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!

At some point in the late 20th century society decided that clowns were no longer funny, that rather they were the stuff of nightmares. At some point in the early 21st century Hollywood decided that simple entertainment was no longer enough, that movies in which heroes prance around in spandex should be competing for Oscars, and so the Hollywood blockbuster became as dull and soulless as the sort of worthy social dramas we previously associated with Awards season. When Heath Ledger won a posthumous statuette for his performance as Batman’s arch-nemesis The Joker in Christoper Nolan’s gritty, Michael Mann/William Friedkin influenced The Dark Knight, the comic book movie had well and truly grown up.

Issue 64 of New Jersey Stage magazine contains an article from each of the three Fall 2019 Season Preview Guides created in partnership with ArtPride NJ and the New Jersey State Council on the Arts.  Guides were created for North Jersey, Central Jersey, and South Jersey - with original content in each.  All three guides are available for free at www.njartsmag.com. The sample articles include a piece on theatre (Love in Hate Nation), comedy (Dena Blizzard), and music (Adelphi Orchestra).

(PRINCETON, NJ) — Morven Museum & Garden explores the history and culture of Roosevelt, NJ from an experimental immigrant utopia to artist colony.  More than 100 objects from 25 collections shown together for the first time in the latest exhibition, Dreaming of Utopia: Roosevelt, New Jersey, on view November 15, 2019  through May 10, 2020.

(ASBURY PARK, NJ) -- Joseph Incagnoli (better known as Joe Harvard) was a man of many talents and many interests. Creativity poured out from him and generally released via music, art, or writing.  He died on March 24, 2019 but continues to be a source of inspiration to the Asbury Park arts scene. “Glow for Joe” - a showcase of Joe Harvard’s most recent work, which he referred to as, “found object ‘trash art’ and black lit Day-Glo work”. The work will be on display at art629 Gallery in Asbury Park until mid-January.

Our Featured Music Video of the Month is "Wildflower" by Jackie June.

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

Bob Makin takes a look at the latest releases from Arlan Feiles, Chill Smith, and Matthew Whitaker in the Makin Waves Record Roundup.

Unlike the redundant ‘live-action’ updates of Cinderella and The Lion King, 2014’s Maleficent saw Disney take one of their existing properties, Sleeping Beauty, and deliver a fresh take that cleverly played with the themes bubbling under the surface of that classic fairy tale. Maleficent, formerly a one-dimensional villain, was put front and center in a movie that explored such ideas as nature vs nurture, the futility of revenge, and whether or not true love really exists. Most surprisingly of all, it served as a potent allegory for how victims of sexual abuse are often shunned by society. But importantly, it never took its eye off the fact that it was primarily a fantasy romp aimed at children.

The Smithereens, bassist Mike Mesaros, singer-songwriter-guitarist Pat DiNizio, guitarist Jim Babjak and drummer Dennis Diken, will be inducted on Oct. 27 into the New Jersey Hall of Fame at the Paramount Theatre in Asbury Park.