Top 12 NJ Arts Events of the Week: Zach Bryan, Francis Ford Coppola, Wu-Tang Clan, more

by JAY LUSTIG
zach bryan nj

Zach Bryan will perform at MetLife Stadium in East Rutherford, July 18-20.

Here is a roundup of major arts events taking place around New Jersey, through July 24.

MUSIC

In a joint Rolling Stone interview with Bruce Springsteen last year, Zach Bryan said he doesn’t like to be called a “country musician.” “I want to be a songwriter, and you’re quintessentially a songwriter,” he said to Springsteen. “No one calls Bruce Springsteen — I hate to use your name in front of you — but no one calls Bruce Springsteen a freaking rock musician, which you are one, but you’re also an indie musician, you’re also a country musician. You’re all these things encapsulated in one man. And that’s what songwriting is.”

Bryan — whose Top 10 hits include “I Remember Everything” (featuring Kacey Musgraves), “Something in the Orange” and “Pink Skies” — will perform, with Kings of Leon and The Front Bottoms opening, at MetLife Stadium in East Rutherford, July 18-20 at 7 p.m.

Springsteen appeared on Bryan’s 2024 album The Great American Bar Scene, dueting on the song “Sandpaper.” Springsteen also made surprise appearances at shows by Bryan in Brooklyn in March 2024 and in Philadelphia in August 2024.

• Rod Stewart had been planning to perform with Billy Joel at Yankee Stadium on July 18, but that show was cancelled because of Joel’s current health condition. So Stewart scheduled a show of his own at The PNC Bank Arts Center in Holmdel, at 7:30 p.m. that day, with Richard Marx opening.

Stewart’s current tour is called One Last Time. He posted to Facebook that it represents “the end of large scale world tours for me, but I have no desire to retire. … I’d like to move onto a Great American Songbook, Swing Fever tour the year after next — smaller venues and more intimacy. But then again, I may not …”

The Wu-Tang Clan will perform at The Prudential Center in Newark, July 17.

RZA, Method Man, Raekwon and Ghostface Killah and the other members of The Wu-Tang Clan have reassembled for what they are calling the group’s final tour. It is called Wu-Tang Forever: The Final Chamber.

RZA said in a press release: “This is a special moment for me and all my Wu brothers to run around the globe together one more time and spread the Wu swag, music, and culture. Most importantly to touch our fans and those who have supported us throughout the years. On this tour we’re playing songs we’ve never played before to our audience and me and our production team have designed a Wu-Tang show unlike anything you’ve ever seen.”

The tour will come to The Prudential Center in Newark, July 17 at 8 p.m., with Run the Jewels opening.

Hundreds of singers will perform at the 71st annual Choir Festival at The Great Auditorium in Ocean Grove, July 19 at 7 p.m. This is a free, non-ticketed event, though a free-will offering will be collected.

Jason Tramm will direct the event, joined by a number of guest conductors, and Gordon Turk will play the venue’s historic organ. Ten numbers will be performed, including a new work by Mark A. Miller, “We Are the Love We Long to See.”

The New York-based nonprofit organization Teatro Nuovo will present two different operas this weekend at The Alexander Kasser Theater at Montclair State University: Giuseppe Verdi’s “Macbeth” (with baritone Ricardo José Rivera in the title role), July 19 at 7:30 p.m.; and Vincenzo Bellini’s “La Sonnambula” (with soprano Teresa Castillo as Amina), July 20 at 3 p.m.

A pre-opera serenade featuring music by the respective composers and a lecture by conductor and musicologist Will Crutchfield will be offered, free to ticket-holders, 90 minutes before each performance.

RANKIN FOR THE RECORDING ACADEMY

DAN PUGACH

Drummer and composer Dan Pugach and his Big Band — who won this year’s Grammy for Best Large Jazz Ensemble Album for their Bianca Reimagined: Music for Paws and Persistence — will perform at The Shea Center for Performing Arts at William Paterson University in Wayne, July 21, to kick off this year’s Summer Jazz Series.

Other shows in the series will include Manuel Valera & New Cuban Express, July 22; Sounds of A&R (featuring April May Webb and Randall Haywood, July 23; The Dayna Stephens Quartet, July 24; and Wycliffe Gordon & Friends, July 25.

All shows will be at 7:30 p.m.

THEATER

Luna Stage in West Orange — which commissioned Gabriel Jason Dean’s tense two-character drama “RIFT, or white lies” and premiered it last year (read review HERE) — will bring it to the Traverse Theatre in Edinburgh from July 31 to Aug. 24, as part of the Edinburgh Fringe festival, with the same actors (Matt Monaco and Blake Stadnik) and director (Luna Stage artistic director Ari Laura Kreith). But before then, Luna Stage will present two shows in West Orange, July 18-19 at 8 p.m., that will raise money that will help make the Edinburgh project possible.

Two River Theater in Red Bank will celebrate the 10th anniversary of the world premiere of the musical “Be More Chill” with concerts, July 24 at 8 p.m. and July 25 at 4 and 8 p.m., featuring many of its cast members, including Will Connolly, George Salazar, Eric William Morris, Gerard Canonico, Katlyn Carlson, Lauren Marcus, Will Roland and Jason SweetTooth Williams.

“Be More Chill,” featuring music and lyrics by Joe Iconis and a book by Joe Tracz, was commissioned by Two River Theater. After its 2015 premiere there, it ran on Broadway in 2019, receiving a Tony nomination for Best Original Score. It is a high-school comedy with a sci-fi twist, as a misfit teen stumbles upon a new kind of pill that magically solves some of his problems, but also creates other ones. Check out my 2015 review HERE.

In addition to the concerts, the theater will host a free conversation with Iconis and some of the actors, hosted by Two River artistic director Justin Waldman, July 23 at 8 p.m.

FRANCIS FORD COPPOLA

FILM

Director Francis Ford Coppola will speak and answer questions following a 7 p.m. July 20 screening of his 2024 film “Megalopolis” at The Count Basie Center for the Arts in Red Bank.

“Megalopolis” co-stars Adam Driver, Giancarlo Esposito, Nathalie Emmanuel and Aubrey Plaza. According to NJArts.net film critic Stephen Whitty, “it stubbornly refuses to accept any artistic restraints; set in a mythical Manhattan modelled after ancient Rome, it mixes sci-fi and fable, spotlights a wild assortment of moods, and features a protagonist who can bend the laws of physics.” (see trailer below)

Avant-garde filmmaker Jonas Mekas (1922-2019) will be celebrated in a Jonas Mekas Film Festival at ShowRoom Cinema in Asbury Park, July 17-27, with the nearby Parlor Gallery showing Mekas photographs, and hosting a reception on the festival’s opening night. Among the 10 films to be shown are the 35-minute “Scenes From the Life of Andy Warhol,” July 18; the 24-minute “Happy Birthday to John” (featuring footage of John Lennon), July 18; and the 103-minute “Notes on an American Film Director at Work – Martin Scorsese,” July 26.

OTHER

Inspired by the role that music plays in the recent hit movie “Sinners,” The Bruce Springsteen Archives and Center for American Music at Monmouth University in West Long Branch will present an online talk, “Sinners of the Pine Barrens,” by Pine Barrens historian Paulie Wenger, July 24 at 7 p.m. According to the Archives’ website, Wenger will discuss “the life and lore of Sammy Giberson, the legendary fiddler whose talent was said to rival (and perhaps even outmatch) the Devil himself.

“Join us for a journey through backwoods ballads, ghostly gigs, and the enduring power of music to stir both the soul and the shadows.”

There is no charge for the talk. You can pre-register HERE.

NICOLE ATKINS

The East Freehold Showgrounds in Freehold will host the Monmouth County Fair, July 23-27, with attractions including rides; food vendors; professional wresting; racing pigs; the “Mutts Gone Nuts” dog-stunt show; 4-H shows and exhibits; fireworks and more, plus music by Yasgur’s Farm, July 23 at 8:15 and 9:30 p.m.; The Mission Dance Band, July 24 at 8:30 p.m.; Nicole Atkins, July 25 at 8:30 p.m.; Yellow Brick Road (Elton John tribute), July 26 at 8:30 p.m.; Rockit Academy, July 27 at 2 p.m.; and Jackson Pines, July 27 at 4:15 p.m.

REVIEWS

“The Complete Works of William Shakespeare (abridged) [revised] [again]” at F.M. Kirby Shakespeare Theatre at Drew University, Madison. (Through Aug. 3)

“Andrea Chung: The Ocean Doesn’t Recognize Tears” at Project for Empty Space, Newark. (Through Aug. 17)

“Pulp: The Fluid and The Concrete” at Hunterdon Art Museum, Clinton. Paper-making works. (Through Aug. 31)

“Indigenous Identities: Here, Now & Always” at Zimmerli Art Museum, New Brunswick. (Through Dec. 21)

“Morven Revealed: Untold Stories From New Jersey’s Most Historic Home” at Morven Museum & Garden, Princeton. (Through March 1)


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