will have performances daily, outside the Woodbridge Center in Woodbridge, from April 7 to April 23. There are no animals in this show, which does include clowns, jugglers, magicians, motorcyclists, trapeze artists, aerialists and acrobats. An internationally touring act for 30 years, Do Portugal is based in Mexico; the “Portugal” refers to the name of the family that founded the troupe, not the country.
BOOKS
• April 13 at 7 p.m. — the night before Bruce Springsteen & the E Street Band perform at the Prudential Center in Newark — Nicki Germaine will sign copies of her book, “Springsteen: Liberty Hall,” at Transparent Clinch Gallery in Asbury Park. The book, which features a foreword by Springsteen, includes 95 photos of Springsteen and band members both onstage, and behind the scenes, at Liberty Hall in Houston in 1974.
LITTLE RICHARD
FILM
• Remember Jones will host a new film series at The ShowRoom Cinema in Asbury Park, “Remember Jones Presents,” beginning April 11 at 7:30 p.m. with the new documentary about one of rock’s leading pioneers, “Little Richard: I Am Everything” (watch trailer below). According to a press release, the film, which is directed by Lisa Cortés, “tells the story of the Black queer origins of rock n’ roll, exploding the whitewashed canon of American pop music to reveal the innovator — the originator — Richard Penniman. Through a wealth of archive and performance that brings us into Richard’s complicated inner world, the film unspools the icon’s life story with all its switchbacks and contradictions. In interviews with family, musicians, and cutting-edge Black and queer scholars, the film reveals how Richard created an art form for ultimate self-expression, yet what he gave to the world he was never able to give to himself.” Little Richard died in 2020 at the age of 87.
OTHER
• Jay Leno will perform standup at BergenPAC in Englewood, April 8 at 8 p.m. And, before that, he will attend a private reception celebrating the completion of the first phase of BergenPAC’s $15 million renovation project, and then do the honors at a ribbon-cutting ceremony in front of the theater, at 6:45 p.m. About $10 million has been raised and spent on renovations so far, with $5 million more worth of renovations planned.
REVIEWS
“Yuppies Invade My House at Dinnertime” at Mile Square Theatre, Hoboken. (Through April 8)
“The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee,” presented by George Street Playhouse at New Brunswick Performing Arts Center. (Through April 9)
“Joe Waks: Parade of Values — Defenders of Freedom!” at The Dollhaus II, Bayonne (Through April 9)
“Each One Teach One: Preserving Legacy in Perpetuity” at Morris Museum, Morris Township. (Through Aug. 27)
“New Jersey Arts Annual: Reemergence” at State Museum, Trenton. (Through April 30)
“vanessa german: … please imagine all the things i cannot say …” at Montclair Art Museum. (Through June 25)
“Ladies and Gentlemen … The Beatles!” at Grammy Museum Experience Prudential Center, Newark. (Through June 25)
“Komar and Melamid: A Lesson in History” at Zimmerli Art Museum, New Brunswick. (Through July 16)
“George Inness: Visionary Landscapes” at Montclair Art Museum. (Through June 30, 2024)
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