JOYCE DiDONATO
Here is a roundup of major arts events taking place around New Jersey, through Feb. 26.
MUSIC
• Pulitzer Prize-winning composer Kevin Puts has written a semi-staged song cycle, “Emily — No Prisoner Be,” inspired by the poetry of Emily Dickinson, for mezzzo-soprano Joyce DiDonato and the trio Time for Three (violinists Nick Kendall and Charles Yang and bassist Ranaan Meyer). It premiered at an Austrian festival last year and DiDonato and Time for Three will perform it for the first time in the New Jersey/New York area at Carnegie Hall in New York, Feb. 19 at 8 p.m., and The Richardson Auditorium at Princeton University, Feb. 22 at 3 p.m.
You can watch a clip of DiDonato and Time for Three performing Puts’ arrangement for Dickinson’s “Her face was in a bed of hair,” below.
• Time for Three (see item above) will also perform Kevin Puts’ Contact— a pandemic-inspired composition that has been described as “an expression of yearning for the fundamental need” of human connection — at New Jersey Symphony concerts that will take place at The Mayo Performing Arts Center in Morristown, Feb. 26 at 7 p.m.; and The Prudential Hall at NJPAC in Newark, Feb. 27 at 7:30 p.m. and March 1 at 2 p.m. Markus Stenz will conduct, and the program also will include Beethoven’s Fifth Symphony, and Richard Wagner’s Prelude to Act I of Lohengrin.
In 2023, Puts won the Contemporary Classical Composition Grammy for Contact, via a recording on Time for Three’s Letters for the Future album that features The Philadelphia Orchestra conducted by New Jersey Symphony music director Xian Zhang.
STEPHEN SCHWARTZ
• Composer and lyricist Stephen Schwartz — who has penned hits such as “Wicked,” “Pippin” and “Godspell” throughout his remarkable nearly-60-year career — will appear at Prudential Hall at NJPAC in Newark, Feb. 21 at 7:30 p.m., in a show titled “A Wicked Evening With the Wizard.” Artists including Liz Callaway, Debbie Gravitte, Kelli Rabke, Shaleah Adkisson, Michael McCorry Rose, Scott Coulter, John Boswell and Evan Roider will perform his songs, backed by a 12-piece orchestra.
• The Asbury Park Music Awards, established in 1993 but dormant since 2019, has been resurrected by The Asbury Park Music Foundation and will return this year with a 7 p.m. Feb. 20 show at The Stone Pony. There will be 31 awards plus four special awards for music released between 2019 and 2024.
As always, the award presentations will be take place between musical performances; the lineup includes Des & the Swagmatics, The Gay Blades, Sunshine Spazz, Gods, Heather Hills, Blaise, Geenetica, Williams Honor, Emerson Woolf, Rachel Ana Dobken, Nick Francis (of Surfing for Daisy), Renee Maskin, Soulfood and Joseph Alton Miller.
• Singer-songwriter Jake Thistle, who is currently competing on “American Idol,” will perform with his band at The Ringside Pub in Caldwell, Feb. 21 at 9 p.m. While he performed a cover of Blind Faith’s “Can’t Find My Way Home” on his debut “American Idol” appearance, Feb. 16, his own shows are dominated by his own material, and the Ringside Pub show will celebrate the release of his new self-written single, “Sleep on Me.”
Mark Goodman, left, and Alan Hunter.
• Original MTV VJs Mark Goodman and Alan Hunter will co-host a show titled “Neon Nostalgic Presents ’80s Music Television” at The State Theatre in New Brunswick, Feb. 21 at 8 p.m. Neon Nostalgic is a Canadian cover band that specializes in ’80s pop and rock, but in a twist that makes them unique, they perform in sync with the songs’ original videos, which are shown on a large screen. (see video below)
• In 1878, soprano Marie Selika Williams and her husband, baritone Samson Williams, became the first Black artists to perform at The White House, giving a recital for President Rutherford B. Hayes and his guests. As part of Union County’s American Revolution 250th Anniversary and Black History Month celebrations, the Hamilton Stage at The Union County Performing Arts Center will present a free show re-creating that event, “Madame Selika 1878: Songbird in the White House,” Feb. 19 at 7 p.m.
Soprano Candice Hoyes, tenor Chauncey Packer and pianist Kyle Walker will perform in the show, which was conceived and directed by writer and WQXR host Terrance McKnight.
• Songwriter Jason Robert Brown — who has written music and lyrics for musicals such as “The Last Five Years,” “The Bridges of Madison County,” “Parade” and “13” — is also a concert performer, and will appear with a band and singers Carrie St. Louis and Ashley Pérez Flanagan (both Broadway veterans) at The Kasser Theater at Montclair State University, Feb. 19 at 7:30 p.m. The show is part of Montclair State’s Peak Performances‘ series.
• The Philharmonic of Southern New Jersey will present a timely “Sounds of Resistance” program, Feb. 22 at 3 p.m. at Eastern Regional High School in Voorhees. The program will include two pieces of music that have been viewed as political statements — Shostakovich’s Symphony No. 5 and Sibelius’ Finlandia — and more.
THEATER
“My Fair Lady” will be presented at three New Jersey venues.
• The 1956 musical “My Fair Lady” — based on George Bernard Shaw’s play “Pygmalion” — includes an amazing number of songs (written by Alan Jay Lerner and Frederick Loewe) that became well known, including “I Could Have Danced All Night,” “Get Me to the Church on Time,” “I’ve Grown Accustomed to Her Face,” “The Rain in Spain,” “On the Street Where You Live” and “Wouldn’t It Be Loverly?” American Theater Group promises an “updated contemporary approach” in its upcoming production of it, which will be at three New Jersey venues: The Sieminski Theater in Basking Ridge, Feb. 26-28 and March 1; The DMK Theater at The Union Arts Center, March 5-8; and The Hamilton Stage at The Union County Performing Arts Center in Rahway, March 13-15.
ATG’s producing artistic director James Vagias will direct, and Samantha Bruce and Andrew Fehrenbacher will co-star as Eliza Doolittle and Prof. Henry Higgins.
• Two River Theater in Red Bank will present Henrik Ibsen’s 1879 classic “A Doll’s House” from Feb. 21 to March 11. This is the world premiere of a new adaptation by Justin Emeka, who also directs. Two River Theater artistic director Justin Waldman said in a press release that Emeka “places Nora Helmer in 1950s suburban New Jersey, at a crossroads of burgeoning civil rights and rampant red lining, to illicit a distinctly immediate and actively necessary new look at a piece of art that shocked the world.”
• “Dial M for Murder” was a play before it was made into a film by Alfred Hitchcock, in 1954. But the script that Centenary Stage Company is using for its upcoming production (Feb. 20 to March 8) at The Sitnik Theatre at The Lackland Performing Arts Center in Hackettstown is not Frederick Knott’s original version. It is Jeffrey Hatcher’s 2022 adaptation. Hatcher made some significant changes, including, most notably, making the affair that is a crucial part of the plot a lesbian one. But he does not dwell on the point. Instead, he keeps the focus where it always was: On the many wild twists and turns of the plot, and its satisfying final resolution.
• “Rent in Concert,” a music-only presentation of the songs from the late Jonathan Larson’s landmark 1996 musical, will be presented at The Mayo Performing Arts Center in Morristown, Feb. 20 at 8 p.m.; and The Peak Performances series at The Kasser Theater at Montclair State University, Feb. 22 at 3 p.m.
These shows are part of a national tour that includes 12 singers and a 40-piece orchestra. (see video below)
FAMILY ENTERTAINMENT
• Mile Square Theatre in Hoboken will present “The Young King,” an adaptation of Oscar Wilde’s 1891 fairy tale about a peasant who finds out he is a royal heir, from Feb. 19 to March 8.
The theater describes this as an immersive, interactive, family-oriented show that “invites audiences to step inside the story, encouraging reflection and dialogue among children, families, and educators alike.”
‘Bruce Springsteen in Passaic County” will run from Feb. 26 to July 5.
OTHER
• The Bruce Springsteen Center for American Music at Monmouth University, in conjunction with The Passaic County Board of County Commission, will present an exhibition, “Born to Run at 50,” at The Passaic County Arts Center in Hawthorne from Feb. 26 to July 5, with an opening reception Feb. 26 at 6 p.m.
The city of Passaic is in Passaic County, and Passaic’s Capitol Theatre — less than 10 miles from Hawthorne — was an important venue for Springsteen and the E Street Band, who played there once in 1974 and three times in 1978. Springsteen and members of The E Street Band also guested at Southside Johnny & the Asbury Jukes’ New Year’s Eve show there in 1977.
One part of the exhibition will include photographer Eric Meola’s outtakes from the original Born to Run album cover photo sessions. There will also be a section with artifacts from the Born to Run era, including material related to the Capitol shows. The third part will be a video installation including footage from the 1978 Capitol shows, as well as clips for September’s 50th anniversary Born to Run symposium at Monmouth University in West Long Branch, at which Springsteen and E Street Band members talked about the making of the album.
REVIEWS
“Come From Away” at Paper Mill Playhouse, Millburn. (Through March 1)
“Morven Revealed: Untold Stories From New Jersey’s Most Historic Home” at Morven Museum & Garden, Princeton. (Through March 1)
“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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