KAELAN BAROWSKY
Devon Allman, left, and Duane Betts will perform with the Allman Betts Band at the Rock, Ribs and Ridges Festival, June 25.
Here is a roundup of arts events taking place around the state, through June 30.
MUSIC
• The Rock, Ribs & Ridges Festival takes place at the Sussex County Fairgrounds in Augusta, June 25-27. As the festival’s title implies, both music (much of it with a Southern rock flavor) and barbecued food will be featured. There also will be overnight camping. The “Ridges” refers to the festival’s scenic location.
Performers will include The Allman Betts Band and The Screamin’ Eagle Band, June 25; Blackberry Smoke, The Pat Travers Band, The Weight Band, Jessica Lynn and The Matt Coffy Band, June 26; and The Artimus Pyle Band, Outlaws, Molly Hatchet and Blackfoot, June 27.
The Allman Betts Band features Devon Allman, Duane Betts and Berry Duane Oakley (the sons of Allman Brothers Band members Gregg Allman, Dickey Betts and Berry Oakley Jr., respectively) as well as New Jersey’s own John Ginty, on organ, and others.
• Bruce Springsteen will return to Broadway this weekend, performing “Springsteen on Broadway,” again, at the St. James Theatre. This will be the first Broadway theater to reopen after the pandemic closed them all. The shows are scheduled to run from June 26 to Sept. 4. The Tony-winning night of songs and stories originally ran from October 2017 to December 2018 at the Walter Kerr Theatre, which is significantly smaller than the St. James. (Its capacity is 975, while the St. James’ is 1,710). Springsteen has said that he does not expect to make major changes to the show.
From left, Bill Crow, Leonieke Scheuble and Nick Scheuble.
• The Generations of Jazz Trio (featuring Leonieke Scheuble, 19, on keyboards; her 58-year-old father, Nick Scheuble, on drums; and 93-year-old bassist Bill Crow) will perform at this month’s edition of the New Jersey Jazz Society’s Virtual Social, June 26 at 7 p.m. The performance will be streamed at no charge on the New Jersey Jazz Society website, its Facebook page and YouTube channel.
• This summer’s series of free, outdoor concerts at the Hudson Riverfront Performing Arts Center in Weehawken (with the New York skyline as the backdrop) begins with singer-songwriter Celisse, June 30 at 7 p.m. She will be followed by flamenco guitarist Pedro Cortes, July 28; Latin jazz and salsa artist Samuel Torres, Aug. 18; “An Evening of Broadway: The Music of Stephen Sondheim,” Aug. 25; and the Nai-Ni Chen Dance Company, Sept. 10.
• The Two River Theater in Red Bank will kick off its summer season with shows on its outdoor Plaza by Joe Iconis and Lauren Marcus, June 25-27 and July 1-4. Iconis wrote the music and lyrics for “Be More Chill” and the music, lyrics and book for “Love in Hate Nation”; both musicals premiered at Two River Theater. Marcus appeared in both productions, as well as in “Be More Chill” when it ran on Broadway, and is also an experienced singer-songwriter. Iconis and Marcus will have guests at each show, including, on June 25 and 26, scene-stealing “Be More Chill” star George Salazar.
DANIIL TRIFONOV
• Pianist Daniil Trifonov will begin his yearlong tenure as New Jersey Symphony Orchestra’s Artist-in-Residence with a performance with the orchestra of Shostakovich’s First Piano Concerto in a film, “Emerge Part 3,” that will be available for free on the NJSO website and its YouTube page, beginning June 30 at 7:30 p.m. NJSO music director Zian Zhang will conduct, and trumpeter Anderson Romero will also be featured. According to the orchestra, the film will include an NJSO performance of Beethoven’s Symphony No. 4, and the music will be enhanced by “images inspired by and filmed in New Jersey … going as far as Cape May, with a focus on nature and wildlife.”
• The Asbury Park Music Foundation, which is involved in a variety of local educational and cultural initiatives, will celebrate its 10th anniversary with a show by Bobby Bandiera’s Time Machine, playing songs of the last four decades, June 26 at 7 p.m., outdoors at the Stone Pony in Asbury Park. Song requests can be made for a $250 donation to APMF.
THEATER
• Cape May Stage, closed for more than a year because of the pandemic, will reopen with the one-woman play “Ann,” June 29-30, July 1-3, 6-11, 13-18, 20-25 and 27-31 and Aug. 1, 3-8, 10-15 and 17-22. Written by Holland Taylor and featuring Kate McCauley Hathaway, “Ann” is a portrait of the late Ann Richards, the outspoken politician who served as governor of Texas from 1991 to 1995.
• The Vanguard Theatre Company in Montclair will premiere “Walk in My Gravity” (see trailer below), June 26 at 3 and 8 p.m. and June 27 at 4 p.m. This is a song cycle written as part of Vanguard’s VTC Next program; according to a press release, the song cycle’s young composers and lyricists “have dug deep into the issues that weigh them down, and also lift them up to connect with one another.”
• The American Theater Group will present a free concert version of the songs from the musical “The Bridges of Madison County,” June 25-26 at 8 p.m. at the Pleasant Valley Park Amphitheater in Basking Ridge. The June 26 performance will also be streamed; visit atg.booktix.com.
“To Wong Foo, Thanks for Everything! Julie Newmar” will be screened in Montclair, June 26.
FILM
• Montclair Film‘s 12th annual, free Summer Series Under the Stars will begin with 1995’s “To Wong Foo, Thanks for Everything! Julie Newmar,” June 26 at Lackawanna Plaza. The film is presented in association with Out Montclair and will be preceded with an evening of Drag Queen Bingo, hosted by Harmonica Sunbeam, starting at 7. The film will begin at sunset.
The series will also feature “Shrek,” July 17 at Brookdale Park, and “Dirty Dancing,” Aug. 21 at Anderson Park.
DANCE
• “This Is Me: Letters From the Front Line” (see trailer below), a film featuring Diavolo | Architecture in Motion, will be screened online by the Berrie Center at Ramapo College in Mahwah from 10 a.m. June 24 to 10 p.m. June 30. Diavolo is a veteran, Los Angeles-based dance troupe that reached the final round of television’s “America’s Got Talent” in 2017. According to the Berrie Center website, the film “explores how the current climate of isolation has encouraged us to look within ourselves (and) follows the paths of military veterans and first responders as they share what it means to be a true warrior — to be on the front lines – and fight the invisible enemy that all humanity is currently battling.”
The screening is free; register at ramapo.edu/berriecenter.
OTHER
• The New Jersey Storytelling Guild will present the New Jersey Historical Storytelling Festival, June 26 from 12:30 to 3:30 p.m. on the grounds of East Jersey Old Town Village in Piscataway.
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