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.

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When Hitchcock attempted to create the illusion that his 1948 thriller Rope had been shot in a single take, he was forced to disguise cuts every 10 minutes, as that’s how long a reel of film lasted. In today’s digital filmmaking era no such limitations apply, which is why long takes and ‘single take’ movies are growing increasingly popular. Give a filmmaker too much...well, rope and they can hang themselves, with many long take sequences and single take movies feeling gimmicky at best, a waste of the powerful tool of editing at worst. The best of the recent crop of single take movies is the German thriller Victoria, which uses the format to immerse us in the head of its titular heroine, who is swept along on an increasingly dangerous adventure that plays out in real-time as dawn breaks on Berlin.

The new year kicks off with four World Premieres plays taking across the state in January.  NJ Rep in Long Branch presents Bone on Bone, McCarter Theatre in Princeton presents Goodnight Nobody, Luna Stage in West Orange presents American Rookie, and George Street Playhouse in New Brunswick presents Midwives.

When you’ve been around the Jersey music scene for a while you begin to realize that nearly everyone has a backstory that might surprise you.  David Vargo certainly has one.  When he first became a professional musician after graduating from Berklee College of Music he found himself on the road more than 300 days a year touring with artists like Whitney Houston, Phoebe Snow, and Rupert Holmes. These days he’s running his own successful financial services company, promoting his second solo album, and playing clubs instead of arenas.  Despite the lower profile he sounds much happier.  In fact, he thinks of his national touring days as part of his past musical life.

Our Featured Music Video of the Month is "Bad Love" by Best Ex.

"I don’t mind the machine, I just don’t want to be its victim…" Ever since the industrial revolution workers have been face to face with technologies that helped their productivity while threatening their jobs.  In the documentary Work Songs, New York filmmaker Mark Street takes a look at how people are coping with work and today’s challenges.  He interviews people in a range of industries who are trying to survive economically while finding meaning in their jobs and sometimes doing so alongside the very technology which may eventually replace them.

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.

I gave up writing CD reviews many years ago, but like to highlight records from time to time.  As the 2010s come to an end, it dawned on me that four of my favorite artists from New Jersey had all released albums throughout the entire decade with new releases in 2019.  There’s something comforting about knowing these artists (James Dalton, Rick Barry, Arlan Feiles, and Anthony D’Amato) are not just continuing to produce music, but continuing to make great music.  So here’s a look at their 2019 releases.

The New York Guitar Festival celebrated its 20th anniversary in May 2019.  It has explored virtually every type of music that can be created on a guitar and presented many of the world’s most influential guitarists at venues like Carnegie Hall, Metropolitan Museum of Art, (Le) Poisson Rouge, National Sawdust, and Brookfield Place Winter Garden.  The lineup includes masters of classical music, blues & jazz, pop & indie rock, folk & Americana, artists from Central & South American, and eclectic, genre-defying innovators.

Greta Gerwig’s adaptation of Louisa May Alcott’s Little Women opens and closes with two cracking scenes. Playing an amalgamation of Alcott and her novel’s heroine, Jo March, Saoirse Ronan sparkles in her interactions with Dashwood, a stoic publisher played by the always watchable Tracy Letts. Not wanting sexism to scupper her chances, Jo presents him with one of her short stories, which she claims was written by “a friend.”

Bob Makin takes a look at the latest releases by Honey Wild, Black Light Medusa, and New Narratives.

My annual holiday gift to the New Jersey music scene is a salute to what I thought were the state’s best independent artists of 2019. To qualify, acts have to be based in New Jersey. Members can live in surrounding states, but not farther away than that and not shared with another state. 

​​​​​​​(NEWARK, NJ)-- For the 22nd year, Nai-Ni Chen Dance Company will present a colorful and vibrant special Chinese New Year Celebration at the New Jersey Performing Arts Center (NJPAC) on Saturday and Sunday, January 25 and 26, 2020 at 2:00pm. Tickets are $27-35 and are available by phone at (888) GO-NJPAC or online at www.njpac.org.

(PRINCETON, NJ) -- On Saturday, January 18, 2020 at 8:00pm and Sunday, January 19, 2020 at 4:00pm, the Princeton Symphony Orchestra (PSO) performs Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov

(NEWARK, NJ) -- Concertgoers can relive one of the most iconic albums in rock history as Classical Mystery Tour performs Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band with the New Jersey Symphony Orchestra on Sunday, January 26, 2020 at 3:00pm at NJPAC in Newark.  The performance features every classic song from The Beatles’ 1967 album, from “Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds” to “When I’m Sixty-Four” to “A Day in the Life”—plus more of the greatest hits from the band’s entire catalogue.

(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.

Dentist will cap off a great year of national touring with shows Dec. 14 at Baby’s Alright in Brooklyn and New Year’s Eve at The Saint in their hometown of Asbury Park.