(ASBURY PARK, NJ � December 18, 2005) � It was a bittersweet day for the history of rock and roll music as musicians and music fans paid their last respect to the Upstage Club today. The short-lived, but greatly remembered place on top of the old Thom McCann building on Cookman is slated to be gutted for the arrival of a new condo building.
The Upstage Club is famous for helping to launch the careers of such legendary Jersey Shore artists as Bruce Springsteen, Southside Johnny, Bill Chinnock, Little Steven, David Sancious, and many more. Artists were known to jam all night long until the club closed at 5am.
A film crew led by Tom Jones of the Halo Group was given permission to film inside the old club. Interviewees included former Upstage regular Vini "Mad Dog" Lopez; Robert Santelli from the Experience Music Project in Seattle; and Carrie Potter, the Granddaughter of Upstage founder Tom Potter. Long-time regulars to the club like David Mieras and Eileen Chapman were also on hand as people came in and out all day.
In between the interviews, a slideshow of photos from Tom Potter's extensive collection of Upstage photographs was projected on to the wall creating a ghost-like image that seemed to strike just the right chord for the occasion.
Although much of the club has long been picked apart, several pieces of the Day-Glo psychedelic artwork remain in excellent shape on the walls and the framework for the famous stage littered with speakers in still in place.
In recent years efforts were started to save or preserve the club, but the real estate market boom for Asbury Park pretty much killed that idea.
Robert Santelli, once said that the Upstage Club "was really the birth of the whole Asbury Park scene, the whole idea that the Jersey Shore had something to say musically."
Bruce Springsteen wrote about the club in the liner notes for Southside Johnny's first record. "That club brought out everybody's talents. The kids at the Upstage were each in their own way a living spirit of what, to me, rock �n' roll is all about. It was music as survival, and they lived it down in their souls, night after night. The guys were their own heroes and they never forgot."
Join us for McCarter at the Museum - renowned performing artists in one-night only events at the Princeton University Art Museum.
Jason Robert Brown is a four-time Tony Award-winning composer and lyricist of The Last Five Years, Parade, Songs for a New World, 13, The Bridges of Madison County, Honeymoon In Vegas and The Connector, has performed as a soloist or with his band in venues around the world, including sold-out shows at the London Palladium and Carnegie Hall. His albums as a singer-songwriter include Wearing Someone Else’s Clothes and How We React and How We Recover on Ghostlight, and Coming From Inside the House and Live In Concert with Stephen Sondheim on Concord.
With Special Guest Tony nominee Betsy Wolfe. Tony Award-nominated actress Betsy Wolfe is currently starring as Audrey in the acclaimed Off-Broadway production of Little Shop of Horrors, following her recent Broadway run as Madeline Ashton in the hit musical Death Becomes Her. She previously originated the title role in Joy, the new musical inspired by inventor Joy Mangano, and earned a 2023 Tony Award nomination for Best Featured Actress in a Musical for her celebrated performance as Anne Hathaway in & Juliet. Other Broadway credits include starring as Jenna in Waitress, Cordelia in the acclaimed revival of Falsettos, Bullets Over Broadway, The Mystery of Edwin Drood, Everyday Rapture, and 110 in the Shade, as well as her critically acclaimed performance as Cathy in the Off-Broadway revival of The Last Five Years. Wolfe made her Metropolitan Opera debut in Die Fledermaus and has appeared as a guest artist with more than 65 symphony, pops, and philharmonic orchestras worldwide, including the New York Philharmonic and BBC Symphony Orchestra, with performances at Carnegie Hall and the Kennedy Center. Her screen credits include First One In, Estella Scrooge, CBS’s Instinct, and the film adaptation of The Last Five Years. Wolfe is also the co-founder of BroadwayEvolved, the acclaimed musical theatre training program she launched in 2018 to train and mentor the next generation of theatre artists.
A limited number of early access tickets for McCarter Director’s Circle members and members of the Museum’s Partner Circle are available, on sale Wednesday, September 16, 2026 at 12:00 PM. General public on sale begins Friday, September 18, 2026 at 12:00 PM.
Please be aware there is no public drop-off or parking at the Museum. For visitors with mobility needs, please contact the Museum at least three business days in advance of your visit to request special access to the Museum via Elm Drive. Call 609-258-3788 and select option 1 to speak to a visitor services staff member, or email Louise Barrett at [email protected].
