Mari Yamamoto and Brendan Fraser co-star in “Rental Family,” which will be shown at this year’s Monclair Film Festival.
Here is a roundup of major arts events taking place around New Jersey, through Oct. 30.
FILM
• As part of The Montclair Film Festival, Stephen Colbert will moderate a discussion with Brendan Fraser following a screening of Fraser’s new movie, “Rental Family,” Oct. 25 at 7:30 p.m. at The Montclair Kimberley Academy Upper School. Fraser — who won the Best Actor Oscar in 2023 for “The Whale” — plays an American actor who takes an unusual job in Japan (see trailer below). Hikari, whose previous credits include “37 Seconds” and episodes of the Netflix series “Beef,” directs.
This will be the Fiction Centerpiece of the festival, which began on Oct. 17 and will end on Oct. 26.
NICK BAYLESS
AUBREE OLIVERSON
MUSIC
• Violinist Aubree Oliverson, who performed at the opening concerts of Princeton’s Symphony Orchestra‘s 2024-2025 season, will do the same for its 2025-26 season. The 20-something Utah native will perform Antonín Dvořák’s Violin Concerto in A Minor, Op. 5 at the concerts, which will take place at the Richardson Auditorium at Princeton University, Oct. 25 at 7:30 p.m. and Oct. 26 at 4 p.m. The orchestra’s music director, Rossen Milanov, will conduct.
Milanov said in a press release that “the audience immediately connected with her at our opening concert last year. It’s thrilling to feel such a palpable electricity in the concert hall between artist, orchestra, and our patrons. It can only be experienced live.”
There will also be a pre-concert talk, Oct. 26 at 3 p.m., featuring Oliverson and Milanov.
• Randy Bachman, who had some huge hits with the band Bachman-Turner Overdrive in the ’70s (including “Takin’ Care of Business,” “You Ain’t Seen Nothing Yet,” “Let It Ride” and “Roll on Down the Highway”), has assembled a new version of the group — featuring his son, singer-songwriter-guitarist Tal Bachman, and others — and will perform with it at BergenPAC in Englewood, Oct. 29 at 7 p.m.; and The Event Center at Borgata Hotel Casino and Spa in Atlantic City, Oct. 31 at 8 p.m.
The Atlantic City show is a double bill with Starship.
• Glenn Alexander’s 10th annual Pig Gig will take place at The Italian American Hall in Scotch Plains, Oct. 26 from 2 to 8 p.m. This is an event that the longtime Asbury Jukes guitarist presents as a benefit for the Fibrolamellar Cancer Foundation in honor of his nephew Jay Alexander, who died of the disease in 2011.
Alexander will perform with his Shadowland band (which features several other Asbury Jukes) as well as in a duo with his daughter, singer Oria. Other performers will include the bands The Weeklings and The Lonesome Pines, and the comedian Mike Marino. Included in each ticket purchase is “all of the roast pig, pulled pork, sausage and peppers, wings, hot dogs and side dishes you can eat and a bottomless beer/wine/soft drinks bar.”
WORDS
• The URSB Carteret Performing Arts & Events Center will present an event titled “An Intimate Evening With Priscilla Presley: The Story Continues …,” Oct. 24 at 7 p.m. According to the venue’s description of the show, “Priscilla Presley shares her journey as the wife of the King of Rock and Roll, Elvis Presley. From private film clips to intimate stories, she reveals the challenges and the love that defined their life together.”
Priscilla, née Priscilla Ann Wagner, married Elvis in 1967. She was 21 and he was 32. She remained married to him until 1973, and he died in 1977.
Priscilla, now 80, is also known as an actress, having appeared in the “Dallas” television series, the “Naked Gun” movies, and other TV shows and films. And she co-founded Elvis Presley Enterprises, which oversees a number of Presley-related businesses. She has written two memoirs, including the new “Softly, As I Leave You: Life After Elvis.”
SAM KISSAJUKIAN
THEATER
• The McCarter Theatre Center in Princeton will present “300 Paintings,” a one-man show featuring Australian comedian Sam Kissajukian, from Oct. 29 to Nov. 2. In it, he talks about quitting standup, during the pandemic, to spend six months painting. He ended up creating 300 large-scale works and, according to the McCarter website, “unknowingly documenting his mental state through the process.”
Some of Kissajukian’s painting will be displayed in the theater’s lobby.
• The Crossroads Theatre Company will present Lynn Nottage’s “Crumbs From the Table of Joy” at The New Brunswick Performing Arts Center, from Oct. 24 to Nov. 23. The 1995 work was the first full-length play written by Nottage, who later won Pulitzer Prizes for Drama for “Ruined” and “Sweat.” It is set in the 1950s, in Brooklyn — where two sisters settle, with their father, after their mother dies — and touches on the political and racial issues of the era.
• The late Amiri Baraka (né LeRoi Jones) is best known as a poet, but he also wrote prose and plays. He first made his mark as a playwright with 1964’s “The Dutchman,” which won an Obie Award (for off-Broadway productions) in the Best American Play category and was also made into a movie in 1967. It is a one-act play, and will be produced along with another 1964 one-act play by Baraka, “The Slave,” by The Passage Theatre Company at Mill Hill Playhouse in Trenton, from Oct 30 to Nov. 16.
• The life of the late 19th century and early 20th century Russian-American activist Emma Goldman is explored in the musical “E.G.: A Musical Portrait of Emma Goldman,” and a concert version of it will be presented at Puffin Cultural Forum in Teaneck, Oct. 26 at 4 p.m. The 1987 musical, which features music by Leonard Lehrman and lyrics by Lehrman and Karen Ruoff Kramer, will be produced at Theater for the New City in Manhattan, in January.
Teddy Coluca as Lester in “Only Murders in the Building.”
OTHER
• Actor Teddy Coluca — who is a Fair Lawn resident, and who plays Lester the Doorman in the current, fifth season of the Hulu series “Only Murders in the Building” — will attend a “Finale Watch Party” at the Craftsman restaurant in Fair Lawn, Oct. 28 at 7 p.m., with proceeds benefiting The Company Theatre Group. Coluca will also participate in a question-and-answer session following the screening.
Lester’s murder is the central mystery of this season. His body was actually discovered in the last episode of last season, but Coluca has also been featured in many flashback scenes in this season’s episodes.
• The Chiller Theatre Toy, Model & Film Expo will take place at the Hilton Parsippany, Oct. 24-26, with autograph sessions featuring Dave Davies of The Kinks, Huey Lewis, Beverly D’Angelo, Steve Guttenberg, Garrett Morris, Louise Lasser, Mena Suvari, Tara Reid, Randy Quaid and many others, plus music, vendors, costume contests, magic, and other attractions.
• Just in time for Halloween … The Shakespeare Theatre of New Jersey will sell costumes and props used in various productions in a sale at its Thomas H. Kean Theatre Factory in Florham Park, Oct. 25 from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.
In addition, starting at 3 p.m., all remaining items will be discounted 25 percent, and bags supplied by the theater can be filled with as many items as possible, for $10.
CURTIS BROWN
Will Savarese, left, and Nik Walker co-star in “Bull Durham” at The Paper Mill Playhouse in Millburn, through Nov. 2.
REVIEWS
“Lisa Ficarelli-Halpern: The Florilegium” at Watchung Arts Center. (Through Oct. 25)
“Topdog/Underdog,” presented by Vanguard Theater Company at Vanguard Theater, Montclair. (Through Oct. 26)
“Hamlet” at Art House Productions, Jersey City. (Through Oct. 26)
“The Supreme Leader” at Mile Square Theatre, Hoboken. (Through Oct. 26)
“Troy Jones: Echoes of the Diaspora — A Study in Style, Culture and the African Mask” at Morris Museum, Morris Township. (Through Oct. 26)
“Bull Durham” at Paper Mill Playhouse, Millburn. (Through Nov. 2)
“An Old Fashioned Family Murder,” presented by George Street Playhouse at New Brunswick Performing Arts Center.
“Léni Paquet-Morante: Extract/Abstract,” presented by Princeton University Art Museum at Art@Bainbridge. (Through Nov. 2)
“Edward Albee’s At Home at the Zoo: Homelife and The Zoo Story,” presented by Hudson Theatre Works at Weehawken Water Tower. (Through Nov. 8)
“Mrs. Stern Wanders the Prussian State Library” at Luna Stage, West Orange. (Through Nov. 9)
“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)
“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)
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