The latest issue of New Jersey Stage magazine is available for free at www.NJArtsMag.com. This is not a website, not a blog - it's an actual magazine with pages that turn! It is designed to be readable on any SmartPhone, tablet, or PC.

Experience the arts in a new way!

The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald has long been recognized as one of the premier American novels of all-time.  It has become synonymous with the lifestyle of the rich and famous and instantly transports readers to Long Island, but what if the setting wasn’t Long Island at all.  What if the real West and East Egg are found on the other side of Long Island Sound in Connecticut?

It’s rare that a band plays its first gigs in August, releases its first EP in November, and winds up with the Makin Waves Song of the Year (“Don’t Call Me Baby”).  But that’s the story of Honey Wild, a bluesy rock band led by Hana Denson which is comprised of musicians from Central and North Jersey that has been playing shows in New Jersey and New York.

While many theaters around the Garden State take the summer off, East Lynne Theater thrives on the summer season.  Located in Cape May, the theater is dedicated to presenting American theater classics.  Seasons often include a play or two that hasn’t been performed in decades. In 2020, the theater celebrates its 40th season with the theme of “Challenging Change” and productions of Possessing Harriet, Born Yesterday, and Why Marry? to go along with their annual radio shows, Halloween, and Christmas based productions. 

With his solo debut feature (having previously co-directed 1995’s The Blue Villa with Alain Robbe-Grillet), You Go to My Head, director Dimitri de Clercq evokes everything from the psychosexual dynamics of 1940s melodramas to the dusty desolation of Ozploitation, with dashes of Hitchcock, Nicolas Roeg and Richard Stanley thrown in for good measure. The result is a heady brew that doesn’t always work, but for long periods of its narrative, de Clercq’s film keeps you gripped, and marks the veteran producer turned newbie director as one to watch.

Our Featured Music Video of the Month is "Deliver" by The Warhawks. Send your video links to infoatnewjerseystage.com for consideration as a future music video of the month.

Here's a look at plays on stages around the Garden State in March 2020. Remember to add your shows to the NJ Stage Event Calendar and send press releases to infoatnewjerseystage.com to be included here.

A few years back, Anya Taylor-Joy delivered a striking performance in Thoroughbreds, a blackly comic teen thriller in which she played a spoilt rich kid who takes a troubled young girl (played equally brilliantly by Olivia Cooke) under her wing. The dynamic was reminiscent of that between Emma Woodhouse and Harriet Smith, the young central characters of Jane Austen’s 1815 novel ‘Emma’. With first time director Autumn de Wilde at the helm, Taylor-Joy has returned directly to the source for an adaptation of ‘Emma’ that is too reverent to the novel for its own good.

Bob Makin takes a look at the latest releases by The Outcrops, Stephane Wrembel, and Dub Proof in this month's Makin Waves Record Roundup.

Trish and Josh are coworkers and good friends, but when they are both up for a promotion things change.  You’ll see just how far people are willing to go to get ahead in The Promotion by Joe Giovannetti.  The comedy about surviving in the dog eat dog world of business has its World Premiere at New Jersey Repertory Company in Long Branch in March.

If you are a fan of British Invasion power pop and psychedelia and subsequently inspired acts, Highland Park-based The Anderson Council are you’re jam. Released on Jersey-based JEM Records — home to similar Garden State acts The Weeklings and The Grip Weeds — last year’s 14-song “Worlds Collide” is one of the best things the psyche-pop four-piece ever have done during their 21 years, following four previous LPs and an anthology.  

The New Jersey Film Festival Spring 2020 will take place from January 25 through February 28. Showcasing new international films, American independent features, experimental and short subjects, classic revivals, and cutting-edge documentaries. Screenings take place on select Friday, Saturday and Sunday evenings on the Rutgers University in New Brunswick, New Jersey.

Here's a look at plays coming to stages around the Garden State in February. Remember to send your press releases to infoatnewjerseystage.com and add your shows to the event calendar to be included in future previews.

Here's a look at plays taking place on stages across the Garden State in January. Remember to add your plays to the New Jersey Stage event calendar (listings are free) and send press releases to info@newjerseystage.com.

(NEW BRUNSWICK, NJ) -- The Rutgers Film Co-op/New Jersey Media Arts Center, in association with the Rutgers University Program In Cinema Studies, presents the New Jersey Film Festival Spring 2020 from January 25 through February 28. Showcasing new international films, American independent features, experimental and short subjects, classic revivals, and cutting-edge documentaries, the festival includes over 35 screenings and more than 40 films will have their New Jersey or Area Premiere (Middlesex County) screenings as part of the New Jersey Film Festival Spring 2020 and the United States Super 8 Film & Digital Video Festival.