In addition to running 10-15 news articles each day, New Jersey Stage runs dozens of feature articles and columns each month as well. Here's a rundown of those published in April 2022.
WEEKLY COLUMNS
The Makin Waves Songs of the Week for April including Jackie June, Bobby Mahoney, Billy Hector, and Deena and Chasing Colours. Meanwhile Danny Coleman's Rock On column talked to Tinsley Ellis, Rain Perry, and Mpackt.
MUSIC
Diana Krall: Early Exposure to Great Piano Players Shaped Her Career - Diana Krall grew up listening to great piano players because her father, a stride pianist, “had an incredible record collection of 78 rpms. I was very lucky to have that foundation.”
Makin Waves with Have a Good Season: "Kept the Spark Alive" - The childhood friendships at the foundation of the fun, infectious, edgy, adventurous Eatontown-based trio Have a Good Season has helped vocalist-guitarist Nic Palermo, drummer Dan Sakumoto, and bassist Dan Stattner survive and flourish with their music and stage show in the face of pandemic that crippled most bands.
"My Happiness Fix!" Frank Vignola and Vinny Raniolo LIVE! at the Grunin Performing Arts Academy - Although it’s windy and cool outside the Grunin Performing Arts Academy in Toms River, NJ, this Sunday, March 27, 2022 afternoon, it’s warm and cozy inside as jazz lovers await a live concert performance by Frank Vignola and Vinny Raniolo.
PODCAST: On His Way Around the World, One of Vox Sambou's First Stops is New Jersey - On Wednesday, April 13, Vox Sambou and his band will take the stage at the Jay and Linda Grunin Center for the Arts. He writes and performs in Haitian, French, English, Spanish, and Portuguese, and his music focuses on the traditional rhythms of Haiti mixed with elements of Afrobeat, Jazz, Reggae, and Hip hop. Vox Sambou is currently - and it seems usually - touring the world. We spoke with him shortly after he arrived in the US after a visit with family in Haiti.
Catching up with James Dalton: Talking Brighton Fringe and Memphis - James Dalton is a performer, a storyteller, and a musician. He’s someone who has managed to perform around the world based solely on talent and ambition. James was featured several times in my old Upstage Magazine and is still very much active today. In fact, he’s about to compete for the third time in the International Blues Challenge in Memphis and will debut his new show, “Asbury Park & Me,” at the Brighton Fringe festival a few weeks later.
The Ten Tenors LIVE! at the Grunin Center - Excitement is in the air this Friday, April 1, 2022 evening at the Grunin Center for the Arts, located on the campus of Toms River, NJ’s Ocean County College. Audience members are streaming in for a live concert by the Australian classical/contemporary vocal group, The Ten Tenors. The sold-out show is a benefit performance presented by the Ocean County College Foundation.
PHOTOS from Rodrigo y Gabriela at NJPAC - Rodrigo y Gabriela, the metal-loving duo from Mexico City inspired by both flamenco and hard rock, performed at New Jersey Performing Arts Center (NJPAC) on Friday, April 15, 2022 and photographer John Posada was on hand to get some shots.
"Every Song was a Hit!" The Hit Men LIVE! at the Grunin Center - Music lovers are streaming into Toms River, NJ’s Grunin Center for the Arts this Friday, April 8, 2022 evening for a live concert by The Hit Men, a group of talented musicians who have performed with a who’s who of legendary artists including members of Foreigner, Journey, Cheap Trick, Cream, Grand Funk, and The Who. The group was founded in 2010 by Lee Shapiro, former musical director/keyboardist for Frankie Valli and the Four Seasons.
Eighth Blackbird, an Award-Winning Ensemble, to Perform With Rowan University Wind Ensemble - It’s not often that college students get to perform on stage with an award-winning sextet, but the members of Rowan University’s Wind Ensemble are getting that opportunity. They will be performing with Eighth Blackbird, a four-time Grammy winner for Best Small Ensemble/Chamber Music Performance, on Friday, April 29, 2022 at 8:00 pm in Rowan’s Pfleeger Concert Hall.
Sailing with Yächtley Crëw - Los Angeles area-based yacht rock band Yächtley Crëw have set sail on their 2022 Anchors Up Tour and will perform May 2, Sony Hall, New York City; May 5, URSB Carteret Performing Arts & Events Center, Carteret, and May 6, Tropicana Showroom, Atlantic City. Known as “The Titans of Soft Rock,” Yachtley Crew encapsulate the feel-good, chart-topping soft rock hits of the late ’70s and early ’80s. Gushy love songs, whaling saxophone solos and memorable hooks will have you unabashedly singing along and donning a captain’s hat of your own as you’re taken on a trip down memory lane.
THEATRE
"In the Beginning..." -- New Brunswick's Crossroads Theatre Company Gives "Beginnings" to New Plays with Its Genesis Festival - “In the beginning” is the opening phrase of the Bible and connotes the start of all things. The Crossroads Theatre Company, in New Brunswick, has done that just about every year since 1990 with its Genesis Festival, a week-long series of play readings. The reading is the start, the “beginning” for a drama, and not only lets the author know how the play sounds but, in the Crossroads Festival, gets a second layer- audience reaction at post play symposiums.
Photos from Rodgers and Hammerstein's "Cinderella" at Algonquin Arts Theatre - (MANASQUAN, NJ) -- Algonquin Arts Theatre is currently presenting Rodgers and Hammerstein’s Cinderella. The musical runs now through Sunday, April 10. This enchanting, musical adaptation of the beloved fairytale will put a spell on audiences of all ages. Rodgers and Hammerstein’s Cinderella showcases some of the songwriting duo’s loveliest tunes, including “In My Own Little Corner,” “Impossible/It’s Possible,” and “Ten Minutes Ago.” Add a dash of fairytale romance, magical onstage transformations, and the iconic glass slippers—and you’re guaranteed to have a ball!
Review of "The Wanderer" at Paper Mill Playhouse - Biographical jukebox musicals follow an established path – heroic artist is especially talented; challenged by demons (bad relationships or addiction); defy barriers and the adoring crowd stands soaking in hit from a bygone time. Michael Wartella firmly joins the pantheon of supremely talented theatrical performers who embody a real-life rocker and slays with an iconic performance. At the Paper Mill Playhouse, he owns the theater as doo wop/rocker Dion in a new production “The Wanderer.”
Laura Ekstrand Talks About "Life's Work" - Every intimate relationship is based on a web of understanding, whether implicit or explicit. In the new comic drama, Life’s Work by Laura Ekstrand, two couples discover what happens when their agreements around work and money shift and evolve. Vivid Stage presents the World Premiere of this play across two weekends (April 21-24 and April 28 - May 1). The cast includes Nicole Callender, Mitchell Leigh Gordon, Scott McGowan, and Emaline Williams. Betsy True directs the production.
Dion, "The Wanderer" and a Memorable Story from Rock and Roll History - The Paper Mill Playhouse is dark and funeral-like quiet. All of a sudden, as loud and thumping as it can be comes the music.
Author Pamela Gray talks about "A Walk on the Moon" - A Walk on the Moon appears at the George Street Playhouse this week with drama, comedy, music—and a sigh of relief. The latter comes from Pamela Gray, who wrote the play and who had begun to believe it would never be mounted at the New Brunswick venue.
So You Wanna Dance? "Hairspray" Musical Headed for New Brunswick This Weekend - Hairspray has succeeded as a musical and film because it manages to convey a delightful story about teenage love, weigh discrimination and generational conflict with terrific music and, most importantly, a pretty gripping story about racial discrimination in Baltimore in 1962.
ART
Carlos Villa: Worlds In Collision, explores cultures through paint, bones, bodies, and feathers - On view through May 8, 2022 at Newark Museum of Art, Carlos Villa: Worlds In Collision presents 35 rarely seen works by Carlos Villa, a central figure in the San Francisco art community and a leader in the multicultural activism of the 1960s and beyond. Along with the exhibit and programs, the Museum has launched The Filipino Oral History Project with Rutgers University and welcome the community to share their histories.
Elizabeth Colomba Is Claiming Her Place in the History of Art - The France-born, Harlem-based artist was recently featured in Vogue; she was commissioned to create a painting for New York City’s Park Avenue Armory; she has a painting in an exhibition at the Metropolitan Museum of Art; and Princeton University has hung her first solo museum exhibition.
Up, Down and in Another Town -- Perkins Center for the Arts Adds a Third Gallery - The last time I talked with Sharon Kiefer, Curator of Exhibitions at Perkins Center for the Arts, she was in the first few weeks of her position at Perkins. It was 2020, so Kiefer was not just navigating a new job, but she was learning a whole new way to curate exhibitions.
DANCE
PODCAST: Roxey Ballet and Artist Malcolm Mobutu Smith Join Creative Forces at the Hunterdon Art Museum - This Saturday at the Hunterdon Art Museum, visitors are invited to a unique experience that brings together the visual and performing arts. Roxey Ballet Company has teamed up with artist Malcolm Mobutu Smith – whose exhibition Evermore Nevermore closes this weekend – and have created an exclusive 45-minute showcase that will be presented outdoors on the Toshiko Takaezu Terrace, overlooking the museum’s iconic view of the Raritan River. (This event is free, but please register to attend.)
BOOKS
Spotlight on 6th Annual Montclair Literary Festival - (MONTCLAIR, NJ) -- More than 70 local, national, and international authors will take part in the sixth annual Succeed2gether’s in-person Montclair Literary Festival to be held from Thursday, May 5 to Monday, May 9, with Festival Day on Saturday, May 7, 2022.
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